If you know the man's identity, don't what ever you do tell the Fuzz!

He'll get hi ass kicked for carrying an offensive weapon in public, possibly charged with assault with a deadly weapon, locked up, and his name and address given to the criminals who did it because the accused has a right to know his accuser.

Nope, who ever he was, the dude done good, but thats where it should end - the Police thanking their lucky stars that some one was about to help them out of a life threatening situation.

(don't tell them who he is though!)

Gooooo Hiro Nakamura !!!

"I love-a Ing-a-lend !!"

I wonder if the laws in England prohibit the possesion of sharpened blades like in the U.S. I have a nice collection myself, but there is no place that will have them sharpened (besides I have no need, I hung up the Strom Shadow outfit years ago).

I only bring this up for as stated in the article that one of the assailants was "hit in the arm", my guess would be were it razor sharp it would have lopped off old "lefty's" arm.

If the apartment dwellers had a handgun, the police would not have been needed. This is just more proof that an armed public is safer from criminals than an unarmed one.

"Better Living Through Firepower"

Run Samurai man ..they don't want to thank you ..like they should .THEY will arrest you.

hhahahha wow that made my night what a dude.

dont they wanna arrest him for the sword tho?

That is the coolest thing. Did he have a disguise?? Or a costume

I would imagine that there is some kind of law prohibiting vigilantism in the UK, there is in Australia.
We used to have a group here (guardian angels, I think they operate in other countries) who patrolled trains and streets. Their activities were deemed illegal.

It would be nice if we were able to foster a sense of community responsibility and compassion without becoming outlaws.

Yep the guardian angels were here too on the underground...etc.

I beg the question is vigilantism a bad thing?

I would have thanked the vigilante in this case had I been one of the officers.

James with the greatest respect ...you would if he saved your arm....but i guess thats where we differ m8

Because of the large number of morons in the human race I guess vigilantism IS a bad idea.
Too many wanna be heroes would end up putting not only their own lives, but the lives of innocent civilians and police officers in danger.
In a lot of respects, this samurai guy should not have become involved - while it all worked out well in this instance, I guess things could have gotten a lot worse.
He could have been killed himself, an officer may have been killed trying to ensure that this civilian was safely out of danger.
If guns had been involved the situation would have ended quite badly I imagine.

Having said that though, I would love to see more people get involved if they see something happening that they know is wrong. Too many people in this modern, enlightened era seem to not want to 'get involved' and turn a blind eye.

I guess what I am getting at is that it's one thing to be civic minded, to go to the aid of someone who is otherwise helpless or overwhelmed and another thing all together to make a nuisance of yourself whilst trying to be a hero.
Let's hope that there aren't any morons who try to emulate this guy.
Imagine groups of men wandering the streets armed with swords deciding to uphold justice.

The guardian angels were a good group, they were organised for one thing (though that's something that made the police here freak out) and they never went into things alone. They detained people and waited for the police to arrive and make the necessary arrests. They had strict rules that they abided by and their mere prescence was often enough to prevent trouble from occuring.
But I know of a lot of people who would feel that it was perhaps their duty to become judge and jury... and perhaps even executioner.
It's all about that primal, mob mentality that people sometimes lapse into.

i believe theres a difference between irresponsible vigilantism and heroism....its a fine line...but its a line that needs to be walked more and more these days. this is a world that truly needs heros.

IMHO, the swordsman guy didn't do anything wrong however i would generally not advise people attempting to use weapons at all unless in the case of self-defence. They are talking about banning samurai swords over here due to idiots trying to attack people with them (even though these cases are very rare), which i think is a shame since the vast majority of people who own swords are collecters only and are responsable people.
I think there is a novelty value with owning samurai swords, people see movies like KillBill or Azumi and think "yeah i'm gonna be really tough and go buy me a samurai sword so i can show it off to all my mates!" and end up buying some crappy replica and try and hit somone with it.
Its because people go and offensively use such weapons, such weapons will probably be made illegal at some point over here.