Don't bring a gun to a snowball fight

[SSandshark1050]

What do you all think? No cop bashing...

From the originating site:

"Around 2.30PM on Saturday, December 19, during a historic snowstorm, residents at the intersection of 14th and U Streets NW started throwing snowballs at passing Hummers. One of the cars pelted was driven by a plainclothes police officer identified only as Det. Baylor. Baylor got out of his car and brandished his gun at the crowd. Reason.tv's Dan Hayes was on the scene, capturing the tense confrontation between police and citizens "

[Rock]

Foolish pride.

[motorhed66]

I remember a time not long ago , that the statement "Fuck You , Pig!" by a citizen in these parts would result in said citizen pissing blood for a week ,with a side of bloody chiclets

[Stu]

Wow! NOT exactly his finest hour.

Talk about escalation. Perhaps he was bullied at school.

No-one likes to get hit by a snowball, you feel stupid, but I think drawing a weapon is rather excessive.

His Uniformed colleagues should have showed some common sense (whatever happened to common sense these days?),taken control & moved EVERYONE (including him!) along.

[motorhed66]

Clowns are lucky they didnt pelt a OG s hummer..lucky it was a cop. The title may read "Merry Prankster Massacre!"...dont people know that there are some very bad and irrational folks walking around out there?...It aint yours , do not fuck with it .

[Raindog]

[CENTER] What do you all think? No cop bashing...

Well, there went my reply. Why give the idiot a pass just because he is a cop? If he had been out there flashing a gun as a civilian he would be in jail (after being piled on and beaten.) As Motorhed66 stated, you do feel foolish after being hit by a snowball. But, wasn't it this guy's Hummer that got hit? Besides, since when is being made to look foolish an action that calls for a weapon to be used? Even if the snowball was laced with rocks (doubtful) does that give anyone the right to answer with deadly force. Yes, deadly force. You have to assume that anytime a gun is pulled that there is intent to use it.

I'm not on a cop-bashing spree here. I think that the uniforms did a good job defusing the situation, considering the anger and the numbers of the crowd. But the detective....Jesus! I'd say that he was fortunate that he pulled this shit on some white, preppy kids and not some urban toughs from the eastside. I believe that things would have turned out a little differently.

Yet another example of laws for us and laws for them.

[Rock]

I think the uniforms did an awesome job. They could have arrested him for brandishing a firearm, but it probably would have been job suicide for them. They told the civilians how to file a complaint without taking sides. That's more than a lot of cops do when one of their own is dancing on the thin blue line. Good job, guys.

The detective definitely violated the escalation of force guidelines. He could argue that it was a hostile mob armed with projectiles, but he turned it hostile. I don't think he had reason to be in fear for his life until he started running his mouth and shoving people.

Remember: Ask them, tell them, make them.

[shakie]

Hey you throw a snowball at my hummer and I'll shoot the shit out of you! Wait we don't have snow in florida or a hummer.

[SugarSkull]

Some people just can't play well with others.

[Michelle]

Well. Hmmmm.

I guess I am a little lame...... I aint gonna throw a snowball at someone who is a total stranger, who's car is stopped. I guess that's from living in Los Angeles my whole life. You see a dude driving an expensive car, there is a chance he's fucking connected... be it cartel, gang or an attorney . I just would not throw a snowball at someone's face that I don't know.

That being said, Dude obviously had a bad day or something, and his handling of the situation was less than desirable. Fiance is sitting next to me shaking his head. He said bad scene. (a) Brandishing a firearm over something trivial (b) engaging a crowd rather than de-escalating; and (c) knowing it's being filmed.

Poor situational awareness and a weird kind of lack of control.

Then again, he also said "crowds are a different animal.... and can become dangerous really quickly." But followed that up by saying "de-esclatate whenever possible... don't engage if at all avoidable".

We are arm chair quarterbacking here though. We don't know the whole story. But just from that video, it doesn't look real good for the detective on scene.

Props to the Uniforms though. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place thanks to that detective. Poor bastards are going to have to fill out a bunch of paperwork now because of this mess.

m1

[falcon125]

We are arm chair quarterbacking here though. We don't know the whole story.

Which means the media did its job of getting a lot of folks angry at cops.
So easy to do.
Like getting teenagers angry at their parents.

[Stu]

Pretty idiotic to be chucking snowballs at moving cars, though, even though his response was non-proportional.

I take your point about the uniforms being stuck between a rock & hard place & having watched this again I think they did indeed behave professionally no doubt thinking all the time what a complete tosser the so-called Detective was.
I wonder how much paperwork had to be done by the poor coppers because of their dopey colleague on the "big job squad"?

I wonder if he's still a Detective?

[PIC]

Hey you throw a snowball at my hummer and I'll shoot the shit out of you! Wait we don't have snow in florida or a hummer.

tell'em Shakie!!! you throw a snowball at a Southerner's HUMMER.
and he's liable to shoot yo ass!

looks like some crazy shit goin down up in DC. the officer maybe was
in a bad mood....? who knows...? I don't think I would get out in a
crowd of people with cameras and pull a gun though. Internet bound
for sure.

[Derespina Knives]

I think this would be a perfect circumstance to instute a publicly televised SMACK by a Judge on all involved.

The DT was way out of line by drawing his gun. However, that crowd verbally and physically(by throwing snowballs in his face and about his body). He is a complete stranger. When he exits the vehicle with weapon drawn, any sane person without some immense sense of entitlement would have fled and fucking fast. Then they witness him on a Police radio calling for Uniforms to aid him.

That alone is enough of a clue they pelted the wrong car and they should probably get outta there.

So what do they do? they pelt him further, call him a Pig, and plenty other stuff. Absurd, and it demonstrates they saw him as the enemy from the get go.

That's enough to push anyones buttons.

He needs a smack for not just continuing to drive on at the mere plopping of a few snowballs and they all need a smack for having no regard for individuals rights nor any respect for law enforcement, this guy being someone that could be the arresting officer of any one of those civilians criminal assailants should any of them be victims of a crime.

I wager that the people who initiated the pelting of his car did so because it was a Hummer and that's an environmentally unfriendly vehicle.

Do I agree it's an environmentally unfriendly car? yes.... would I EVER throw a snowball or anything else at a person who was completely within their American rights to purchase, lease, own, drive one? NOPE!

It was painfully obvious that the bulk of these kids felt superior to this person from the start.

Violence creates violence and throwing anything at a stranger is a violent act.

[Michael J. Smith]

1 kid throwing a snowball in 1970 is fun. You couldn't dent the car you were hitting so it didn't make no difference unless you caused them to get in a accident. Which if you were smart you were way away from any kind of traffic so that wasn't a issue.

This video looks to be a mob of 100 adults pelting modern day cars. If you lived in the north you know how much damage a icy snowball can do to a car if thrown with enough force.

I think they should had arrested some of them. Then it wouldn't happen again. After all most of them were adults and should know better.

Don't get me wrong im all for fun but this sure wasn't fun to the people that got dings in there cars. Imagine 100 icy snowballs headed at your car when you driving down a street.