Fun Fact #27: Police without guns just look off

The weather has been horrible in Pittsburgh and I've been been feeling kind of sick, therefore I've been staying inside and watching TV. The current writer's strike has caused a total lack of new episodes of any of my standby shows, so I've been forced to turn to other sources. I get a few channels that randomly show British mystery/crime shows. The acting and writing is surprisingly good and they often play more like little movies (running about 90 minutes each episode) rather than TV show.

Anyways, crime shows will obviously have characters that are cops and those cops will inevitably spend some scene running after a criminal. And it's during these scenes that I notice the biggest difference between American and UK crime shows. This is because when the cop either starts chasing the suspect or catches up to him/her, he'll pull out his weapon and brandish it at them in an attempt to get the suspect of comply with his orders. But, the thing is, most UK cops are not allowed to use guns....

The weapon of most British cops according to Wikipedia and my TV

They instead use an extendable baton. A baton!! I realize that it can cause great pain (and probably even kill) when it's used to hit someone, but it doesn't really look threatening compared to a gun. I know some UK forces are armed with guns, but most are not. If I were a criminal I'd be a lot more likely to submit to a cop with a gun than a freaking baton. It honestly takes me out of the program when I see one of the cops whip out their baton and begin the chase.

I guess it can also be a sign of how much the media influences how I, and probably others, view things because I've never actually seen a cop pull out a gun on anyone, but it's still something I see as the norm. I'd bet that a lot of criminals in the US, no matter how much it could actually hurt them, wouldn't feel very threatened when being chased by a cop wielding a baton.

But of course, let's be honest. I'd be terrified of cop chasing me no matter what he was wielding, and probably submit pretty quickly (if I hadn't already tripped on my own while running). I'm not really a hardened criminal type though...