Engorgeous George

Enjoy the back and forth.

I keep hearing that the ICE officers were stuck in the snow and trying to push the vehicle out. All the video I have seen shows the streets more or less clear of any substantial snow. Clearly those ICE officers had no idea how to drive in winter conditions, or their story is huey. I say dont deploy southrons up in the nord.

I hope none of this puts a damper on Winter Carnival over in St. Paul.

I stick with my initial assessment. Technically he legally had the right to self defense. Whether his method was reasonable or responsible I would say no. I trained my officers and wrote our policies so that they could never shoot at a moving vehicle as there is just no good outcome from that, but in a split second decision, can the officer make a bad but legal choice of self defense, I would say the law says that he can.

I would have been alright with a fist slam onto the hood of her car denting the hood, and a loud and angry, "Hey karen, I'm walking here!" as he jumped sideways out of the zone of danger.

I do note that the gun shots did not neutralize the danger. The vehicle kept moving and in fact increased its speed. Stepping aside reduced the danger. One could, I suppose, argue she may have presented future danger to others in the area but the law gets pretty murky on defense of others for potential future danger.

I was in a grocery store parking lot this Monday. A female driver started backing out of her parking space without looking. I note also her backing and brake lights were not working. She nearly hit me and would have had I not been watching where I was going. I was not armed at the time so shooting at her was not an immediate option. I chose to not strike her car, swear at her, or do the Ratso Rizzo, "I'm walking here!" thing. I went on about my day. I even have my doubts she was aware of what happened as she was looking at her phone when I got around to the side and could see her. Oh, I could not see her can size, sorry.

I believe Trump is alienating the coke head and coke demographic in front of the 2026 election. He may not appreciate the size and power of that demographic.

I am no gentleman.

I'm watching live video. "Protestors" are throwing stuff, primarily snowballs, at local police who were not responsible for the event. I can not help but note that these folks have very poor arms and poor aim. I suspect they were not raised in the Twin Cities as any kid who grew up locally knows, through experience, how to hit what he aims at with a snow ball.

One of my go to insults to those who will never gain my respect due to congenital ignorance. They get my pity if they are humble. They get my disdain if they interrupt their elders and their betters. Close call whether the use here was appropriate under my guidlelines.

I have always been uncertain if the chicken or the egg came first. I don't argue the point anymore. What I do believe is that passion in that argument often leads to hyperbole and then to distorted persepective it becomes difficult to overcome.

I heard multiple shots. I see one shot went in through the front windshield though very close to the drivers side. I do not see holes from the other shots. I am going to assume that the vehicle had moved a few inches (maybe feet) so that the subsequent shots went in through the driver's side window. One need not be a trained bull fighter to have dodged that vehicle and to have gotten to a place of safety. The officer did in fact get to safety while also shooting. Imagine he had spent all of his energy and intellect and reaction time in getting to safety. Legally justified shooting but also poor policing. Both can be true and in this case both are true from my point of view.

Did I see enough to grant the LEO the technical right to self defense with deadly force, yeah, probably. Did I see good and responsible policing, no I did not. They did not take their time, assume correct defensive positions actually placing themselves (himself) in a danger zone, and did not consider that they may have created a dangerous, uncontrolled projectile in that vehicle in a residential neighborhood. Some deployed stop sticks. Calmly removing her from the vehicle, not scaring some stupid Karen into wanting to flee on snowy streets with much traffic. These things could have been tried. The problem is both sides of the political spectrum get out there and they want matters enflamed rather than deescalated. Both sides contribute to these incidents.

Imagine the incident went down exactly as shown on the various videos, but that when the vehicle accelarated away, likely with her dead or dying brain and body hitting the accelerator, she had sped into a grouop of children, disabled folks in a handicab van, or a group of nuns bringing meals to the elderly.