Twitter image via NYPD 77th Precinct

America’s law enforcement do face risks everyday.  However, it seems a bit far-fetched to suggest that an airsoft gun or two wielded in a non-threatening manner poses a great danger to anyone.

Days ago, the New York Police Department’s 77th Precinct posted a photo of what looks like an impressive array of firearms and hardware.  Along with the photo, the social media post claimed the photo “demonstrated the risks that police officers face everyday.”


The Twitter post conspicuously omits any mention that the gear shown was airsoft pellet guns, not real firearms.

The New York media eagerly published the story involving what look like scary guns, including police video.  A dispassionate look at the video shows a man posing for some selfies with his airsoft gear.


Obviously one or more neighbors called the police to investigate, just in case.  Of course, the mainstream media had to dial up the dramatic sensationalism to ’11’.  Here’s the NY Daily News story:

A Brooklyn man busted for terrorizing neighbors when he took to a rooftop waving what appeared to be a rifle has been charged and given a summons, authorities said Wednesday.

In other words, they didn’t even jail him.

Cops charged Chenhan Jiang with reckless endangerment, obstruction of government administration, weapons possession, menacing and disorderly conduct. He was given a summons ordering him to face the charges in court later this month. The gun turned out to be BB rifle.

Cops did, however, take his collection of airsoft gear and posed for a photo to tout the great risks of their profession.  After all, taking down airsoft players one at a time will make NY city streets safer, particularly in light of NY State’s new “no cash bail” law.

 

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92 COMMENTS

    • I dunno who’s more pathetic, the grinning NYPD toy squad or the soyboy wannabe operator who has an arsenal of airsoft guns.

      • If I was one of the cops I would be humiliated to get my picture taken with the air soft toys. But maybe these cops don’t know the difference.

        • I guess the NYPD will probably get the chance to deal with real dangers here in a few weeks if the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic continues to get worse. It probably will get worse, and NYC is a bad place to be if things get ugly.

          I’m glad to be “Out West” instead of dwelling in NYC, DC, Chicago, etc.

        • I dunno, look at the guy on the left… that expression, to me, looks like “ugh, I just wanna go home”

        • Art you don’t know the half of it. We have maybe a week before it gets bad if the current model is remotely accurate.

        • That’s a flat out lie Art and you know it!! New York passed the S.A.F.E. Act after the Sandy Hook tragedy which bans all the evil weapons that baddy bad guys use! So it is literally unpossible for anything bad to ever happen in New York ever again because people obey the laws!

      • The sport is a ton of fun and a fantastic training tool of used properly, and given the cost of high end airsoft guns and various tactical gear you’re more likely to find “soyboy wannabe operators” among AR-15.com than you are at a high level airsoft event

        • Yup. Never been to an actual event (not my cup of tea) but I’ve lived with some dedicated enthusiasts who were studying and probably using proper small unit tactics at these events. No, it doesn’t teach you marksmanship. It does teach you how to work as an effective team.

        • True. Agree with serge as well.

          I’ve personally never gotten into airsoft but a friend of mine sent me a bunch of videos of serious airsofters. I was shocked to find out what their “toys” cost.

          I added up the gear from one guy’s video, just his gear not including his buddies, and it came out to ~$20K. It’s a surprisingly (to me) expensive hobby and Serge is right, the serious guys understand how to employ that stuff better than many gun owners. If they actually know how to shoot they’d probably mass all over a SWAT team.

        • Also an airsoft version of your SHTF weapon can greatly increase the amount of training you do. Mostly due to the low cost of shooting and the cheap(ish) force on force training, excluding ammo 2 hours at an indoor gun range cost the same as all day at the airsoft place in Detroit. Getting hit with a 300fps(or faster) 6mm BB hurts, so it does induce a little bit of anxiety into weapon manipulation and reloads.

          I will say accurate shots with an airsoft pistol will increase your first shot accuracy with real steel. Unfortunately even blow back pistols don’t have enough recoil to be truly realistic for follow up shots.

        • Never did air soft. My son had an h&k mp5 airsoft replica. That thing looked real enough to get you in trouble if you’re not careful.

          I did do some paint ball. Had some fun when the kids were young. And they enjoyed shooting the crap out of their dad.

        • Serge: Yeah, IIRC the NVG50’s from AGM (or similar). So like $6k right there, maybe $7k depending on where he bought them.

          It was high end everything. Danner, Ops-Core, Crye, Arc’Teryx LEAF, Mayflower Research and Consulting, EOTech with a magnifier, Surefire lights, chemlight dispensers on the battlebelt etc etc. And, IIRC his rifle was closing in on $1000 itself and had upgrades for almost that much (that I admittedly don’t understand) as well. Gucci as fuck.

          All his boys were kitted out the same way. I was completely blown away by what these dude’s spent. Especially in putting real accessories on “fake” guns. It made me wonder if they got sponsored by big tactical companies or something.

          And then I found out that you can spend close to $9,000 on just an M4 style airsoft rifle. Even today a quick search finds a rifle at £7,104, so that’s $8941.09 at the current exchange rate. They didn’t do that but it’s apparently pretty easy to get into airsoft in a way that just the rifle, before accessories, is $1400.

      • You act as though enjoying such things is a crime. A lot of grunts do force on force with paintball, simunition, and airsoft and its a lot more effective than screaming “bang! bang!” like the USMC would have us do. Not all bearers of airsoft toys are birdnested pencils.

        Kid put a lot of money into his hobby and it would be no different than someone rushing out here to take all of my computers, graphics tablet, pens, etc, because the fuzz didn’t like what I was drawing. Sue the piss out of the NYPD and retire.

    • these doofuses do this sort of thing all the time in an effort to make themselves look good…when the reality is, to anyone knowledgeable… that they look like a bunch of fools

  2. This happened in my NYPD precinct as well. It gripes my ass that these guys open carry on-duty, conceal carry off-duty, and are authorized to own AR15s while I pay $160 a year to have to beg the NYPD to buy or sell a pistol (and only 1 every three months).

    • Absolutely. They should have to follow the same laws and rules as the rest of us civilians. They are civilians, nothing more, with a job as a LE. Special carve-outs are unconstitutional as it created separate classes of citizens. What is good for the rest of us is good for them also.

      • Given that anyone not subjected to UCMJ is a civilian, couldn’t a suit be brought forth in every state, and even federally, that the carve outs for LE and Federal agents are violations of citizens 14th amendment? Equal protection and such? Not a lawyer, just spitballing here.

    • If you’re stupid enough to live in the cesspool that is NYC (or any urban area) live with it and stop whining. MOVE.

  3. Did they have look long to find that many cops who want to help with Doomberg and Lurch’s agenda?

  5. Wow, they got the intersectional demographics covered too.
    Millenial white cop, millenial hispanic cop, WOC cop and old Italian veteran cop.
    What f’in propaganda.

    • And no Asian.

      The Asian was the one charged for playing airsoft on his apartment roof. He should have put on a badge to put the Carens at ease.

  6. reckless endangerment, obstruction of government administration, weapons possession, menacing and disorderly conduct…

    I didn’t know obstruction of government administration was a crime, the bureaucracy seems to commit that crime more than they do actual work I would be. You would have to charge all politicians, lawyers, and workers with that crime.

    Who did he recklessly endanger? Himself, as the police were probably pretty close to taking him out. What weapons did he possess, then, if they weren’t actually weapons? Maybe in NY airsoft = firearm.

  7. I suppose the suspect got tired of playing with his collection in the bathroom (where no-one could see it) and decided to go rooftop with it, where a neighbor saw him and had him busted. I didn’t know airsoft guns could fire BB’s – I thought they only fired a styrofoam thingie. But I’m sure his collection was deadly – in .9mm sub-nuclear magnum (at least) – and could have taken out half a swat team with one shot. The look on those cops’ faces…they know what they did! Too bad this dude had to get into trouble to satisfy a cop’s ego. BTW, the New York Daily News is a well-known lefty sensationalistic bird-cage rag…if it wasn’t for sensationalism they would have no papers to sell.

    • Airsoft are made to replicate real guns and fire 6mm plastic BBs at hundreds of feet per second. Some are gas powered, others are electric motor driven. You can tune them to fire 600-1000 feet per second.

      • Correct, although most typically shoot between 350 and 450 FPS. The industry standard for guns that aren’t sniper rifles, DMRs, or LMGs (all of which typically have mandatory minimum engagement distances and are thus allowed to be more powerful) is 400 FPS as measured with .2gram BBs. But with heavier ammo and a well tuned gun you can easily hit someone, accurately and directly (not lobbing in shots) from 70-100 yards

  8. Coming from a police family(father, brother-ln-law) this whole thing is an embarrassment. I can understand them taking the guy into custody but the photo is a joke. Sure, the job is dangerous but photo ops like this give it a cartoon look.

    • Yeah, and considering they never did “take him into custody”….. which might make sense to you, but completely me away that supposed “cops” do this crap…..
      Imagine interacting with these “people”…. especially in a professional manner… WORTHLESS PIGS!

  10. Egad, if they only knew what my array of realistic airsoft/BB guns looks like here in CA. I use them for training purposes. Much safer to practice nighttime room clearing in your home with a less-lethal gun than a real one. I modified them so that they shoot only puffs of air (no projectiles) when the trigger is pulled.

    Maybe it’s just me, but I sure didn’t see any evidence of the defendant “waving” his gun or otherwise threatening anyone. I can understand the initial response from S.W.A.T., but after determining the facts on scene, the defendant was still taken into custody and his personal property confiscated? For violation of which laws, exactly?

    • Not being a gun hating commie in the Demokkkommie Socialist People’s Repulik of New Yorkistan is apparently against the law.

    • Time and again, we have seen cops care far more about the information taken by the 911 dispatcher than they scene they are currently witnessing.

      That might be the worst part about LEAs refusing to hire too-intelligent people to officers.

    • Yeah, and the belt, and helmet, and especially that deadly camera/tripod combo.

      Sheesh, I weep for the NYPD.

    • Since when did gloves, helmets and belts become illegal ? Anywhere?

      They had no reason or right to confiscate this person’s property.

      • I don’t know about NY, but here in CA a “lookalike” replica is legally considered a real firearm when used in the commission of a crime. So if the NYPD S.W.A.T. determined that this young guy was somehow “brandishing or threatening” in a public space available to others (the apartment rooftop), then that may have been their reason to confiscate. Now it’s up to the defendant to argue his case in court to get his stuff back, if at all.

        I’m on his side and believe this was way overblown by the officers. He should have received a stern warning, and possibly a $$ bill for the S.W.A.T. response. But not lose his property. Unfortunately, he wasn’t wise to take his selfies on the rooftop where he could be seen in all his gear. Even though they were just airsoft, it was rather risky because they look real to an observer.

  12. Never mind the Pentagon Definition of Assault Weapon. If it Looks like an assault weapon then that’s good enough for gun control dirty diaper democRats and their gullible photo op useful idiots.

  13. While I don’t agree with the way they handled the situation, (and I know that this will honk some of you in the gun community off, and by the way I too am a gun owner I just prefer mine to be the real McCoy in 22lr form) I can understand how some of this fellows neighbors could think he had real firearms. I copied the picture and tried blowing it up and personally, I could not see anything that indicated a air soft or BB gun [remember you’ll shoot your eye out :-)] until I zoomed way way in. Now if I was the cops who took the call and I found out when I arrived at scene that this was air soft or BB guns, I’d have probably give the guy a stern warning and said go now and sin no more. I would have then talked to the reporting party and told that party to be absolutely sure before making another call in this type of situation. I would be willing to bet the reporting party(s) were mad at the man arrested, or there was some sort of grudge there.

    • What’s the probability it was a white person calling in the Chinese man? Probability of woman over man?

    • You can’t tell a caller to be “absolutely sure” someone has a real gun before they call because the only way to tell would be to go over and physically inspect the guns to tell that they’re airsoft.

      I agree that this guy probably deserved a good stern lecture about being a dumbass in NYC, rather than an arrest, though. But I’m sure NYC laws prohibit anything that looks like a gun (i.e. replica guns)

  14. New York City has always been a foreign country.Make it official and keep them confined within it-that includes: Cuomo,DeBlasio,Schumer,Bloomberg and their sycophants.

  15. I’ve had my pic in the local paper a few times at least twice posing with a table full of firearms. They were stolen and recovered during my investigations. I always returned stolen property to the rightful owner personally. Especially firearms. That photo should be an embarrassment to law enforcement everywhere.

  16. That dude on the right of the picture… What’s on his head? A literal look in the mirror would save more than taking away toys.

  17. As a former member of the peace officer tribe, I’m embarrassed by the melodrama that oozes from the NYPD. And I’m keenly aware that incidents like this are responsible for the growing contempt that much of the public has for members of law enforcement. Eventually all this will come to a head — and it ain’t gonna be a pretty sight.

  18. Y’all aint gonna believe this…but

    Most airsoft guns are not allowed to be sold in NYC due to city ordinances against realistic toy guns. Airsoft guns can be bought and sold as toy guns in New York City if they are entirely clear or entirely brightly colored (ie. red, yellow, orange, etc.). New York City Administrative Code § 10-131(b) and New York City Administrative Code § 10-131(g)(1)(a) http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/pdf/govpub/838toyguns.pdf and a copy of the complete code can be read here: http://www.nycairsoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=813&p=1314

    • That actually doesn’t surprise me. I know quite a few airsoft players and they’re nearly all firearm owners. Some of them even developed an interest in real steel as a direct result of low end airsoft guns they owned as kids! So of course NYC doesn’t like them, they can easily be a “gateway drug” to a love of firearms

  19. Airsofter is lucky they didn’t nuke him from the chopper or while storming the roof. People get shot regularly for having a phone in their hand. But, Mini Bloomers thinks the cops are only ones who should decide who and when to shoot. Doesn’t make me feel safe..

    • these guns are very realistic…i’ve purchased a few just for wall hangers….so you will probably attract unwanted attention when walking around outside with one

      • reminiscent of that incident in Cleveland….caller said he saw a kid playing with what may or may not be a real gun…cops showed up and killed him anyway……

  24. Replica guns and BB guns are illegal in NYC. I think these cops look like jerks but they are enforcing the stupid law.

    • Some examples of legislative action are so far beyond stupidity that one wonders why they are enforced, even in NYC.

  26. I grew up and lived for many years in NYC, departed that vale of tears in the fall of 1967, never to return. Those all familiar with the legislative history of the place can determine the cause of my departure for themselves. Hint, I used to target shoot with rifles. In conclusion, the antics of the NYPD were and have remained sufficient to ruffle the feathers of a saint, a status I never laid claim to.

  27. Regarding the photo showing replica firearms and 4 police officers, think the two stripper could get out of his own way. I somehow doubt it.

  28. Dude y’all are just terrible cop haters who look for anything bad to say about them. Get a life and get to the GYM AND GET SOME GAINS!!! WHEN YOU START BENCHING 225 THEN YOU CAN COMMENT!

    • Night Wing,
      “God made man, Sam Colt made them equal”. A lot of firearms owners don’t have the ability to fight off an attacker physically. Firearms are an attractive self defense tool that can increase odds of survival. I know it might be a novel idea that firearms owners are attracted to a Gun blog, but that’s what we have here.

      I am mostly seeing comments about how these cops are proud of taking these replicas “off the streets”. These replicas, would be covered under 2A as training devices, thus not be infringed. If you’re happy with LEOs not following the Constitution, I think you need to find the right blog for you.

  29. Do cops understand the oath they take AS A CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT? Do any bureaucrats??

    “To uphold and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic”

    ALL COPS have a duty to defend the second amendment.

    The Constitution / Bill Of Rights is the supreme law of the land.

    Are gun confiscating cops (EVERYWHERE) LIARS? or Stupid? Did they cross their fingers when they swore that oath? Did they not understand the clear words or that it was AN OATH?

    If they will swear an oath and lie just to get a job and a paycheck, What else will they do to keep their paychecks???????

      • I would argue that they are training tools for the real thing and thus are covered under the 2A. I also believe the 2A covers swords, and for thousands of years humans trained with wooden swords. This would be covered in the 2A under the word “regulated”, which to our founders was meant as well trained.

  30. These people are disgusting!!!!
    To actually stand in that picture is the lowest form of self gratification I’ve ever seen….
    These people need to be stopped at all costs…. they are truly a danger to society. If this is what they consider a job well done, then they need to be terminated from their positions immediately!!!
    I just lost A LOT of respect for “law enforcement” because of this pathetic display of “bravery”….
    Unreal…

  31. Past having lost respect for the city of New York, not that I had much for it in the first place. I’m absolutely speechless for the 1st time in a very long time!

  32. Probably all but the weapons charge will stick.Reckless endangerment is a pretty stiff penalty. Airsoft or iron, if an airsoft gunm was pointed at me it would look just as scary as the real thing. Chang Yang was foolish to do this.

  33. Dear cops,

    If you steal the property of peaceful peopleejo have neither harmed nor threatened anyone – whether that property is money, drugs, cars, airsoft guns, firearms, or anything else – you are a thug and deserve to be resisted with all necessary force.

    Sincerely,
    Just another slave who hates your guts

  34. If I was a N.Y. cop, I’d have been embarrassed even posing for that picture knowing full well they were BB guns… Fkn’ losers.

  38. It’s ridiculous to pose with a collection of airsoft guns, but the cops feel they have the right to take whatever they want under the guise of protecting the public or upholding the law. I feel it is simply court supported theft.

    Give the guy back his stuff and let him learn from his mistakes. They took their photo and got to claim it was a great bust.

    Why does this particular aspect bother me you ask? Because the anti-gun, anti-prepper, anti-self reliance liberal socialist want to restrict us, ban products, create an excessive amount of red tape and licensing fees and take these things away from us without even offering any kind of compensation. They want to invade our homes, take whatever they deem as contraband and then punish us in multiple ways. This si the behavior of a corrupt police state.

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