Laser Use/Abuse In Ocean City

OCEAN CITY -- Laser pointers are more likely found in the boardroom than the Boardwalk, but this summer they're selling so quickly that beach retailers can't keep up with demand.

Resort officials and police, however, say the green laser pointers, more powerful than their red-hued predecessors, are becoming a public safety problem.

"This year, it is out of control," said Police Chief Bernadette DiPino. "The Boardwalk is just inundated with these green lasers."

She said citizens are complaining that beams are being shone in their faces. One family complained their child had a seizure after getting zapped in the eyes.

People are also shining the beams on the chests and private parts of passers-by, which in turn starts fights "because the boyfriend would get mad," DiPino said.

Not to mention how the horses of the police department's mounted unit are skittish to cross any laser's beam of light, which they see as a solid object.

The issue is not new to the resort. In July 1998, in an emergency measure, the Ocean City Council banned any harassing or annoying shining of laser pointers on a person.

Less than a year later, when state lawmakers were on their way to passing an identical ban, DiPino testified in Annapolis by shining, side-by-side, a regular laser pointer on the wall alongside a handgun sight.

"I said, 'Can you tell the difference?' That was enough," recalled DiPino, who keeps in her office the pen used to sign that bill into law.

Recorded abuse of laser pointers has increased with their availability in the last several years, according to a 2001 Federal Aviation Administration report. It also says lasers reportedly have been shone on athletes during sporting events, mistaken for weapon sights, and blinded pilots in cockpits of planes and helicopters.

"The misuse of laser pointers involving exposure greater than 10 feet is not likely to cause permanent eye injury," the report said. "However, at very close range, the light energy that laser pointers can deliver into the eye may be more damaging than staring directly at the sun."

Richard Drake, 29, of Ocean City, can attest to that. Last summer, he sustained serious damage to his left eye after having a red laser shone purposefully in the face. Now he sees everything with a pinkish hue. His eye doctor said it will gradually go away. Drake already wears glasses and has a condition that makes his eyes extra-sensitive to light.

He said he's been traumatized by the experience, doesn't like walking on the Boardwalk at night anymore, and wants laser pointers banned from resort retailers.

"What is the purpose of them selling these at stores -- so they can shine them in people's faces?" he said. "Because that's the only reason I can think of. This is very personal to me. As long as the stores are selling it, it's going to be a problem."

Said DiPino: "These really shouldn't be in the hands of young people; they don't know what they're doing. It's not a flashlight. These do have the potential to cause lasting physical damage."

From May through mid-July, resort police reported 15 incidents of people breaking the laser pointer law, with seven arrests.

DiPino herself led the way on one such arrest. On June 12, she spotted a green laser zipping across the chest of a person she'd stopped for drinking in public on the Boardwalk.

She stood back to find its source. She saw it coming from inside a store, Tres Place, where clerk Elisabeth Mesfin was shining it onto passers-by. DiPino had Mesfin arrested and charged with prohibited use of a laser.

Guy Ayres, the resort's attorney, said laser pointers, while problematic, still have a lawful and legitimate use as a presentation tool.

"You can use a hammer to beat somebody over the head and kill them. Should we outlaw hammers?" he said.

However, the Town Council made plans at its July 19 meeting to mandate that any shop selling laser pointers clearly posts the law, and give customers a verbal reminder of it.

At the Boardwalk shop T-Shirt Factory, clerk Slavena Koleva Harrell said before laser pointers became an epidemic, the most popular fad this summer was Silly Bandz. Once her shop started stocking laser pointers, however, they were already behind the curve and quickly sold out of their limited supply.

She said it doesn't matter that the law prohibits shining lights on other people, and expects people will continue to abuse them.

"You cannot stop it," Hareell said. "Everything is very popular for a couple of weeks, then they gonna shut it down."

DiPino said by the time state lawmakers enacted their law in 1999, laser pointers had already fallen off the map. They weren't cool anymore.

"That next season, they just went away," she said.

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