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D.C. Cop On Desk Duty After Pulling Gun At Snowball Fight
Rachel Slajda | December 21, 2009, 11:23AM
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A Washington, D.C., police detective has been put on desk duty after pulling out his gun during a snowball fight Saturday.
The off-duty detective, whose name has not been released, was driving past a snowball fight in the city when his Hummer was hit by snowballs. He allegedly stopped the car, got out, and took out his gun. He also pulled out a walkie-talkie and called for backup.
Most of the incident was caught on video and quickly posted to YouTube.
D.C. police initially denied that one of their officers pulled a gun. But, after the video spread online, the department released a statement saying video and photos from the scene "seem to support the allegation that the off-duty member did pull a gun."
The police are conducting an investigation. A spokesman told the Washington Post that if the detective really did pull out his firearm in response to snowballs, "That doesn't seem a situation where we would pull out a service weapon." But, he added, "We have to see what the entire circumstance was."
Late update: The chief of police, Cathy Lanier, said today that the actions of the detective were "totally inappropriate."
"In no way should he have handled the situation in this manner," Lanier said in a statement.
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GillesDeleuze
December 21, 2009 12:25 PM
My sympathies to the reactionary pigs.
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Whiggish
December 21, 2009 12:55 PM
They bring a snowball, you bring a gun. They send one of your guys to the refrigerator, you send one of theirs to the morgue.
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Resistance
December 21, 2009 1:29 PM
Was the officer wearing a redcoat?
A snowball fight that led to war.
http://school.familyeducation.com/african-american-history/american-revolution/47444.html?page=2&detoured=1
One of the most important early flashpoints was the Boston Massacre (1770 A total of five people died in the event that came to be known as the Massacre, a conflict that is best understood as an example of poor crowd control by the British—and superior propagandizing by the colonists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Massacre
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Schmed
December 21, 2009 2:41 PM in reply to Resistance
I wonder if John Adams will be available to defend this DC cop.
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ohyeathatsright
December 21, 2009 1:54 PM
The video is great. He's yelling about his hummer being hit by a snowball in the middle of a damn blizzard. No excuse for this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFC8mNdxV0c&feature=related
(Sorry about the dumb comments on this version of the video...)
BBC has the unedited:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8424836.stm
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MillardFillmore
December 21, 2009 2:44 PM
Isn't a Hummer built to withstand the impact of a snowball?
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EH
December 21, 2009 2:58 PM in reply to MillardFillmore
yes, but this police officer's ego wasn't.
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EH
December 21, 2009 3:01 PM
the department released a statement saying video and photos from the scene "seem to support the allegation..."
"That doesn't seem a situation where we would pull out a service weapon."
Yes, seems. But, you know. they could have photoshopped the whole thing.
But, he added, "We have to see what the entire circumstance was."
TRANSLATION: "We have to figure out how to justify his actions for him."
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Green Eyes
December 21, 2009 3:31 PM
Fox News's early report is hysterical. They claim it was an antiwar snowball protest and the plainclothes officer got involved and tried to stop the protest and the snowball fight.
Typical Fox slant on the news.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nCMczNVPUE
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FDRdog
December 21, 2009 4:11 PM
One of those kids should be in the major leagues. He landed one directly on the cop's face.
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jmjavors
December 21, 2009 4:34 PM
The "policeman" who stopped and called for backup was a dickhead. But what "struck me" :-) about the video was how professional the cops that turned up were. I read TPM because I am a liberal but I had to admire cops that were trying to calm things down and were not in the least provoked by being called pigs.
Not that it makes much difference, but it is a fact; least one person was part of an ongoing protest and was carrying a sign about getting America out of wars.
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EH
December 21, 2009 5:54 PM in reply to jmjavors
i know what you mean, but it was only the detective that was being called a pig (as far as i could tell), and the unprovoked officer did also merely stand by while the detective pushed and got in the face of the snowballers.
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hall
December 21, 2009 6:50 PM
Aren't videophones a wonderful innovation? The knee-jerk reaction of the D.C. Police was "deny,deny,deny." It just didn't happen. How many incidents like this do you suppose were successfully dealt with like that before video?
Well, you're busted! It's hard to maintain that nothing happened when it's there on YouTube for all to see.
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ohyeathatsright
December 21, 2009 7:15 PM
Is the lesson, don't bring a gun to a snowball fight or don't bring a snowball to a gun fight?
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roxsteady
December 22, 2009 2:07 AM
Clearly the police officer over reacted but, consider what would have happend if this wasn't an officer and instead, some pissed off groups of guys with guns and they opened fire and then sped off? If you touch other people's things, or in this case throw a snowball, no matter how harmless it might seem, you don't know who is going to get out of that Hummer or open the window and literally return fire. We live in a different world now.
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Tosh
May 16, 2010 5:16 PM
The "policeman" who stopped and called for backup was a dickhead. But what "struck me" :-) about the video was how professional the cops that turned up were. I read TPM because I am a liberal but I had to admire cops that were trying to calm things down and were not in the least provoked by being called pigs.
Not that it makes much difference, but it is a fact; least one person was part of an ongoing protest and was carrying a sign about getting America out of wars.
m65 kamagra
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