Why are butterfly knives so indimdating?

[Paddington]

I had an interesting experience yesterday evening. It involved 9 police officers armed with some MP5 sub-machine gun variant with laser sights, 2 dog units, 6 un-gunned officers (batons and CS are still arms) and a helicopter.

I had spent all day at a local sports centre attending the official count for a local election I stood in. Once I got home I thought I would relax by practicing in my secluded driveway with my butterfly knives. I go inside and a bit later I hear a helicopter overhead and lots of shouting. Thinking that it was the supporters of the person that won whom were celebrating, I go look out of my back window and see three armed police officers in my back garden.

They see me, point their weapons and order me to the front door. There I am presented with another three armed officers at the entrance to my driveway, two to my left at the side of my house and one crouched behind a small wall and many other officers in addition to two dog units.

I look down at my chest and see many little red dots fluttering to and throw on it.

I keep my cool, follow their instructions and let them cuff me with a very heavy duty plastic tie that seems to give chemical burns. They told me they had a report of a 'crazy'' roaming the public streets with two big machetes or samurai swords. After I explained who I am, the fact I've worked with the police, we return to my property and a police officer attempts to cut off the ties but breaks my scissors.

Not despairing at the loss of my only pair of scissors I slip the cuffs; section 2 SLT and a particular variant on the hand position to the rear gave me enough space to slip them. Police officer told me he would have to report that to the firearm team for training purposes so I plugged my services, why not hey?

I won't go into details as to what I said to them but they seemed sympathetic to my political cause in my area and were a little embarrassed. They left shaking hands and telling me that I could still apply to be a 'special' or a police officer more fully should I want to. No charge, no warning, no caution despite something else that I won't disclose here.

A very, very surreal experience given the day I had and I'll try to upload a picture of the plastic tie so you can see what I am taking about. On a final note abdominal breathing really helps to control the adrenaline dump.

p.s.

It cost them over £10k for that operation. Pretty sure they broke the law but I am not going to push it with them.