The only faint spark of originality is that the commissioned officers with public-school accents, notably Benedict Cumberbatch wielding a fine moustache, seem genuinely nice chaps.

Even as automated fire control combined with officers wielding extinguishers to try to contain the blazes, the bridge was rapidly becoming uninhabitable, and functionally useless.

Suddenly six Japanese, led by two officers wielding swords rushed out and Naik Fazal Din was run through the chest by one of them.

The night of the raid, they said, officers wielding truncheons roamed the village in groups, swinging at villagers' heads and breaking television sets, dishes and lights.

At the corner, 20 officers, wielding plexiglass shields and tear-gas guns, are rehearsing with a group of beefy fake protesters in civilian clothing.

Mrs. Ives said that the only encounter between Officer Jaramillo and her son, came more than 45 minutes after the officer, wielding a broomstick, confronted the boys over the car alarms.

A police captain and two officers under his command were acquitted today of misdemeanor vandalism and conspiracy charges stemming from a 1988 drug raid in which officers wielding axes and rams did extensive damage to four apartments.

Unhesitatingly, he attacked the nearest position with grenades and silenced it; but as he led his men against the other bunkers, six Japanese soldiers rushed from a nearby house, led by two officers wielding swords.

And on the policy front, Mr. Giuliani continued his attacks on the retrieval of Elian Gonzalez, which he said had been accomplished by officers wielding "machine guns."

There, they said they watched a savage, unprovoked beating of an unresisting Mr. Garcia by the officer wielding his radio.