r/oddlyterrifying • u/TheOddityCollector • 1d ago
German police wearing chainmail armor to protect against knife attacks
689
u/thetimidtaxidermist 1d ago
Highwaymen hate this one trick!
139
u/purplebuttman 1d ago
Good thing I've got a sword AND pistol by my side
→ More replies (1)53
u/Luke_the_unstoppable 1d ago
I’ll be back again.. and again and again
27
8
5
1.0k
u/BaltazarOdGilzvita 1d ago
Chainmail is still the best defense against knife attacks. My friend got mugged while wearing one (he's in bohurt) and the guy who jumped him tried to get him stabbed. He poked a couple of times, stood there in shock, while my friend started beating the shit out of him and holding him down until the police came.
655
u/Death_Walker21 1d ago
Im just imagining the mugger hearing the boss music the moment he jumped
304
u/BaltazarOdGilzvita 1d ago
Chainmail or not, that friend of mine is a pretty big dude, and as he told me about the mugger: he was a whole head shorter, which makes me think what the hell kinda drug he was on trying to mug a man who can rip his arms off with little effort.
211
u/thehazelone 1d ago
I mean, seems like he would have been pretty successful if your friend wasn't wearing a chainmail for protection? You said he was stabbed a few times. A knife to the gut doesn't care for how big you are.
72
u/BaltazarOdGilzvita 1d ago
Not really, though... You still need to get that stab in. My friend let him do it, because he was wearing the chainmail under his jacket, but he could have easily knocked him out in one punch to the face. There's a good reason why muggers with knives don't attack Arnold-Schwarzenegger-in-his-prime-looking guys, but rather weak and timid-looking people.
I think the only reason why the moron attacked my friend because my friend told him to fuck off when he asked for the money.54
u/fart-sparkles 1d ago
Not really, though... You still need to get that stab in.
Actually yes really.
Being big didn't stop the guy with the knife. The metal covering your friends body saved him from bleeding out or dying of sepsis due to a perforated bowel, or whatever else.
60
u/boogiethewoogie 1d ago
Why was your friend even wearing chainmail? I would assume its apart of a workout regimen or something tho
80
u/BaltazarOdGilzvita 1d ago
As mentioned above: he is in bohurt. He regularly trains and many times he goes on a jog with chainmail on (for extra weight) under his jacket or sweater.
24
15
u/thehazelone 1d ago
If it's a straight up fight, then sure. It would be a fairly stupid thing to do. But if your friend was unaware and got stabbed in the back without the chainmail, I don't see how his size would help much. That's only conjecture of course, and it's good he didn't got hurt or anything.
13
u/BaltazarOdGilzvita 1d ago
Yeah, stabbing someone from behind who's unaware would definitely even the field. The thing is, with this situation how my friend told me: this moron came up to him in a secluded part of the city, face to face, asked him for money and took out the knife. My friend told him to fuck off (and maybe told him he's a bitch, it was long time ago, I forgot all the details) and kept himself open, confident knowing he can do jack shit with his small pocket knife against a professionally made chainmail. He was right, as this guy tried to poke him two or three times, before getting pummelled by my friend. My friend told me the mugger was comically smaller compared to him, for even trying something this stupid.
1
u/DukeRedWulf 1d ago
".. professionally made chainmail.. "
What brand of chainmail? Asking for a friend...
2
u/BaltazarOdGilzvita 1d ago edited 22h ago
"Beli Orlovi" Armory or something like that. Check it out online, they sell their professionally made medieval armor and weapons.
6
u/Flamecoat_wolf 1d ago
Blocking a knife is a risky strategy. A feint, or a twist of the wrist to cut their hand as they're trying to grab the knife arm, and your friend is still in trouble.
→ More replies (3)4
u/TheHollowJester 1d ago edited 1d ago
Think even simpler - tackle with left shoulder, "hug", stab in the back.
So what if you get hit in the head/face a few times? You'll be shook but that's it.
E: for clarity: this is from the knife wielder's perspective, for an unarmed person's perspective doing something like this is suicidal.
→ More replies (3)2
u/brando2612 1d ago
Even trained people are unlikely to not get stabbed in a knife fight ur mate didn't let shit happen he wouldn't have stopped shit
17
60
u/SamSibbens 1d ago
Why was he wearing a chainmail?
Where can I get such chainmail?
38
u/BaltazarOdGilzvita 1d ago
He trains bohurt.
You can get it from their online armory shop called "Beli Orlovi".30
u/WeeTheDuck 1d ago
but why would bro be wearing them casually 💀
23
18
4
2
18
u/Dr4gonfly 1d ago
I feel like if I was trying to mug someone with a knife, I wouldn’t go for the guy wearing visible armor.
I also feel that the truth is being played with fast and loose here.
Hauberks are very uncommon in buhurt, it’s almost always plate over gambeson since maille adds weight and not functionality since weapons are blunt and thrusting is disallowed by the ruleset. The only maille you will really see is on collars and aventails which are not likely to be worn outside of the competition venue.
On the off chance that you have your terminology wrong, there are a couple things that still dont add up. If he’s an armored re-enactor and he’s wearing a maille hauberk it would be visible, he’s not going to be targeted by someone with a knife. Criminals are stupid, they’re not “threaten the adult man in armor” stupid. If your “friend” is in enough costume to be wearing maille that protects his torso, he has a belt on with a dagger or a sword attached, maybe they’re blunt, maybe they’re peace tied, their presence alone would be enough to stop all but the tweakiest muggers.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)7
u/TheColorWolf 1d ago
Back when I was in kitchens, we had a set of chain mail gloves for shucking shellfish and using certain death trap kitchen appliances. So cool.
1
u/BaltazarOdGilzvita 22h ago
Yeah, I saw it once in my country's online marketplace, this one was sold as a butcher's chain glove. It was too expensive at the time for me, unfortunately.
1
1.0k
u/Doctorsex-ubermensch 1d ago
The crusade
437
u/Kranvargn 1d ago
Islam comes to Europe this time
136
u/Grillkrampus 1d ago
You do know they did during the middle ages too though right and all the way up to the fall of the Ottomans?
110
u/samurairaccoon 1d ago
Its wild how most westerners don't even know there was a whole ass Muslim empire up until WW1. We tear our history down here man.
128
u/WolfsmaulVibes 1d ago
not only was there a muslim empire but they committed a genocide against the armenian christian minority with 1-1.5 million casualties during WW1, my family having fled during the genocide and now me living in germany, its sickening how ignorant and uneducated some people are, a armenian genocide memorial in germany was taken down under influence of muslim and turkish associations
→ More replies (8)27
u/TedTheReckless 1d ago
It's not commonly taught in the U.S. but I still learned about the Armenian Genocide
Taking down a monument to it, especially by Germany of all places, is insane to me.
4
u/germaniko 1d ago
Most only learn about recent history (ww1 usually being the "oldest" history they know through school) and never care about anything before the late 19th century. The people that know are usually interested in history beyond what school teaches them
7
3
140
u/Fiery_Flamingo 1d ago
Wahhabi Islam.
Millions of Muslim Turks lived in Germany since 1960s. They never stabbed random people even though they were harassed and even killed by neonazis.
When Germany allowed wahhabi fanatics to come in, terrorism started.
66
u/samurairaccoon 1d ago
You're probably not wrong, but the distinction is meaningless to people outside the scope of the religion. The same way nobody really cares anymore what type of Christian or Jew you are. I'm not saying it's right, but it's how this dumb ass world works. Everything has to be super easy to understand, in black and white, we don't do nuance.
→ More replies (1)6
34
u/Kranvargn 1d ago
The Turkish Muslims are some of the nicest people I’ve met.
I agree they do not represent the millions of recently imported Muslims from the deep Middle East.
26
u/temptryn4011 1d ago
Muslim Turks might behave nicely but they vote for Erdo. That's more than enough of a reason for many to dislike them.
5
u/InsanityyyyBR 1d ago
He's a dictator. Not sure how many Turks really support the guy. Even more so by the scale of the protests in Istanbul.
12
u/temptryn4011 1d ago
He got 52% support last time. But now it should be lower than 40% cuz he ruined the economy and his voter base are mostly uneducated min wage earning ppl.
2
u/AlarmingAffect0 1d ago edited 1d ago
Erdo goes out of his way to disenfranchise and suppress the vote of Turks abroad that are against him. That's why the votes of emigrated Turks seem overwhelmingly in his favor. It's largely bullshit.
Also his alienating emigrated Turks from their neighbors fits his agenda very nicely.
1
u/acloudcuckoolander 1d ago
Not to to mention there are millions of White European Muslims in Bosnia, Albania, Russia, Kosovo
1
u/Oaker_at 1d ago
I mean… probably ain’t even wrong. I’m from Austria and 20 years ago my class were already 50% Austrians and 50% Turks, and guys from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. But we got along pretty well. But today you hear different stuff happening.
3
2
u/acloudcuckoolander 1d ago
Nope, just more historical white-on-white genocide á la Ukraine vs. Russia
193
u/Somerandom1922 1d ago
This is cool, it's basically specialised police equipment for very specific situations (basically for the German equivalent of SWAT if they know they're entering a situation with someone who has a bladed weapon).
I just find it sick that chainmail is still basically the best option for defending against small bladed weapons. Sure we could make plate armour that puts anything historical to shame, but it's not necessary because no one is walking around with a halberd or lance, so chainmail is the perfect blend of lightweight, flexible, and effective.
10
u/domin-em 1d ago
We use plenty of stuff invented hundreds of years ago. Why would that be a shame? People use what's optimal. It's sick to put shame on officers who try to serve and protect themselves no matter what.
19
u/Somerandom1922 1d ago
I think you misunderstood the context of my comment, I used the word "sick" like "awesome", not "disgusting". (Think "sick as bro").
Also, I made no judgements about the officers themselves other than that the chainmail is "cool".
The only time I said "shame" was this:
Sure we could make plate armour that puts anything historical to shame...
Which means that using modern manufacturing techniques and ultra-high quality modern steel, we could make far higher quality plate armour than was ever made during periods where plate armour was commonly made.
Nothing about putting shame on the officers, nor about it being a shame to use anything invented hundreds of years ago.
2
3
180
u/SwugSteve 1d ago
if it ain't broke....
69
u/classicnikk 1d ago
It’s wild that an ancient concept around for thousands of years is still useful in todays age
37
u/Leoxcr 1d ago
If Frank Herbert is right we will be fighting with swords in space wars
22
u/tedleyheaven 1d ago
And if David Lynch is right, we'll be fighting with sonic beam weapons and milking cats
3
17
8
u/foozefookie 1d ago
Yep, they’re fairly common equipment for butchers due to the risk of knife accidents
1
u/HiperChees 1d ago
We should literally make medieval armour but from kevlar and shit , it would be peak.
39
u/temotodochi 1d ago
titanium chain mail is relatively cheap and light to wear.
21
u/Luk164 1d ago
Where do you buy yours from? Asking for a friend
21
u/The_wolf2014 1d ago
Could always buy from www.armstreet.com and support a Ukrainian business. Pretty sure they do chainmail as well as other super cool stuff
4
u/AliciaTries 1d ago
Amazon has sheets of it for $30 a yard
2
u/Luk164 1d ago
No way it is made of a decent metal though right?
1
1
6
192
u/sadsisyphus_ 1d ago
this wouldn't be necessary with more messerverbotszonen
→ More replies (9)28
u/Borboh 1d ago
I'm sorry but what does that mean?
61
u/Tobipig 1d ago
Knive prohibition zone, where carrying knives and weapons are not allowed to be carried. They are mostly there so the police can search you without your consent, to find knives and drugs.
4
26
u/FascinatingFall 1d ago
It's the special response team's gear for when they head in to a situation where someone is weilding a stabbing or slashing instrument.
This isn't regular police; is basically the German version of SWAT. Pictured here are SEK officers, in very specific gear, for a very specific circumstances.
What is oddly terrifying about this? It's really smart to have different gear for different situations. I'd much prefer chainmail than Kevlar if someone's got a blade.
124
u/zipitnick 1d ago
What exactly is odd or terrifying about this? I’d rather post it to r/interestingasfuck
6
u/snowydays666 1d ago edited 1d ago
i mean just picture it in the modern age… how many people would truly have the guts to wear chainmail and get stabbed willingly? We have novel cut proof technology … and still I doubt that The treat of facing an attacker piercing into you with a blade would be palatable to anyone. People of the past have encountered such things more frequently than we could ever fathom. Yet we hesitate to try to slice through slice proof gloves!
Still… a very fun thing to imagine.
Just how do you think you would react? I’d be guarding my face and neck! It’s terrifying, people would certainly flinch… at least the first time.
3
u/Hot-Entertainer-3367 1d ago
The fact that knives attacks have become more common, to the point policemen are starting to use specialized equipment againts them, is terrifying
15
9
1
u/Luzifer_Shadres 23h ago
That Knife attacks got common enough for the police to wear chainmail again?
What wasnt the case for the past 400 years?
17
u/DerpsAndRags 1d ago
"I brought my mace!"
"Good, you can spray the.."
"No. I brought my MACE!!" holy clubbing action starts
15
11
u/DDGBuilder 1d ago
Imagine being the one chainmail armorer left in Germany. Wife has been hounding you for years, saying no one buys chain mail these days. Then one day you get an order for 1000
157
u/Sethoria34 1d ago
standard fare if your walking through london
32
u/happyanathema 1d ago
Nah mate we don't need chainmail.
Narwhal tusk is all we need.
9
u/Sethoria34 1d ago
What the hell 🤣
6
u/happyanathema 1d ago
Should see old Stevie boy with a mammoth tusk.... Terrorists don't stand a chance
→ More replies (1)36
u/EarlOfChudbudligton 1d ago
Londonistan
5
1
u/jesusknowsbest69 1d ago
Surprised your comment didn't get disliked to oblivion
1
u/EarlOfChudbudligton 1d ago
Me too, reddit is notoriously full of delusional leftists but i guess London is just too "diverse" even for them.
5
u/DxM0nk3y 1d ago
But remember kids wearing body armor/bulletproof vests at public gatherings is illegal!
7
8
u/Theiromia 1d ago
This isn't terrifying, it's just badass
2
u/Luzifer_Shadres 23h ago
terrifying
Isnt it terrifying that knife attacks got common enough to wear chainmail again?
2
u/Theiromia 18h ago
I'm an American, I have to worry about some asshat with an unmedicated mental disorder (he doesn't wanna lose his "spark") pulling out an illegally modified assault rifle.
2
3
3
3
3
u/AleX-46 14h ago
Not trying to be that guy but this chainmail seems to be butted and not riveted (The later being the most historically accurate and actually resistant to stabs) Butted is just the cheaper version which was never actually used as armor (didn't exist back then I think) Now It's just used mostly as cosplay and stuff. I mean it WILL do something against stabs, but it's not that great.
85
u/Werbebanner 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don’t trust this picture. I live in Germany and never saw this. They usually aren’t green too like on the right and our standard police looks a lot different. Just like our special forces. Edit: they do exist, but it’s special equipment. That’s why I have never seen it before probably.
I searched for the picture on google. There are three pictures found, from tumbler, this Reddit post and 9GAG.
So I would guess you fell for propaganda.
Edit: it does exist and is special equipment for knife attacks. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/german-police-chainmail/
But to clarify why i think it still could be propaganda is, because it’s claiming a specifically amor used for knife attacks as oddly terrifying. Which in my opinion is supposed to look like the norm in Germany. Which isn’t. It’s special equipment and not used very often. Without any context it can be very misleading.
97
u/Awh0423 1d ago
“The pictured protective gear seen here is occasionally worn by German special forces, Spezialeinsatzkommandos (SEK), when they are heading into a situation that involves someone armed with a sharp stabbing or cutting weapon. For instance, the man pictured on the right in the image above was tracking down an individual armed with a pruning saw who had evaded police in Minden, Germany, on 19 September 2016.
We traced the second image back to an August 2015 post on a German message board entitled "Fuerzas de Elite (Elite Forces)," where users claimed that it was taken in Frankfurt, Germany, as police responded to an incident of a man threatening to kill himself and his wife with a knife.” - snopes.com
→ More replies (15)8
u/No_Homework_4926 1d ago
SEK regularly wears green tac gear. The blue tac gear is worn by special units that handle high risk arrests and search warrants
6
u/Public-Eagle6992 1d ago
„Einige Polizeieinheiten wie das SEK München nutzen Kettenhemden, um Messerstecher mit geringerem Risiko überwältigen zu können.“ -Wikipedia
https://www.polizei-dein-partner.de/themen/einbruchschutz/artikel-einbruchschutz/artikel/wenn-es-ganz-gefaehrlich-wird-kommt-das-sek.html?tx_web2pdf_pi1%5Baction%5D=&tx_web2pdf_pi1%5Bargument%5D=printPage&tx_web2pdf_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=Pdf&cHash=227f32d375b077d8c13f70709827efee5
u/Werbebanner 1d ago
Schon durch die anderen Kommentare mitbekommen. Die eine Person hatte auch nen ganz guten Fact Check kommentiert, ich glaube das hänge ich mal an den Kommentar dran
Aber danke dir!
2
2
2
u/DDGBuilder 1d ago
The fools. Chain mail does nothing against flails, morning stars, or catapult boulders
2
2
2
3
5
u/skiemlord 1d ago
They should use this in the UK lol
9
u/CabbageClownfish 1d ago
We do. Worked for a place where we'd buy old body armour second hand from the police and quite a lot of the were chain mail.
3
u/DirtNapsRevenge 1d ago
What's truly terrifying is the reasoning behind what led to this.
First it was guns, then it was swords, machetes, now knives.
When are people going to pull their heads out of their rears and accept that it's not the object that's the threat but the person wielding it that needs to be dealt more effectively. Is that chain mail going to do anything when the loons move to using bombs, running them over with vehicles or using flammable liquids set them on fire or whatever else they think of to attack?
Wake up people, western Europe has invited in a whole lot of people that have destroying it and killing as many as possible as their primary motivation and none of this foolishness is going to deter them.
→ More replies (7)1
u/Rennfan 1d ago
That images are ten years old. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/german-police-chainmail/
2
2
2
u/karmagod13000 1d ago
insane when you take away guns... knife attack's become out of control. people truly are scary
2
2
u/parsapzh 1d ago
Chainmail actually makes sense against slashing attacks, way more flexible than Kevlar for close-quarters defense. But the fact this is necessary in 2024 says a lot about how violent protests have become
9
u/ChaosintheBallpit 1d ago
But the fact this is necessary in 2024 says a lot about how violent protests have become
Maybe we should look at the societal change that brought upon the "violent" protests.
3
1
u/ColdStoneCreamAustin 1d ago
While I'm sure it's unreasonable for patrol officers to wear this regularly, it would've likely saved the life of a German police officer last year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Mannheim_stabbing
There's videos of this attack. The police arrived to what would've appeared to them as a group of people brawling, and one of the officers tackled a victim who was trying to subdue the attacker, the attacker got up and stabbed the officer in the neck, and he subsequently died of his wounds a couple days later.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/LovecraftianRaven 1d ago
If aint broke, don't fix it.
Also there is absolutely nothing oddly terrifying about this post.
1
1
u/KaiTheG4mer 1d ago
That's sick as fuck
But also yeah horrifying that knife violence is bad enough to warrant wearing maille
1
u/UrbanDurga 1d ago
Today I learned that chain mail makes SWAT-style outfits even hotter, as evidenced by that photo on the right.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/hauntedgeordie 13h ago
Back to the middle ages we go ,🤣🤣🤣 super computers and chainmail what a time we live in .
1
u/Babiesforfood 12h ago
Tactical Knights are not something I ever expected to be a thing, but I fuck with the overall vision
1
1
1
1
0
0
u/Loud_Charity 1d ago
Invite unfettered immigration, you get their culture. They don’t assimilate.
→ More replies (1)
1.8k
u/Watcher-Of-The-Skies 1d ago
“A scratch?” Your arms off.