Cops draws gun on snowballers
 

You really just need to see this.


click here

Yeah. That is MY BLOCK. Nice to know that not only are we not safe from the thugs, but also the police! I already knew that, but this is a bit of confirmation.

Lesson #1: Don't shoot people over snowballs

Lesson#2: Don't throw snowballs at random vehicles...you might get shot.

So do folks just walk around with video cameras in D.C.? That crowd had more cameras than Best Buy. Either this is some unknown-to-me Yankee phenomenon or the snowballers instigated this thing on purpose and brought cameras to document it.

I wouldn't carry a video camera out in the open around my block. As it is, if I'm walking by myself, especially if it's on a side street or if it's getting dark, it's mace in my hand instead of a video camera. Wonder if it was some sort of flash mob thing.

Just a guess but most people haven't seen 2 feet of snow in almost a decade so I am thinking they were documenting the activity...the cop standoff was just a bonus

On campus it is against regulations to throw snowballs because of resulting property damage to campus buildings. Obviously throwing them at vehicles is a bad idea as well. I haven't heard of campus police pulling a gun on anyone, usually they just ask them to stop.

this is typical

I dunno. The more I think about it, the more staged it [what the crowd did] looks. I just can't imagine a random confrontation with a police officer would be accompanied by a crowd of folks chanting and behaving like a semi-organized protest group... but that might just be D.C.

I forgot you live over there -- I was at Ben's Next Door a few weeks ago, have you been there yet?

That really is just DC. This is the same intersection in which crowds erupted into spontaneous rejoicing when Obama won.

Regarding the cameras -- it was a planned flashmob-style snowball fight, so it makes sense that people would bring them. But also, this is the worst snow we've had since 1996, if I lived down there I would have brought my camera, too.

I thought this thread was about something else.

My mind is in the gutter :o

OMG K_S!!!!!

^^ LOL

Yeah. That part is typical too. It's always some kind of something accompanied by a knee-jerk(over) reaction by the police, and get puts all over the internet. This is all is so...I mean, it seems like it happens all the time. Like you wake up, there it is. All of this going down every day. It makes me sad for humanity.

I'm actually surprised you don't have this kind of stuff in OKC. That's a capital too, isn't it? We have this kind of stupid stuff in Richmond too. I figured it just went with the terrority. Like drug problems and an abundance of prostitutes.

I'm not talking about the police's behavior. Unfortunately, nit-wit cops are fairly common, but still the exception rather than the rule.

I was talking about the crowd response. In my world, if a police officer draws a gun and tells a crowd to disperse, than it does. Post haste.

(as opposed to chanting slogans, but as Sen said, that's probably just the difference between D.C. and the rest of the world).

Problem is Kevin. The officer was off duty. If he had a problem then he should have called some unis to take care of the situation rather than putting himself at risk. Once he drew his gun any onenof the knuckleheads could have done the same and a far worse ending could have resulted. You dont pull your weapon out unless you intend on using it.

<--is mad that she didn't get to be in a snowball fight.

I think he ID'd himself as a detective. I'm not watching the video again, but I think I remembe him saying that. Detectives are not uniformed, so that does make sense.

As far as not pulling a weapon, etc., I completely agree. If that guy had tried that in OKC, he would likely have been shot.

I went there a couple of weeks ago, but didn't eat. I only had a beer since the Saloon was closed. Is it any good, or just overpriced like it seems?

And that's just how that block is. There have been spontaneous things that happen on this block- one big gathering after Obama won, another after MJ died (a bunch of people were trying to do a choreographed Thriller dance), and another this past weekend. I can definitely imagine them protesting, because across the street is a restaurant/bookstore that is quite liberal and hippie-ish, and they've got things like social media inside and a big (like, 7ft tall) clear Code Pink box outside filled with shoes to represent dead Iraqi civilians. There was still no reason for a guy to lose his cool about being hit with snowballs and pull his gun. He could have very easily walked to the next block and he would have avoided the spontaneous snowball fight.

(WE'RE NOT GONNA PROTEST! WE'RE NOT GONNA PROTEST! WE'RE NOT GONNA PROTEST!!)

It's okay. We had a brunch meeting there and the food was pretty good.

I had a happy hour there maybe two months before that -- I remember the drinks being strong for the money, but not tasty.

The ambiance is cute though.

i love that the dc people have started talking about the restaurant by the corner, gc made my smile

Busboys and Poets? Good (if heavily overpriced) food, especially their sweet potato fries, but I personally won't go there anymore. The last time I was there, my husband wore a pro-conservative shirt and we were harassed by the patrons and staff alike. So much for tolerance.

Police Chief response

Kevin, neither here nor there, but yes, the officer was off duty at the time which is why I had a question about him immediately pulling his weapon out.

But further into the article, they say this was an 'organized snowball fight'? What??

An organized snow ball fight???

Someone please explain...

Could be a flashmob thing. But by the sort of disrespect being shown to the officers, I'd say it's some sort of ACORN vs. ELF snowball fight thing. While I get being upset at having a police officer [wrongly] pull a gun on you, this crowd seemed to be a bit too artful at its display of bawwwww and butthurt.