There are videos here on KZbin showing police force effectively using collapsible batons to subdue people. Sure, the impact is not the same as a solid wood baton (no one argue otherwise), but to say they are "toy" is the real joke here.

​@@studytime3461It's not that they _like_ social dominion. The police should use just the right amount of violence to stop threats. So killing is done when there's no other option left (and for that purpose, they have guns, which are far better).

lol

As late as the Civil War the Confederacy seriously considered raising units of pikemen. Such was the weapon’s reputation and relative cheapness even then. Fortunately wiser heads prevailed.

@@EricDaMAJ Would've been interesting, one side pikemen, the other side rifles. 😉

@@johnsamu The Confederacy's based their pike enthusiasm on the English Civil War, where pike formations played a big part. The Confederates (and the Revolutionaries before them) were primarily British descendants, nostalgia played a part. Amazingly, notable Confederate leaders to include Robert E. Lee championed the idea. Men who should of known better though common sense did finally insert itself so they didn't follow through. You're definitely right. If Confederate pikemen led the first Battle of Bull it would've likely been the _only_ Battle of Bull run. Napoleonic era smooth bore muskets would defeat pikemen with relative ease. Rifled muskets would've exterminated them before they got within 200 meters. Civil War artillery would've obliterated them at 1000 meters.

The English colonists in Salem and other Massachusetts Bay Colony towns brought European "pike & shot" tactics to New England specifically to counter the potential threat from other competing European colonists using European weapons & tactics in the new colonies. In 1629-1636 there was really no threat from the natives in New England (Jamestown, of course, is another story), but by 1637 we do see the Pequot wars, and at the same time, the Mass. Bay decided they had enough numbers from these Town regiments to consolidate into formalized, full-size regiments. So, yes maybe not on the same massive scale as European armies at the same time, Mass Bay was by far the most organized and best equipped of all the other colonies. But also by 1638-40 the Pike in New England was seen as impractical/unnecessary, and gradually phased out. There is even some speculation from some letters and anecdotes, that some natives were invited to or willingly participated in Drill in around 1629-1631.

We can see that there wasn't a need for pikes because of hind sight, but the Mass Bay colonists had to be prepared for the possibility of conflict with other European colonists. The Spanish were in Florida, the Swedes were in Delaware, the Dutch were in New Amsterdam (now New York) and the French were in Acadia (now Maine). The English in Europe fought two wars with the Dutch and one with the French in the 17th century. The colonists couldn't know in advance that these wouldn't spill over to this side of the Atlantic. In practice we can tell from probate inventories that almost all English colonists owned firearms. The fact that they knew how to use pikes doesn't mean they were forced to use them, or that they would stupidly use them at inappropriate times.