You don't know he was intentionally trying to flash blind the helicopter pilot. In fact, you took the entire situation way out of proportion. From the article, it says he was walking on a path. Chances are whenever there's a walking path, there won't be an abundance of buildings around to conveniently just crash into. And these are trained pilots who won't just swerve out of trajectory because they can't see for a few seconds. Helicopters can easily stay still in the air long enough for the pilot to regain sight. While I'm not supporting irresponsible use of laser pointers, I definitely think a quarter million dollars is an absurdly large fine and 5 years is ridiculous. I could only see that being close to reasonable if he inhibited some very important police chase or another. Raising fines and elevating punishments will only cause further harm to the individuals and not stop others from doing it. Think about it. Do you think the type of people smart enough to point a laser at a police vehicle will learn not to from an article? They'll most likely forget about it in whole. If there's any chance of lessening the frequency of these incidents, all sale of laser pointers needs to be deemed illicit without a proper licensing or another form of qualification that comes with safety training.