Was deadly force necessary in DC? No, but does it matter anymore?

Why was an unarmed woman (with infant in her car) publicly executed by DC police and federal agents on a public street in DC last week? Was she a terrorist? No. Was she a real (vs perceived) threat to anyone? Hardly -- she had slightly damaged her own car and others in fleeing from men who had surrounded her car with guns aimed at her and who subsequently fired multiple shots at her. We do not know what was going through this poor woman's mind (reportedly she had a history of mental illness) but I know what I saw -- DC and federal officers panicked and overreacting, misreporting "shots fired" on police airwaves (putting the Capitol building in a complete paranoid shutdown state) -- nobody had a gun except the police and federal agents, no one used a gun except the police and federal agents, but by their paranoid, unprofessional conduct, not only was an unarmed woman unnecessarily shot and killed, the public at large was in much greater danger from the gunshots fired by the police and federal agents than by any "threat" posed by this apparently delusional woman --

Was deadly force necessary in Capitol shooting?: " . . . Michael Lyman, a former criminal investigator who has studied use-of-force guidelines for police, said the woman's inability to penetrate barriers around the White House downgraded the situation from a national security concern to an "old-fashioned pursuit." From that point on, he said, officers should have tried to use other means to stop the car. "Shooting at a moving vehicle is against all nationally recognized protocols," said Lyman, a criminal justice professor at Columbia College of Missouri. Lyman said the possibility of accidentally striking innocent bystanders is just too high when trying to shoot at a moving car. "Cops get rattled," he said. "And when they get rattled, police don't always shoot straight.". . ."

Nor do "rattled cops" think straight.

Was police shooting of unarmed woman outside Capitol justified? - Investigations: "Law enforcement officials who briefed NBC News on the case said that officers fired a total of 26 rounds at the driver, 34-year-old Miriam Carey of Stamford, Conn., who never left her vehicle."

But the police executioners just mirror-imaged the Washington mindset of the Bush-Obama era -- paranoid, overreacting, overreaching, big-brother government police state. The police and federal agents psyched themselves into thinking a threat existed which did not. Perception over reality.

Was it really necessary to gun down, in Chicago gang-banging style, an unarmed woman in her car with an infant child last week in DC? No, but does it matter anymore in America?

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