I loved your article on gang sweeps (“Swept away,” April 21), but was particularly drawn to the photo of the police conducting an early-morning sweep. One had a coffee cup in his gun hand, the other a banana.
I assume due to budget cuts these are new, low-cost weapons, in that the policeman could simply throw the banana in front of a fleeing suspect and make him slip, while the other throws the hot coffee into the perpetrator’s face to stun him.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 5, 2011.
