Police in Ipswich yesterday morning used a Taser on a man who was brandishing a sword while cycling in the Suffolk county town.
According to the Ipswich Star, the man, aged 32, was waving the sword at passers-by in the town’s Riverside Road and Yarmouth Road areas.
At around 9.25am, officers from Suffolk Constabulary detained the man.
Police sergeant Ali Livingstone tweeted pictures of the weapon, which had a blade more than 12 inches long, and confirmed that a Taser had been used on the suspect.
Man cycling round Ipswich waving this at members of public. Located, challenged with Taser & compliantly arrested pic.twitter.com/vW5cZET2zT
— Ali Livingstone (@SgtALivingstone) August 30, 2016
The man was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offence weapon and was taken away by officers for questioning.
While the newspaper described it as a “samurai sword,” the picture shows that it bears little resemblance to one, nor indeed any historical sword, having a modern design.




















12 thoughts on “Police Taser man cycling round Ipswich while brandishing sword”
When questioned, the man
When questioned, the man confirmed that for the first time in months he hadn’t had a single dangerously close pass on his journey.
If they used the taser on him
If they used the taser on him in the process of “compliantly arresing” him then that is quite clearly unreasonable and disproportionalte force.
What the Twitter grab states however is that he was challenged with a taser, which is much more in line with reasonable force, thank you for another misleading headline.
patto583 wrote:
My thoughts exactly. It doesn’t sound like they used the taser on him at all – just pointed it at him, and he was arrested without resistance.
DaveE128 wrote:
You mean “Resistance was futile”? (yes, I know that was Borg not Klingon, but still… cheqaDlaHbe’).
Was he wearing a helmet
Was he wearing a helmet though?
Are we calling 12 inches a
Are we calling 12 inches a sword now? More like a knife to me.
wycombewheeler wrote:
That’s not a knife…
Seriously though, that’s not a knife. It looks like a spearhead more than anything else.
vonhelmet wrote:
That’s not a knife…
Seriously though, that’s not a knife. It looks like a spearhead more than anything else.— wycombewheeler
Looks Klingon to me…
wycombewheeler wrote:
Pork sword?
wouldnt this have been the
wouldnt this have been the better cycling related story to pick up from the Ipswich Star ?
“Cyclist calls for safer cycle routes in Ipswich after accident which left her with severe damage to her spine”
http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/cyclist_calls_for_safer_cycle_routes_in_ipswich_after_accident_which_left_her_with_severe_damage_to_her_spine_1_4678040
I wouldn’t trust anything in
I wouldn’t trust anything in the Ipswich Star, its written by knobheads and read by halfwits.
IanW1968 wrote:
That as maybe,but one story seems to be a genuine attempt to raise attention to provide better cycling facilities,after a serious injury to a cyclist,something I thought Road.cc promoted & we’re in favour and impacts all cyclists
The other is a nonsensical Daily Mailesque story that is completely irrelevant for 99.9% of cyclists, & especially those who aren’t ‘sword’ wielding idiots
If local newspapers are being trawled for content at least make it relevant to the majority of road.cc site visitors,else we’ll just go elsewhere for real cycling news stories