Mr Wood and the PR24

I used to go to work with a 12" piece of wood in my trouser pocket, No not for impressing the ladies! for my protection and that of the general public. It was of course a truncheon, or staff as we in the know call it. i.e. "I had to staff him Sarge!" or "I had to draw my staff"

Many's the time that I have been rushing towards that attack alarm at the bank thinking "Now to fend off those shotgun wielding, hard nosed robbers with Mr Wood" (Mr Wood was my pet name for the staff, i.e "I had to introduce him to Mr Wood Sarge!")

The thing with it was although it is obviously ineffective in a gun fight, those people who were unfortunate enough to be introduced to Mr Wood, stayed introduced! I can honestly say, that on the few occasions I had to use it, it did it's job and saved me from getting hurt.

Then, one day several years ago we caught up with the USA in the baton personal protection scheme of things. The Monadnock PR24 Extendable, Side Handled Baton was introduced to police forces across the UK.

Monadnock's representatives were sent over from the USA to oversee the enormous task of making all officers forget their staff training (Hit 'em with it) and substitute it with the PR24 Training (Power Chops, Power Strikes etc).

One of the roll out sessions, attended by senior officers from a number of forces, involved a demonstration of the plastic 'training' baton. This baton was white, and made of a very light plastic so that you could safely hit your colleagues in a training environment without risk of serious injury. So impressed was one of the senior officers that he tried to order several thousand of the 'training' batons so that they could be used as a substitute to the proper one. "It wouldn't hurt the prisoners as much!" was said to be his theory. Apparently the US trainer pulled no punches with his reply "You're F*****G Stupid, you are!"

Anyway, I remember my training and the excitement of receiving my baton, I was like a child in a toy shop, having just been bought a bike and chomping at the bit to ride it! (Not really, I hate scrapping in all honesty and would much prefer not to have to travel around carrying a variety of weapons)

It was to take a while before I did actually have to use it. There I was, faced with a fighting drunk who was threatening to rip my head off and throw it in my face. As he came at me, I already had my baton drawn in the defensive pose (Training see!) and therefore swung it with all my force, the extended end hitting him on the upper arm (A green area! (Training again))

I then stood and watched as the extended end flew through the air, having just sheared off on contact with my assailants limb, leaving me with an even more angry drunk with a slightly sore arm and a broken PR24.

Where was Mr Wood when I needed him? I'd handed him in of course, swapped him for Mr Cheap and Nasty Plastic!

The ending was happy thankfully, but it could have gone a different way.

If I had a TASER at the time, he would have been a prime candidate, it's about time we took the proper weapons out on patrol.

Never take a knife to a gun fight (Or a PR24 for that matter!)


© Bob Slot 2007