If you’re going to have a snowball fight in DC, I would recommend doing it near the Capitol, where the Capitol Police, who are generally professional, have jurisdiction. Apparently at least one D.C. Metro Police officerĂ‚Â thinks it’s fine to draw their piece in response to his car getting hit with a snowball. See here:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAgQKJuriIo[/youtube]
Glenn has some good coverage of this event, including some comments from Ann Althouse. I wouldn’t blame the cop for calling in on the radio and getting the crowd dispersed, once they were bombing passing cars with snowballs, but drawing the gun is unacceptable. It is brandishing, because he had no cause to present deadly force to the crowd. Glenn is absolutely correct that an ordinary citizen, in this situation, would be prosecuted, and rightly so. I think this officer should be fired, and prosecuted.
What would have happened if a citizen with a CCW had done that?
The very same thing should happen to this thug…..
If I was a uniform cop I would be PO at the detective for taking a relativity minor situation an blowing it up into a possible riot.They have to support him in public to a certain degree because he is one of them even when what he is doing is stupid and making the situation worse. Bad position to be in.
You can afford a Hummer on a DC cop salary??? Or is that his service vehicle?
I used to live in downtown DC & the streets always turn into big, fun communal snowball fights after a blizzard. This guy’s badge should be melted down for bottle caps. Idiot.
Leave it to the residents of DC to play in traffic!
I’ve watched the video and can’t really determine at what time he first drew his gun. And it doesn’t appear he ever had it pointed at anybody. But certainly after the gun is drawn and people are saying he had a gun, there are participants with snowballs in hand and some looking like they are ready to throw the snowballs at the cop. And many of the people are just standing around watching this. I don’t think they fealt threatened by the gun. If they did, they would have run. That’s what I would do if I saw some random guy on the street waving a gun around.
It doesn’t appear that the patrol is responding to a call from the off-duty detective. They are responding to 911 calls of a man with a gun. That is why they have their firearms out, held close to the holster. Once the first uniform identifies the man everyone says had the gun is a detective, he holsters his gun and goes into crowd control. In this video (2:25), the uniform is informing the kids they can go back to their snowball fight. Note that the off-duty detective’s hurt feelings pulls a half a dozen patrol officers from more useful duties. The professionalism of the uniformed officers should be noted.
Of course, the kids pleading fear at getting back to the snowball fight because of the detective and his gun is belied by the fact that they were pelting the detective while he had his gun out earlier.
Much stupidity by the detective and the crowd. Real professionalism by the uniformed on-duty officers.
Maybe they were expressing doubt at the accepted science of global warming – that 20 inches of snow may have mislead them. That’s a killing offense in DC.
“I think this officer should be fired, and prosecuted.”
But we know that won’t happen. He’ll likely get docked some pay, get some leave (Maybe even paid) possibly busted rank. But by summer he’ll be back on the streets with a gun in his holster.
Meanwhile any of us pull a stunt like this we’re kicked out of the 2nd Amendment club for life, and likely will face some very serious criminal penalties to boot.
This is the crux of the law-abiding gun owner. We’re held to a very grave standard for exercising our rights (and honestly I have little problem with this overall) and we self-select to take these responsibilities.