UTMC

You've probably heard this already but,
Making the best of snowmageddon, in DC a huge snowball fight erupted. Organized via Twitter, apparently 200 people showed up. When sport was made of a passing Hummer, the driver got out and pulled a gun. Cops were called, and when they arrived it was found he was one of their own.

D.C.'s finest, Detective Baylor shows how to definitively win a snowball fight:



Washington City Paper: Bringing a gun to a snowball fight

Its snowballing already...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjb/sets/7 ... 033156816/

Detective Baylor pulls this indivudal all the way out to his vehicle, the maroon Hummer SUV in the background, and the individual is detained for some period of time.

Typical Hummer owner

Glad no one got shot, around here cop might have popped off a few rounds!

Only one man can make this right again...

Did somebody say snowball fight?

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So, whaddaya think officer-friendly will receive as his reward for winning the snowball-fight?

You stay classy DCPD.

And here I was wondering where to post this video, Rolly to the rescue. Good luck to the people of DC...

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/RM

Oh, I'm looking forward to the outcome of this.

^ Yeah. I need GG's popcorn-eating thingy. This is gonna be gooood.

Er? They pay cops well enough in DC that they can afford Hummers? but not a sense of humor?

Y'know, while that detective was reeeeally stupid to be pulling a gun on people having a snowball fight, all the people who responded by screaming "fuck you, pig" not only to him but the other cops responding weren't acting smart, either.

Video works both ways, and I'm willing to bet that Det. Baylor gets nothing more than a rap on the knuckles, in part because some in the crowd turned ugly in an obvious effort to provoke further confrontation.

stiles wrote:I'm willing to bet that Det. Baylor gets nothing more than a rap on the knuckles

And the humiliation of being nationally known as the cop to which an angry crowd chanted 'don't bring a gun to a snowball fight', I'm gonna tally this in the win column.

/RM

roadmissile wrote:

stiles wrote:I'm willing to bet that Det. Baylor gets nothing more than a rap on the knuckles

And the humiliation of being nationally known as the cop to which an angry crowd chanted 'don't bring a gun to a snowball fight', I'm gonna tally this in the win column.

Welcome to Washington, DC. Seriously, the cops around here are NUTS. It's not just DC, it's the whole Mid-Atlantic corridor -- they're too high strung, too fuckin' paranoid, too ready to flex their muscles for the sake of doing so.

It happens everywhere, I realize that, but the general climate around here is very, very oppressive sometimes. I mean, for fuckssakes -- now we gotta worry about getting shot over a SNOWBALL FIGHT?! I mean, comedafuckon...

Oh well. Typical. I don't expect it to change other than to perhaps get worse.

--Jaeger

Cops everywhere are same, it's the department policy that makes the "climate". A friend of mine quit a PD in one of the northern shit towns of RI because of the "climate". There are always "good" and "bad" ones, I had plenty of experience with both.

There is a case here in the news, two college rent-a-cops chased this Mexican kid just to ask him what was he doing on campus after a rash of thefts. Once they caught him and leading back to question Providences Finest catches up and starts whaling on him! Kick to the face, flashlight to the back of the head, while the rent-a-cops are restraining him. Took 60 some stitches to close him up! Cops are on administrative leave while the investigation in to this has been sparked by surveillance video from a near by parking lot! They will loose their jobs most likely.

As for Hummer driving gun wielding Detective Baylor, I grantee some serious heat, if it happened before the hand held camcorders he'd get a slap on a wrist, now that he made world wide news he might not be able to sit for a while after they are done with him.

MATPOC wrote:...he might not be able to sit for a while after they are done with him.

--Jaeger

Jaeger wrote:
--Jaeger

My granddad was broken hearted when they rejected his patent for that...

Seriously, I know that down here in America's Dangle, anytime an officer unholsters his weapon he has a mountain of paperwork to fill out in order to justify. Calling him a "fucking pig" or whatever doesn't accomplish anything, and is a total douchebag agenda but I don't think it should factor into this, the officer drew his weapon first.

Bigshankhank wrote:Calling him a "fucking pig" or whatever doesn't accomplish anything, and is a total douchebag agenda but I don't think it should factor into this, the officer drew his weapon first.

Agreed, but what should or shouldn't logically factor in to judgment is rarely what ends up factoring into judgment.

stiles wrote:

Bigshankhank wrote:Calling him a "fucking pig" or whatever doesn't accomplish anything, and is a total douchebag agenda but I don't think it should factor into this, the officer drew his weapon first.

Agreed, but what should or shouldn't logically factor in to judgment is rarely what ends up factoring into judgment.

True, but it calls into question the motivation of the crowd when they began throwing snoballs at the guys car. Suddenly it is no longer just a crowd having a good time, they become, retroactively, a gang of hoodlums trying to terrorize people, allowing the officer to justify his reaction of pulling a firearm. Stupid people on both side of this equation.

In all the articles I've read I don't recall once anyone saying that the detective was hit with a snowball. Sure, they threw a few at his SUV (or, perhaps he drove in the path of already thrown snowballs? Prove otherwise). He was in no way justified in pulling his weapon, especially since he didn't FIRST identify himself as an officer. I can only hope the attention this has drawn ends up with him in a heap of trouble for 1. Not following procedure. 2. Brandishing a firearm in public. 3. Public menacing. 4. Abuse of authority. OR lump it all under one charge 5. Being a self-important asshole...hmmm, that would explain the Hummer.

Ames wrote:In all the articles I've read I don't recall once anyone saying that the detective was hit with a snowball. Sure, they threw a few at his SUV (or, perhaps he drove in the path of already thrown snowballs? Prove otherwise). He was in no way justified in pulling his weapon, especially since he didn't FIRST identify himself as an officer. I can only hope the attention this has drawn ends up with him in a heap of trouble for 1. Not following procedure. 2. Brandishing a firearm in public. 3. Public menacing. 4. Abuse of authority. OR lump it all under one charge 5. Being a self-important asshole...hmmm, that would explain the Hummer.

DING DING DING DING!

Bingo.

--Jaeger

Ames wrote:In all the articles I've read I don't recall once anyone saying that the detective was hit with a snowball. Sure, they threw a few at his SUV (or, perhaps he drove in the path of already thrown snowballs? Prove otherwise). He was in no way justified in pulling his weapon, especially since he didn't FIRST identify himself as an officer. I can only hope the attention this has drawn ends up with him in a heap of trouble for 1. Not following procedure. 2. Brandishing a firearm in public. 3. Public menacing. 4. Abuse of authority. OR lump it all under one charge 5. Being a self-important asshole...hmmm, that would explain the Hummer.

No argument there, I just hate that the snowballers have provided him with an excuse, albeit flimsy, for what he did. "Listen to the video, they called me a pig, they were totally threatening me!"

Meh, cops tend to protect their own, especially in cases where nothing really major has happened, I'm sticking to national humiliation for my warm fuzzies here...

/RM

His union is "supporting his actions." From what I heard.

ON edit: That was irresponsible of me. I'll research it later after the kids are in bed.

What would have happened if:
when Baylor steps out and pulls his weapon,
Concerned citizen X draws theirs and downs Baylor.

Would this been seen as justifiable in a court of law?
What if Baylor was not a cop?

JoJoLesh wrote:What would have happened if:
when Baylor steps out and pulls his weapon,
Concerned citizen X draws theirs and downs Baylor.

Would this been seen as justifiable in a court of law?
What if Baylor was not a cop?

I got another scenario: Cops arrive at the scene on a "disturbance call" and witness a black man waving a gun, they draw the weapons, he refuses to put the gun down and gets shot and killed.




Officer Cornell Young Jr. was posthumously prompted to the rank of Sargent

more on this shooting

http://ron.dotson.net/sources/Record%20 ... ooting.htm

I think the major point in both those scenarios is that the officer DID NOT identify himself as a police officer. Much as Baylor didn't when he got out of his sphincter-mobile and started waiving his gun around. If I'm armed and someone points a gun at me and doesn't identify themselves as a police officer I'm aiming center-mass on the motherfucker. Exoneration comes after the fact, but I will be the one testifying.

Officer Young's apparent mistake was not identifying himself as a cop to the other officers as he put his weapon down. One would think they would be trained for these situations.

Ames wrote: One would think they would be trained.

-Corrected

Vid is rife with tactical mistakes, as well as procedural (I'd imagine).

Anyone else notice that the douche bag gets out of his douche-mobile, draws, and stairs at the ground, kicking some snow?? Maybe he was looking to bag the offending snowball.

To me it looked like the responding officer knew Baylor. IMO

Ames wrote: Officer Young's apparent mistake was not identifying himself as a cop to the other officers as he put his weapon down.

Another mistake was being drunk, it was not very publicized out of respect to Young and because of the fact that his father is a high ranking officer in PPD.

Did ya'all see this:

http://www.kptv.com/news/22102038/detail.html

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Beaverton Police have arrested a man accused of pulling out a gun after a snowball hit his SUV.

So I guess there's no investigation necessary if you're at a snowball fight and your mom is there when some asshole pulls a gun.