D.C. Policeman Accused of Pulling Gun to Quell Snowball Fight

Think of that poor officer's Hummer! If snowballs are a danger, then obviously the solution is to ban snow.

By the way this video is a news coverage. I want to see the entire video un-editorialized and I also want to see dash-cams and feeds from nearby stores. Thius is another Rodney King deal where the real truth of what Rodney King actually did and how uninjured he actually was never broadcast.

I am going to back-up and support this officer. I want to know precisely when that 911 phone call was made and when the officer’s radio traffic occurred. I will bet you that the snowballs were thrown with deliberate intent after he identified himself as an officer.

I bet you one of those kids called 911 deliberately to report the officer legally engaged in what appears to me to be an on-sight investigation of the snowballs hitting his-and many other vehicles. The first arriving officer was tactically ready as was the officer on-scene.

I also bet you none of these kids get charged. They need to be yanked out of their little hun-over white guilt classes that mommy and daddy pay for them to be brainwashed Obama warriors of American emaciation. Most of these kids are smart assed alcoholics and druggies.

I work and live in the immediate DC metro area and MPD has its hands full all day every day, including the little Caligula style universities here which are rich, well paid havens of drugs and alcohol, the professors and overfed pleasure addicted student could care less about academic excellence and American technological advantage.

I am angry once again and not impressed but not at all surprised at Cathy Lanier's wholesale denial of constitutional due process and pandering to politics with her unbridled unprofessional tongue. This is a great travesty and to blame this officer would have taken on a different tone-and it would have been buried had his skull be fractured and he was disarmed while unconscious. This is not Cathy Lanier’s first time decapitating and abandoning officers.

Nobody, especially the media and politicians gives a sh** about us when we are on the receiving end, and I want arrests made of these little well groomed little smart asses obstructing pedestrian and vehicle traffic during a dangerous snow storm. I promise you if this officer was blinded or had his skull fractured by a rock inside a snow or ice ball, there would be absolutely no drama whatsoever. It would have maybe one minute on the TV news here and it would be buried.

I am supporting the officer on this one and demand arrest of these kewl neato Obama jackasses whose free ride of immorality at the University of Caligula just ruined a police officer's career. Maybe this brother officer will get an invitation for a beer he will have the balls to refuse.

Use this argument. The snowballs where being thrown as projectiles at me in a manor that was easily going to hit me in the face and temperarly blind me which would not allow me to continue my job. You may have felt that this was a risk to your eyes as well as the safety of the community. The choice words where just for fun...

I heard that the detective said he had been notified that there was someone in the crowd with a gun. This is yet to be proven though. If not, why draw your weapon? You can have the same effect with it on your belt when you badge them. Personally, I would have left "it" alone, or called dispatch and signed a complaint when the uniform arrived.

Guess the media forgot about the officers gunned down doing paperwork. Wish him luck since they (media) already hung him.

To y'all have a safe Christmas with your family and for those that have to work it like me, "Let's be careful out there." ~Hill Street Blues.

Could he have handled it differently, Maybe. Were his tactics questionable, possibly. But he was still justified.

Based on the video shot I've seen so far it appears the detective may have over re-acted. I hope the DC Metropolitan Police Department will not rush to judgment and cower to public and/or political pressure, but come to a correct and fair conclusion in this incident.

This was bound to happen. While having a snowball fight sounds like a fun, harmless activity. Scheduling it for the middle of a public intersection where vehicles are travelling is a bad choice. The organizers of this snowball fight did not think this through, because if they did, they would have pick a setting like a public park, a high school or college athletic field or some place like that where the only people throwing and getting hit with snow & ice balls are the people who want to participate.

Just because people organized this snowball fight over twitter, face book or whatever doesn't mean everyone, especially the off-duty cop knew about it. Driving down a street and having something hit your vehicle can be a frightening experience, especially if your a law enforcement officer or the military. Depending on how hard the snowball was packed, if there was any ice in it, how hard it was thrown, etc; it could have sounded like a gunshot or something exploding when it hit the SUV.

What if the detective had loss control of his SUV and drove into on coming traffic and hit another vehicle? What if he drove off the street and hit one of the people throwing snow balls? What if he hit an innocent person just walking down the street or crossing the street?

In my 26 years experience as a Police Officer in a large metropolitan police department in the Midwest, I've had objects thrown at my patrol car while either driving down the street or parked on a street and it did catch me off guard. It startled me for a minute. So I can see how the detective jumped out of his SUV frighten and angry. Once he realized it was young adults having a snowball fight, he should have regained his composer and holstered his weapon, inspected his vehicle for damage, radioed in a disturbance at the intersection and left the area. The on duty radio cars would have responded and handled the people throwing the snowballs.

The organizers of the snow ball fight pick a poor location, even if the city was "snowed in" and government was shut down for the most part. People were still free to travel and move about the city if they chose to. Not everyone follows twitter, face book or the other social media outlets thus are not aware of what was going on at that intersection.

The fair, just and equitable thing to do in this incident is for the DC Metropolitan Police to hold the officer accountable for his actions and the person(s) responsible for organizing the snowball fight at a public intersection for their part in this incident.