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“It's a rich man's game no matter what they call it and you spend your life puttin' money in his wallet 9 to 5” (thelemmy.club)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] 11 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Could you elaborate?

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  • [–] 94 points 1 week ago* (5 children)

    I'm not OP, but the Maglite was originally developed for use by American police in the late 1970s. They made it long and heavy so that it could be used as a club (sorry, "impact tool"). Like most things that the police did during that time, these were mostly purchased with the intent of providing plausible deniability about racial profiling and police brutality (and if they weren't purchased with that intent, they were often used for that purpose anyway).

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  • [–] 68 points 1 week ago* (3 children)

    (You've gotten them conflated with Kel-lights; Maglites were a knockoff improvement of the kel lights, and were widely available to non-LEO buyers. They were also a good deal less effective as a bludgeon, but far superior flashlights, which is why they became popular. Plausible deniability isn't worth squat if you can't find what you want to hit)

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  • [–] 30 points 1 week ago

    Oh, interesting. I know that the Maglite was intentionally targeting law enforcement, but I didn't know that they were actually the second generation of club-flashlight. I just looked up the Kel-light and discovered that they were about a decade earlier, which frankly makes it even clearer what (or rather who) the "impact tool" was for.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Keller paid a commission of $1 to each police officer that convinced another to purchase a light.

    After Keller left in 1972, he continued designing lights for a new company (Pro-Light, 1973), later moving on to Maglite (1979), Brinkmann, and ASP.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    My grandad was a sheriff during the civil rights movement for some time after.

    He just put a lead core in a baton and called it a day. He had two, one for black folk and one to show the prosecutor if it ever came up. Spoiler: it never came up.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (1 child)

    At the same time it was a top of the line flashlight. We used them a lot looking for crabs.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    Oh, it was definitely the brightest commercially-available flashlight of the pre-LED era. If I recall correctly, they sold a much smaller-sized flashlight that was just as bright; some of my friends' dads had that one hanging around. I remember being amazed.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 child)

    Large maglight-style flashlights like that were often carried by people who weren't permitted to carry a truncheon/nightstick, as a big stick full of D cell batteries is an extremely effective club (until it bends). While the idea that mostly people who owned them used them to beat black people is a bit hyperbolic (for a long time they were just the most reliable flashlight you could get) they definitely were also used as a bludgeon. Mostly that role has now been filled by telescoping batons though, just as effective but much less weight to carry around.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    I used to carry a big 6D maglite when I delivered pizza for a living. I think there were at least a couple times when having that thing with me at night dissuaded some sketchy folks from trying anything.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (1 child)

    Maglite flashlights are big, heavy and durable and are usually standard issue to police. They make for very effective bludgeons which cops have clearly rarely had qualms about beating black people.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 week ago

    Not so much standard issue anymore (they're usually more likely to be handed a flashlight closer to the size and weight of a Crayola marker these days), but definitely in the 80s the Maglite was the poster child for police brutality. Dang things looked like baseball bats.

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