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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026

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Correct, but irrelevant.

no, the fact that a person doesn't have a right to flee from police means the woman is the initial user of unlawful force which is an element of self-defense

The fact alone that the officer fired through a side window while not in imminent danger is going to make things extremely difficult for him if this ever goes to court.

no, the first shot went through the windshield of a 3 shot sequence within roughly 1 second time frame which you can clearly see in the video (the glass fragments shoot up in front of the vehicle from the bullet hitting the windshield)

not that this is dispositive; a person who uses lethal force doesn't actually have to, within 1 second time frame from the point at which the cop was hit by the vehicle, realize the threat of great bodily harm or death is over (and that he wont be dragged alongside the vehicle or slip on the ice and fall under it) in order to use lethal force even if the biological lag of reality means the shots go through the side window

even if you think the above is not true and he didn't shoot through the windshield (which I would bet a significant amount of money that at least one shot went through the windshield) and he gunned the lady down as she drove by, lethal self-defense can be used in the defense of others, e.g., against a felon fleeing after committing aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (her car) driving recklessly thus putting everyone else on that street in danger including other law enforcement

and this isn't going to court because even if some unethical scumbag state prosecutor attempted to bring charges it would be immediately removed to federal court due to a federal officer engaging in lawful federal activities as an agent of the federal government and it will get thrown out at the federal level even in Minnesota

but even if it did, the only way this case brought and not immediately thrown out is because of politics and not because of questions about the legality of this use of lethal force because it is just cut-and-dried legal use of force in every state in the country and at the federal level especially when you consider you would have to disprove the self-defense claim beyond reasonable doubt