# Overkill?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overkill/251108>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 18, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overkill/251108 "2004-06-18T20:09:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overkill/251108/1 "2004-06-18T20:09:47Z")

</div>

This morning (Fri. 6/18) Fox News devoted continuous coverage of a standoff in Grand Prarie, TX. The large blue van was surrounded by police cars, one of more fire engines, and cops, cops cops, to cover a single(?) occupant of the van.

Walmart was closed, stores across the street likewise, occupants hiding in rear of store way from the scene. Swat Team attempting to negotiate with occupant, etc.

Looks like overkill to me with the authorities jumping through the rim to put on a show for TV.

Article on [www.foxnews.com](http://www.foxnews.com) today

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tiggrkitty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tiggrkitty/32/17966_2.png) [@Tiggrkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiggrkitty)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overkill/251108/2 "2004-06-18T21:19:16Z")

</div>

Did they happen to mention that two police officers were shot, in which one of those officers died?

\*The incident began about 9:09 a.m. when an officer arrived at the store, at Great Southwest Parkway and Interstate 20, to check on a blue van that had been reportedly sitting in the parking lot all night with the engine running, police said.

He apparently was shot by a suspect inside the van.\*

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overkill/251108/3 "2004-06-18T21:29:16Z")

</div>

While you’re at it, ask Arlo Guthrie about the police department in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  
“You can get anything you want…”  
“Shut up, kid.”  
“We don’t like your kind.”  
“All kinds of equipment they had lying around at the police officer station.”  
“Blind justice.”  
:mad:

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overkill/251108/4 "2004-06-18T22:10:20Z")

</div>

As **Tiggrkitty** points out, this wasn’t just a suspicious vehicle, [there was a cop-killer inside](http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/061804kvueStandoff-eh.2737be681.html):

> [@](#):
>
> GRAND PRAIRIE – A police officer and the man suspected of shooting him are dead following a standoff that lasted several hours in Grand Prairie.
> 
> Police say a man in a stolen van shot Grand Prairie police Sergeant Gregory Hunter and Officer Bruce Seix early this morning.
> 
> The officers had been investigating reports that the van had sat in the Wal-Mart parking lot all night with its engine running.
> 
> Both officers were shot at least twice.
> 
> Grand Prairie police say Hunter died this afternoon. He was a 20-year veteran of the department.
> 
> Seix is in critical condition. He’d been shot in the liver and lung.

So no, I don’t think it was overkill.