Yeah, not publicly, but the officer is on leave as per standard operating procedure.
A capital police officer, who has been placed on administrative leave for shooting someone actively trying to breach the house chamber to commit insurrection.
I believe that’s what you should call a “good shoot.”
Edited because I’m unsure of the officer’s institutional affiliation.
I wouldn’t convict, either. But you still gotta follow protocol.
Also, people may wonder why it was justified. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd people in line of succession were in the room, and that door was the last line of defense. That’s National Security, and that’s that.
Thrag
1737
Hey remember that one time when for some reason the DC police were able to enforce a curfew and make mass arrests?
They had already arrested 190 people just in that one area alone before some of the protesters took shelter in this guy’s house.
Matt_W
1738
I don’t. I’m sure that since cop, they won’t get prosecuted, but it seems hard to argue that it was justified. No other weapons were fired that I know of.
There are four bullet holes in one of the doors into the Capitol building. Dunno the provenance, but it was a single shot in the incident that killed the woman.
I would still put this woman’s death on Trump’s shoulders. Someone posted her twitter account yesterday, and it was filled with Conspiracy theory tweets and Lin Wood, etc. The President has really convinced these people that there was a big fraud perpetrated here. I bet she was a true believer who was trying to preserve democracy, even though she was a pawn in actual insurrection.
Matt_W
1742
I mean we’ll see, but I really dislike reflexive condoning of violence and killing for any reason. It’s a tragedy that she was killed. I’d much rather she rot in jail for years.
Timex
1743
I feel like in today’s climate, if you tried to arrest thousands in that crowd, you’d have been involved in a combat situation, with folks firing back at you.
If that’s what you want, so be it… but you gotta go in with that acknowledgement.
You would have had a lot of dead people. And frankly, it would have risked being a Reichstag fire.
It’s not 1971.
This is a failure of police leadership, not the line officers. Hell, why would we WANT line officers individually making the call to shoot folks en masse, even under these circumstances?
The signs were all there and leadership failed massively to be ready for a the slow moving, honking train that was coming down the track.
Thrag
1745
What this says is that the police know the right wing are violent terrorists and so coddle them and they also know BLM are actually peaceful and nonviolent and so they will beat them down with impunity.
This is a big part of the problem.
I think the rioters would have been appeased by a simulated office of Nancy Pelosi where they could put their feet up on her desk and take selfies for the LMAOs. It could have been placed out on the lawn.
Whether Trump himself planned a coup or not is ultimately less disturbing than the idea that federal law enforcement purposefully sat by and let an attack on Congress happen. There are allies of ours who seem to believe they did just that.
Putin must be laughing his ass off.
I would guess that the shooter was one of the Capitol Police assigned to the 24/7 security of the House and Senate leadership. Those folks have a very different mission and training than regular Capitol Police - they’re essentially like Secret Service agents.
(Most of the Capitol Police most of the time have a mission similar to a museum guard: keep the tourists moving, run the metal detectors, keep people from pawing the art, etc. Though, of course, they also have riot duty and forcibly evicting protesters as part of their mission - see the many shots of them forcibly evicting disabled protesters last year, etc.)
Menzo
1750
If you are part of a possibly armed group of rioters who breach a police security line and break into the halls of Congress, then start to try to break into the room where Congressmembers are sheltering in place, being shot and killed is a risk you are taking.
Police can’t wait to see if the people breaking through the windows actually mean to harm their protectees, especially as others have noted when they are in the line of succession to the Presidency.
ShivaX
1751
Dropping some Ed in here, because he’s a good man.
Matt_W
1753
Can you copypasta relevant quotes? WaPo is pure paywall.
