What are those big things?

What are those big things I see out on sidewalks, they look like giant potato mashers, or part of a plumbing mechanism for the toilet of the gods. Those big, heavy, black things. Someone told me it was a truncheon.
--Anonymous

The article to which you refer is most likely NOT a truncheon, which is a club-- that is a weapon, used for striking an adversary (pictured here, below). What the person who told you it was a truncheon was most likely thinking of is a stanchion, which is a post that, along with other stanchions, hold up some kind of a barricade, cordon, or barrier, such as that at an entrance to a club-- that is a private or restricted meeting place (pictured here, below, in red, gold, and silver). Most likely, though, the object that you are referring to is an outdoor ashtray (pictured above).