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Radiologist here. There are multiple safety zones (four to be precise) around the machine and extensive screening procedures are required to access the inner zones. The magnet of an MRI is always on and extremely strong. However, you need to be pretty close for it to pull a gun from your hands. Like, less than a few meters. That would be zone 4. He should never have been that close.

The button he pressed is called a quench. It's for life threatening emergencies only. Think "patient trapped between the machine and a metal object." It vents the liquid helium used to keep it superconductive and basically destroys the machine, but the magnetic field dissipates in minutes. There is a way to wind the machine down without destroying it in situations that aren't life threatening or for servicing, but it takes hours for the magnetic field to dissipate and even longer to bring it back.

It gets worse:

Instead of seeking expert advice on how to retrieve the weapon, one officer decided to activate the emergency shutdown button.

"This action caused the MRI's magnet to rapidly lose superconductivity, leading to the evaporation of approximately 2,000 liters of helium gas and resulting in extensive damage to the MRI machine," the suit said.

The officer then retrieved his gun, but left a magazine full of bullets on the floor of the MRI office, the suit says.

Raided based on nothing more than power usage. Ignored warning in place around the MRI to prevent an accident. Cops gun gets pulled out of his hands and he pull the emergency shutdown button. Now it will cost a couple of hundred thousand to get the MRI going again. Somehow the cops will blame someone else.

At the end of the article, which is already a litany of clownish buffoonery, it states that after destroying (effectively) the MRI machine in order to retrieve the rifle, he failed to retrieve a loaded magazine. So it was just left on the floor as they left.

Edit: autocorrect had changed it to clownfish

Instead of seeking expert advice on how to retrieve the weapon, one officer decided to activate the emergency shutdown button.

That is criminal levels.of negligence, and they should be fully responsible for all damages to the machine and the business

A spokesman for LAPD told AFP the department does not comment on open or pending litigation

I bet you don't

Leader and judge who issued should be fired and disbarred immediately. I feel like something should happen to the rank and file who follow such stupidity too but not sure what.

I would watch a cop show where they reenact all these dumb cop situations, like the acorn incident, fake fentanyl fainting, etc.

Law and Odor

....need ideas for names

Chups

If I ever saw a building using more power, my automatic assumption would be a big machine is inside.

If it were ridiculously high, then my next guess would be a crypto mining farm.

Ain't no way modern LED lamps for growing plants gonna be drawing that much power.

Not to mention any of these fools could have just as easily sent someone inside to check. Or if they really wanted to play coppers so bad, book a fake appointment or even just pretend to be a news agency to ask for a tour.

Maybe this could have been avoided if he only had 13 hours of training... 😥

But for real, I hope they pull the money from the pension of everyone involved, and then fire everyone involved for being literally to fucking stupid. So many people had an opportunity to do anything, to use a brain cell, but not a single one did.

What the fuck? Anyone mining crypto or running servers at home better watch out before their energy company tips off their local gang and gets them raided.

Go solar.

Can anyone pinpoint the timeframe in which real life became a series of Monty Python skits?

The summary just says gun, so I assumed hand gun. it was a rifle.

Didn’t I read somewhere once that to be a cop, you can’t have an IQ over a certain threshold? I’m not sure if that was an urban legend or not, but this…..

This certainly lends to its credibility.

I feel like all public servants (including cops) ought to have public liability insurance, where money would end up coming from in these situations, which then the employer (police department, other department) needs to pay, the employee is aware of, and is part of their renumeration (i.e. the more their premiums cost, the less they're making), making idiots more of a financial liability to themselves.

Quite quickly you're going to have people acting as responsibly as possible if you're insurance premiums then go up when you act like a moron.

Obviously this would require protections so that people don't end up being screwed over by insurance premiums, but still, this seems to be an issue in public service all over the world, no consequences because the tax payer just ends up footing the settlement, and the public servant goes on their merry way.

Are the cops routinely getting copies of electric bills?

Drug dealer turns on MRI, NO YOU FREEZE!

Literally dumb, dumber and dumbest cop (for not reading the sign saying to remove anything metallic from your person when entering a MRI room).