In my town, you do NOT mess with the police. They can either make or break you, so you need to watch what you say and do. I know that if I was shining a laser in the sky and the helicopter saw the beam a mile away he would have police at my door in minutes. The good thing is the helicopters are loud, so you can hear if there is one in a few miles radius. If there is (and they fly at all hours) then I won't even dare shine a laser on a wall a few feet away, never mind
at it.
One of the major problems with lasers being so easily acquired in the hands of the public is relativity. It is a primitive action to shine a laser at an aircraft, vehicle, person, window, etc. because they don't think about the other side. It's different if you point a laser at a fly in your house, (who really thinks about the fly, who really cares that their 20 eyes are getting blinded...) but when shining at a helicopter? Most incidents like this I believe are caused from one-way-thinking, "To see the beam hit the side of the machine, will it reach?" They aren't thinking about the other side "WTF? I can't see! Oh whoever’s doing that doesn’t know who their messing with!!!"
Messing with people with lasers is NEVER a good idea. NOTHING good will EVER come from it. Its equal to cussing someone out, punching someone in the face, egging someone’s house...etc. Who in the right mind would go up to a cop and throw an egg at their face? Or cruiser, or helicopter (if it was close enough). Sure, there's always the chance you won't get caught, but what good did it bring? NONE.
The police in my town know me, know where I live, and a few other things as well. I’m fighting them in court right now about an insane case where the cop stepped way over the legal boundaries of our constitution. That being said, they tend to harass us from time to time, helicopter included. They have made certain aspects of my life hell. They fly over my house in circles so low it sounds like my house is going to blow away, for several minutes almost daily (however improved allot recently) all through out the night, putting panic and discomfort in my home. Amongst many other things, you can imagine my frustrations, my temptations of “blasting” (should be the word and not “zapping”) the helicopter out of the sky? I would love to show them who they are messing with by blasting them with 250mW of green, but that’s a fight NOT worth picking. I Know no good would ever come of it and the police are not to be messed with. This kid who BLASTED (I like that word better) the police helicopter knew what he was doing, IMO. This doesn’t seem like the typical “attack”. I think 4 months seems about perfect considering his record, age, and crime. IMO, less would be too lenient, more would be cruel. Luckily in this case, the media published a possibility of the kid having vindictive motives (unfortunately cannot be proven one way or the other), so it isn’t necessarly directed toward the common hobbyist. However, it does no good for the legal aspect of the public’s freedom to own them.
oK, Ill stop my rant.
