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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”
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this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2026
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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).
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.
Ooof. That's even more rough, that he knew it was wrong and took steps to cover it up. Sorry to hear about that.
Jesus Christ. Your grandpa was a dick head.
Beat the shit out of his kids too. Fucked up thing is I only have fond memories of him. He died when I was young and only learned about this crap long after he died.
(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)
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.
Thank you and @ilinamorato@lemmy.world for the explanation!
... yes?
ASP made lights? i thought they just made those extendable clubs. damn good clubs, too.
"When Someone Beats You with a Flashlight You Make Light Shine in All Directions"
~Jenny Holzer
Whoa, that's good. She's got words.
At the same time it was a top of the line flashlight. We used them a lot looking for crabs.
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.