Episode 6-US Capitol Shooting

It's been about 24 hours since the shooting of a "protestor" at the US Capitol. Since that time, The New York Daily News has identified the person shot as Ashli Babbitt, a San Diego resident and a US Air Force Veteran.

Since that time, social media has been flooded with comments from people saying "she should have been shot" or "why are the police shooting unarmed protestors?" The comments show how polarized our country is right now. After seeing so many people comment and so much misinformation being spread, I feel it is necessary to bring light to this incident and break this shooting down.

The Scene

First, it's important to set the scene of where the shooting is and to look at the totality of the circumstance. It is not fair, in any shooting, to judge one factor. The US Capitol is a secure US Government facility which I assume has secret, top secret and SCI material. Use of force standards for protecting these items is not the same as a use of force policy for a beat cop. Keep in mind that the capitol police aren't really cops in the strictest sense. Yes, they meet the definition of a cop in some US code somewhere. But, they are indeed protectors of the capitol and everything there. They safeguard those materials and the people inside.

You also had our federal leadership at the capitol. You had the Vice President and the VP Elect as well as senators and representatives. All of these people could not leave because of the crowds outside. When you have that kind of situation (think Benghazi), you lock your protectee down in as secure position as you can.

So, you have high profile targets hunkered down in a secure location as well as government material that needs to be safeguarded. All are protected in a different use of force policy than a street cop. Who would know more than Ashli Babbitt about those protocols? According to a USA Today article, Ashli Babbitt was a security forces veteran. SF is tasked with just this mission. She did it on active duty and knows the consequences of breaching security like this.

The Shooting

People are complaining that Ashli Babbitt was "unarmed." However, just because someone is unarmed does not make them less of a threat. History is replete with victims killed by an "unarmed person." If you want to see what a mob can do while unarmed, google Reginald Denny in the Rodney King Riots.

Watch this newly released video to get an idea of what we will talk about next.

https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1347076676342185984?s=21

The shooter in this incident appears to be a plain clothes officer. At the capitol, most plain clothes officers are on a dignitary protection detail. He's also pointing his weapon at the crowd. Pro tip: this is the international sign to get back. The doors are barricaded, which shows that people inside are protecting themselves from an angry mob violently tearing the door apart. What if you were at home and someone was doing this to you? Would you shoot?

It appears that the officer has done everything that he can do to protect what is behind that door. He has no other options, but the crowd continues the assault. This officer has retreated and now has no where else to go.

At :25 seconds in, you see a few officers that appear to be part of a counter assault team converging on the door. That tells me that they were already enroute because they were called to help protect what was behind the door. All indications point to a dignitary (maybe several) behind that door. All of their options were exhausted, yet the crowd continued the assault.

I ask you, what other options did they have? None.

The Investigation

There is an investigation going on now. The Capitol police as well as the Metropolitan Police are doing the investigation. It will not be done anytime soon. These investigations take time. While the investigation continues, the officer is on admin leave and is probably at home recounting this endlessly in his head.