I really hope this nonsense:
Comes back to bite certain people in the ass.
It took fifteen minutes to arise here in this thread; it’s naturally going to pop up right away elsewhere too.
Picked a heck of a day to be sick (I shoot local news in DC) - so I have been watching it from home.
The areas in question are like this, if I am understanding the event structure properly: near the Treasury Building Pennsylvania Ave is closed off to all but official traffic. You would need a tank to get through the poles in the street that prevent traffic from getting through.
If an incident started there and headed east down Pennsylvania Ave to the Capitol, multiple jurisdictions would engage as this goes by Park Police, Capitol, FBI and other landmarks.
On Constitution Ave near the Capitol there are gates buried in the street that deploy in less than a second in the event of a threat. In the past we have seen car chases stopped cold with these things, cars flipped dozens of feet in the air. Police are stationed at the gates and will wave off any large trucks or possible threats they see. For example my Suburban news truck is never allowed near the Capitol.
One of the accounts I have heard was that the police car was damaged by one of these gates and that is how the officer was injured.
To be clear - police in the area of the White House and Capitol are not nice. If they have a car speeding at them, in a chase, failing to stop or obey orders they will shoot to kill every single time. It’s their job. Without knowing the nature of the threat they will have to assume the worst.
It has been premised that the frightened woman may have just ‘taken off’. Entirely possible. Sadly this is one of the places in the US where that kind of mistake has deadly consequences.
If I was a betting man I’d say she was a Tea Bagger. When voting doesn’t fully work, and taking over Congress doesn’t work to ditch an elected official… crash an SUV into a pretty secure location.
One more thought - this is not the first time a chase has been stopped at the Capitol by police using these gates. More often then not these chases don’t make much news. Chase - crash - arrest. The shooting and other factors have made this bigger news, and the fact there are more than double the current news crews present due to the government shutdown has made this bigger.
But by no means is this a first.
I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this.
The press conference seems to be delayed. Think I’ll turn in. The facts will probably be sorted out by morning.
An adult female has been hospitalized. No word if she’s the driver or a bystander.
Next press conference is in an hour twenty.
Looking at the video on CNN just now, it looks like they had the vehicle surrounded with guns drawn. Then the car backs up, smashing into a police car and speeds away as the guards open fire.
Video is now being released showing police trying to stop the vehicle. Heart stopping…
“Bollards” (not bollocks) are standard around lots of structures, even from before 9/11. Those particular bollards went up after 9/11 though, IIRC.
The same word is used in mountaineering, your googlage may vary.
Well we have several places - near the White House, in front of the Capitol (see video) and the end scene where the chase terminated (with the street deploying gates).
The Washington Post quotes witnesses saying she drove 20 yards past the 15th St. checkpoint at the White House and then spun around in front of the concrete barrier. Secret Service uniformed police tried to pull a metal gate in her way, but she drove through it and knocked the officer up onto the car. He rolled off onto the ground as she sped away.
Didn’t they know the gov was closed for business? Kinda pointless to attack an empty building.
Come back in two weeks when those political hacks are open.
Some may. But most won’t. The stories I’m seeing don’t indicate that the driver of the car (the woman who was shot and possibly killed) even had a gun.
This isn’t a gun story.
Dangit, it’s not another rabid, gun-toting, buck-toothed white male Teabagger assault after all?
Sorry guys. Maybe next time.
And neither is it the fault of Obama and Pelosi, as we were told by a Republican Representative.
Sorry. Maybe next time.
Here’s videoof the incident at the WH.
I really cannot imagine what the heck she was thinking. Why would you run from a gaggle of police officers with guns drawn if you weren’t doing something wrong?
Who here was saying anything about it being the Administration’s fault?
Both sides have their lunatics who pray (well, hope for some I suppose) for a certain faction to be involved in something like this to advance their political agenda. It’s just that your side has been striking out a lot lately, it seems. Don’t worry, it’ll happen, then you can crow about how right you were.
In the meantime, this is looking more like some kind of tragic over-reaction by the police. Maybe suicide by cop, but why involve your kid?