Plod taser a blind man for having a white stick

A police force has apologised after an officer used a Taser on a blind man whose white stick was mistaken for a sword.

The man was stunned by police following reports of a man walking through Chorley with a samurai sword on Friday.

Ch Supt Stuart Williams, of Lancashire Police, said the force "deeply regrets" and had "clearly put this man through a traumatic experience".

The man was taken to hospital for treatment and later discharged.

The case has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

'Extremely sorry'

Mr Williams said police had "received a number of reports that a man was walking through Chorley armed with a samurai sword".

"A description of the offender was circulated to officers and patrols were sent to look for the man," he said.

"One of the officers who arrived in Chorley believed he had located the offender.

"Despite asking the man to stop, he failed to do so and the officer discharged his Taser."

Mr Williams said it "became apparent that this man was not the person we were looking for and officers attended to him straight away", taking him to Chorley Hospital.

He added that the force "deeply regrets what has happened".

"We have clearly put this man through a traumatic experience and we are extremely sorry for that," he said.

"We have launched an urgent investigation to understand what lessons can be learned."

fuckin wankers.

Lucky. If it'd been a bit thicker, they'd have seen it was a table leg and shot him.

NotBert wrote:Lucky. If it'd been a bit thicker, they'd have seen it was a table leg and shot him.

I'm nicking that for Twitter.