Originally Posted by
Mark E. Hurling
Easy. Adrenaline, incompetence, and fear. My experiences of bad crowds was outdoors except for two incidents in high school when all us white kids ran for the exits when the black kids decided to stir up shit.
I was a college student in the 60s-70s when riots were common on campuses and in the towns that surrounded them. I got chased once and gassed once then. Fear and panic sends you out of there as fast as you can do it. Standing to fight was more than stupid, and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had no dog in the fight anyway. So why get beat to shit and arrested?
Then as a cop I was involved in several more riots involving college students. Retreat is always an option, but unless you get that command, God help you and your career if you run when you have a duty to perform in such a situation. Anyone who says they don't get amped on adrenaline and have at least some fear is lying about it under those circumstances. So the fallback is to maintain cohesion, work together, follow your training, and wait for command to tell you what to do next.
All my engagements as a cop were outdoors on the street and facing smaller numbers than the crowd that swarmed the Capitol. Having to control a crowd with limited mobility and few exits to retreat to along with the crowding and contained noise, I have no doubt magnifies the emotions of the cops involved considerably. But that's no excuse for shooting like that.
It'll be interesting to see how eager the media is to look into the particulars of the justification of this shooting. I suspect this cop will be lionized for his courage under stress. At least by the left and marketing arm in the media.