LYNN, Mass. – The force was definitely not with Massachusetts resident George Cross this week.

Cross, dressed as a storm trooper from the famous “Star Wars” movies, was arrested in front of Brickett Elementary School in Lynn after school officials locked down the building and called police around the end of the day Wednesday, Boston.com reports.

Cross, 40, was charged with two misdemeanors for disrupting a school assembly and loitering within 1,000 feet of a school zone and was hauled off the jail before students were let out.

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Lynn Police Lt. Dave Brown told the news site the station received several calls about a loitering storm trooper with a toy gun in front of the school, which “caused quite a commotion” because Cross “had no business being there.”

“The way things are today, you can’t have that,” police spokesman Rick Donnelly told the Salem News.

Donnelly said the school principal thought the gun was likely a toy, but reported Cross to police just in case.

“Our feelings are that he was not there to cause harm to the kids, but he used bad judgement,” Donnelly said. “He did cause a disturbance and we can’t tolerate that.”

Donnelly said the release of school was briefly delayed because of the lockdown.

Cross was released on his own recognizance and told to stay away from the school at his arraignment Thursday, Salem News reports.

Cross told 7News he only wanted to show off his new costume to the kids, and didn’t intend on causing a scene.

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“I bought a costume, I was walking through the neighborhood showing friends, and then all that,” he said while leaving the courthouse.

“It was a poor decision.”

Parents seemed to come to the same conclusion.

“I honestly opened my screen window, stuck my head out the window, and I was just like, ‘wow,’” parent Jami Kelly told 7News.

“What if it was just like a thing saying, ‘oh it was for the kids,’ but actually it was, like, something bad was going to happen, you never know,” Tanya Deitz added.

Others who commented online thought the police overreacted.

“Jesus Christ. Thanks guys for getting this dangerous criminal off the streets. *facepalm*,” Zuggy posted to 7News.

“Welcome to the Police State,” Knick Knight wrote. “If he were a molester he would not have chosen such a loud look.”

“Since when are Lynn police not busy enough with more important crimes to be attending to?” Brett Gates questioned. “All units please respond a Storm Trooper trying to be cool to kids at school”

Commenter Rocket thinks Cross’ only crime is being a man near a school at the wrong time of day.

“Oh I love the ‘this day and age’ BS quote … This day and age is the safest it’s ever been. Look up the statistics. You’re the least likely to be murdered, and your children are least likely to be abducted,” Rocket wrote. “You know what you really have to worry about in this day and age? Being a male and standing anywhere near children.”

Terry Byrne thinks the episode sets a bad precedent.

“So an innocent man with no ill intentions is arrested and humiliated because you fear what ifs? This is the America you want? A country where people are arrested, because of what they MIGHT intend, regardless of how remote that possibility is?” Byrne wrote.

“Then I guess we should arrest every driver of every car near a school, because one MIGHT decide to plow through a group of kids (at least that has happened), and we should arrest every adult that looks at a kid near a school for more than 2 seconds, because the MIGHT be a sex predator… and all that avoid eye contact, because they MIGHT just be hiding it.

“Let’s teach our kids to fear and cower from everything too while we are at it, what a swell idea.”