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D.C. Detective Pulls Gun At Snowball Fight

Posted by samzenpus on from the bringing-a-pistol-to-a-snow-fight dept.

langelgjm writes "The Washington Post reports that during Saturday's record-breaking snowfall, hundreds of twenty- and thirty-somethings gathered in a mostly-empty area of the city and proceeded to have an enormous snowball fight. Things were all fun and games until a D.C. detective in plainclothes stopped in the middle of the fight, leaving his Hummer and confronting the crowd with his gun drawn. At first, D.C. police denied the claims, but the incident was caught on tape. The detective is currently on desk duty pending an investigation."

16 comments

  1. Both were at fault by clone53421 · · Score: 1

    The crowd was wrong for throwing snowballs at cars (didn’t their mother ever teach them that?).

    The detective was wrong for vastly overreacting when they threw snowballs at his vehicle.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    1. Re:Both were at fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      "The detective is currently on desk duty pending an investigation." It was caught on tape. This detective is obviously a psycho and should be locked away, not taking it easy sitting at a desk getting paid...

    2. Re:Both were at fault by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      Presumption of innocence. He is treated as though he were innocent until either a court or the internal investigation finds he acted wrongly. Then they need to figure out why he acted the way he did and whether he can still be trusted with a gun. Until that time, they need to treat him as though he were innocent while removing him from the streets for safety reasons (which is exactly what they did)

      --
      $ make available
    3. Re:Both were at fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I understand that completely. However, after he is found guilty of using excessive force or unlawfully using his weapon or whatever, is he going to pay back the wages he 'earned' while he was on desk duty?

    4. Re:Both were at fault by frosty_tsm · · Score: 1

      I understand that completely. However, after he is found guilty of using excessive force or unlawfully using his weapon or whatever, is he going to pay back the wages he 'earned' while he was on desk duty?

      That doesn't matter, really. Whatever pay he might receive while on desk duty before (possibly) being found guilty and let go is a drop in the bucket compared to how expensive it is to fire someone, especially if the organization goes out of its way to make sure it doesn't get sued (severance, legal costs).

    5. Re:Both were at fault by Sets_Chaos · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes. But, he was "more" wrong. You can't tell me that just because someone throws a snowball is grounds to pull a gun. Period. He was just trying to show them he has a bigger barrel than them. It was his "trump card". And that's just pathetic.

    6. Re:Both were at fault by jklovanc · · Score: 0

      A couple of things;
      First the video does not show what happened to the officer before he drew his weapon. It is quite possible that he had been pelted by quite a few snowballs while trying to call for assistance.

      Second he did not "wave his gun around". He pointed it at the ground for a few seconds to instill the seriousness of the situation. He did not point it at anyone. He did not wander around with it out. He did not point it in the air.

      He may have been able to retreat to his vehicle to call assistance but he did something else. He did not endanger anyone.

    7. Re:Both were at fault by PinkyGigglebrain · · Score: 1

      Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the only time an accused person is "presumed innocent" is when they are part of law enforcement or a politician?

      Any other person and they would be sitting in jail, not behind a desk.

    8. Re:Both were at fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He's still a douche. The fact he drives a Hummer would be proof enough, but pulling a gun in response to snowballs really seals the deal.

    9. Re:Both were at fault by RebootKid · · Score: 1

      We hold law enforcement, among other professions, to a higher standard. The detective in question did over-react, and had a multitude of better options available to him. The crowd was wrong as well, in egging him on, but he's the professional in this instance. He should have been the bigger man. Drawing his gun, even keeping it "safer" (I will not say he kept it safe. I own several firearms. He was not being safe with that weapon) He should have come out and identified himself, loudly, and asked people to disperse, phoned in for backup if he felt it was needed. The way that the PD came to know about this situation is that one of the snowballers actually called 911 saying "There's a guy with a gun." Sorry, inexcusable. A snowball fight is not a threatening situation to a grown man, they were not posing a risk to public safety. Once he got out the gun, the situation got tense. He did nothing to ease that tension at all.

    10. Re:Both were at fault by JWSmythe · · Score: 1

      There were much better ways to mitigate the situation. He could have gotten out of his car with his **BADGE** drawn.

          "I'm a DC Police officer. What you guys are doing is illegal, and a danger to drivers. Please don't do this here. Go play in a parking lot or somewhere else that's safer."

          I'd suspect they may have been a little upset, but would have complied. The drawn firearm was beyond the required force for the situation. The police have a "Use Of Force Matrix", which simply says what kind of force you can use in given situations.

          A snowball is an aggravated battery (if DC's laws are like laws in my state), but not anything that would require deadly force to stop. They could have arrested (and convicted) someone on aggravated battery, but I seriously doubt it would make it through the DA's office before it was dropped.

          Now, a large group of people, in a potential street fight/riot situation? That could qualify for his level of force. Those people didn't look like they were an angry mob. Well, not until he came out with his weapon drawn.

          Notice the responding officers had their hands on their weapons, but they did not draw them. Why? Because that was proper procedure. They evaluated the situation, and knew a gun had already been drawn by someone, (who turned out to be the detective), so they were in a potentially hazardous situation.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    11. Re:Both were at fault by JWSmythe · · Score: 1

      I don't blame anyone in the crowd for making that call. I didn't see him holding up a badge. I know the video doesn't start at the beginning of the problem, but it would have been better to be properly displayed.

          He didn't have good control of what was in his hands. I believe it was his radio that he was digging in the snow looking for. What if he lost control of the gun instead? What if he slid on ice under the snow, and fell, accidentally shooting someone? That was a really bad call on his part, and ya, completely mishandled.

        There are good cops, who would have handed it well, and that would never make the news. I wonder how often the police just stop and say "Hey, that's not safe here, go do it somewhere else", with no call in to dispatch and no report? It really would have been the better thing to do.

          I wouldn't be surprised to find out there was something else going on. Maybe he was just coming back from a nasty crime scene. Maybe he had a fight with his wife/girlfriend on the phone before leaving work. Maybe someone cut him off a few minutes before. In any case, he shouldn't have let anything else interfere with handling *this* case professionally.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    12. Re:Both were at fault by jklovanc · · Score: 1

      We have no way of knowing that the scenario did not start out just as you stated. What is not clear is the next step. Quite possibly what happened next was the officer was pelted with 50 snowballs in the next ten second knocking his badge from his hand and was continually pummelled until he drew his weapon.

      A pistol does not become dangerous because it is removed from its holster. Standing in one spot with a weapon on safe and pointed at the ground gets the point across to stop what you are doing. Some people hyped up on "fun" activities would ignore anything less.

      We can armchair quarterback all we want but the point is that we were not there from the start and did not see what prompted the officer to draw his weapon.

  2. Remind me to by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

    Never bring a snowball to a gunfight.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    1. Re:Remind me to by JWSmythe · · Score: 1

      Bring a super soaker. :) It's hard for someone to throw snowballs, if their arms are frozen in place. :)

          I doubt it was cold enough for that to happen fast though.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  3. The detective was wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He was not in Iraq.