Teen Thrown in Prison For Lasering a Helicopter

Considering that the overpowered pointer lasers can burn out a eye in notime and everyone is aware of this his intent seems clear, lock him up!

Hahaha, dumb ass.

Well, he risked the lives of all those in the chopper. He is served all right. It is good how fast the police acted.

Harden Criminal: "What are you in for?"
Teen: "Miss use of a laser pointer"
Harden Criminal: "I'm in murder, and soon to be rape."

This guy has some serious aiming skills though.

You've got to be kidding, 15 months in prison!?!?

Sure it wasn't a smart or safe thing to do, but crashing into another car because of "being distracted" gets you a ticket (if nobody dies, and no drugs or alcohol involved).

At the absolute maximum he should have got some community service or some crap, more reasonably a fine. More than a year in prison is just effed.

Only 15 months? This guy attempted multiple murder for fun. I'd say lock him up and lose the key.

Laser pointers stopped being "cool" when I started high school...10 years ago. Also, stupid hurts.

Meanwhile in Other news, Good samaritan Man beats elderly woman for not looking both ways before crossing the street, the court system thought while that act seemed harsh, 6 months in jail seemed adequate.

Hold on.... The cop that killed a (maybe more than 1, don't remember) teenage girl because he was texting on a highway doing more than 100mph gets paid suspension and tons of probation, while a kid with a laser pointer miraculously hit a helicopter cockpit gets 15 months in prison? Seriously? What was the technical charge of all of this?.... The judicial system is a peice of work...

However, I would like to know how long he pointed it at the helicopter, was the kid just flashing for a second or two, or literally trying to piss off the pilot, this is important information in regards to this crazy 15 month sentence.

I really hope this gets appealed. Did he interfere with air traffic? Yes. Can that be incredibly dangerous? Yes. Fifteen months for what could be a misdemeanor? Seriously? Was anybody actually injured? Not according to the article. I think at the most his actions constitute as battery. He's nineteen, he's not a minor anymore, but barely an adult. His life it going to be permanently frakked anyways as this is going on his permanent record. But fifteen months? This sets dangerous precedence. Our justice system is too happy to throw people into prison. We're making a criminal out of this man. If he wasn't before, he sure will be by the time he gets out.

Just because the cop got off (miscarriage of justice) doesn't mean that the kid should.

He's stupid but 15mo is too long. Poor guy.

What I dont understand is why "they veered wildly off course" were the pilots that shocked about it?

Huh. Never would have figured the sentence would be that harsh for a laser pointer.

This is outrageous! No damages occured?!!

I really think this is just way too much jail time. 1 day would have been fine... or a year probation and the criminal record.
Hell, im sure the police could have just gave him a scare and let him go.

Such blind hatred and ignorance. What is a prison? A factory used to turn young fools into hardened criminals? Prison is just a gutter where people who did a few stupid things get tossed into. Yeah, that was pretty stupid, pointing a laser at a persons face can be bad. But life in prison? 15 months? You people are insane!
Break his laser, kick him in the ass and make him serve community service, the end. 15 months in prison is like, rapists and even some killers sort of time. I just don't grasp how people find the logic here. A prison is supposed to be a correctional facility, all it is is a bloated hate hotel where the guests are treated like the worst people on Earth and enslaved for their entire stay (see prison labor). The only person here that seems to have some sense here is wolfram23.
I believe the goal is to simply put as many people in prison as possible to destroy the US, as part of a multi-point attack, and in the process use these slaves for as long as possible. Naturally, many naive individuals assume that they are being protected from the guy who held a laser pointer for 5 seconds or the guy who smoked some leaves. All you are going to get are seriously angry, messed up, confused individuals who were punished and trained by other angry, messed up, and confused individuals. The end result is a pile of super criminals who may actually do some harm. So in 15 months you will either get some psycho who comes out of prison looking to kill the first living thing it comes in contact with, or some lobotomized nothing. Either way, all that has been accomplished is the destruction and rape of someones young soul. The system is broken, and whoever wrote this article is a f ucking a sshole, not to mention the rest of those who were involved in the case of the guy with the menacing laser pointer. Ahh, help me, my helicopter veered off course!
If you really need to punish the kid, smash his hand, don't destroy his soul.

there are too many of these incidents and they need to set an example. it's hard to find the culprits so probably this is the best they could do.

These kids are shooting lasers at anything, even jumbo jets. According to the pilots, the laser refracts around the whole cockpit and the glare disrupts their entire view. Jumbo jets guys. This is equivalent to a terrorist highjack.

It is federal offense to interfere with the operation of an aircraft. It can also blind the pilot because most are wearing night-vision and it only takes a second.

For those of you who keep going on about the harsh sentence for a little flash don't seem to understand the problem. This isn't the same as that dumbass shining the pointer in your eyes while you are driving a car. The car half drives itself anyway, as long as you stayed in your lane you'd be fine. A pilot that can't see can't fly...period. As soon as you loose your eyesight while flying you cannot tell which way you are heading, you can't tell which way is up, any feed back is fooled by your ears and the fact your up reference (your butt in the seat) happens to be attached to a moving platform so you'd will be suffering vertigo pretty quickly.

In sensory deprivation tests, most pilots will loose controll within a minute or two for normal straight and level flight, if they were doing a complicated manuever it was measured in seconds.

The guys is lucky he ONLY got 15 months for a crime which could have easily turned into manslaughter or if intentional be considered attempted murder.

This is way the hell too much. The way I see it is that helicopter pilots should expect stuff like this in the first place. Their own damn fault for no being prepared prior to the incident.

Unless he has miraculous vision or was using binoculars, theres no way he would have been able to hit anywhere near a cockpit, let alone a pilots face. He probably just wanted to see if the laser would still be visible at that range, and he just happened to get massively unlucky by hitting a 2-inch target from something like 15000 feet. Sure he would deserve it if he was using binocs and deliberately trying to bother the pilots, but unless this was the case its just a case of an (admittedly not entirely bright) action that could easily have gone unnoticed going wrong because a 1 in something around a billion chance actually happened. Sure, its bad that the pilots got distracted, but 15 years for just pointing a laser pointer at the sky is hardly fair (again, assuming he was not using binoculars or something that made it actually feasible for him to do more than just point it in the helicopters general direction). This is much like someone going to prison or getting sued because they dropped a quarter (or any other small metal object) on the street and it happened to pop someone elses car tire and cause an accident. There (probably) was no harm intended and the chance that you would actually cause a problem is so slim its not something anyone worries about.

You should simply build a fence around the US of A while you're at it, oh wait its already happening lol.

The problem here is its another case of blaten bad law and bad application of laws. Under the patriot act he can be charge with terrorism which is probably what got him the 15 month in jail. It is very similar to the case where a adult was playing with his kid in the backyard with a laser pointer and it just so happens he lives near an airport. He got charged with the same thing because it hit a plane even though no damage or course correction was needed. He is facing same sentence and longer for playing with his kid. I mean come on no wonder I prefer living elsewhere

15 months... what?!
1 month would have sufficed and made him learn his lesson

I always wonder how these people get caught too... I mean I'm sure the helicopter pilots can see where it is coming from but how were they able to track it down to him? And what proof do they have that he did it?

'Remember everyone, laser pointers are best reserved for cats, not choppers.'

Don't let PETA catch you saying this.

You got that right, it's a piece of "something" (use your imagination).

Yea, you wouldn't want them to wag their finger at you and have to listen to their obnoxious arguments

exactly! +1
they put lasers on toys now days and you know the gov.'t can still take these things off the market, and probably should since they are tied into weapon aiming systems if this is such a big problem that this is a crime for being a door knob. i also want to know what that helio pilot was doing so low to be in range of a motorist, the last i knew lasers had a 100' range and that is clearly restricted airspace that close to the ground and the FAA will yank that pilots lisc. for violating that & in city limits the pilot will also go to jail if said pilot was not taking off or landing in a designated zone.

Seriously? A "normal" laser has no power to reach a helicopter that high up. That should have been a hell of a laser.