The proverbial 10 foot pole?

Or maybe it's just three meters?

Odd thought from the lunchtime news. Apparently the police here in Japan are holding "terrorist" drills - complete with people planting briefcases in the airports and paddling inflatable dingies alongside ships.

So anyway, one part of this was seeing police capturing a terrorist - with very long poles that had curved ends on them, kind of like enormous metal bull's horns? And they were tripping him, then holding him down with these things. The announcer explained that they used this approach in case the terrorist was prepared to blow himself up.

So the lances of olde have come back into fashion, in a sense. Although these police were on foot, not on horses, and their armor was more the black Kevlar type than shiny plate. They did have shields, though - transparent plastic, but still.

How do you catch someone who might be explosive? Interesting problem, there, and I think the long arm of the law isn't such a bad idea.