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Notes -
The police didn't do scientific studies to determine whether standing in front of a vehicle is useful for that purpose. They just say it, and everyone believes them. Given how the police like to game the system by giving undisprovable, bogus, explanations for why they do things (sure, they searched the car because they smelled marijuana), I don't grant much charity to the claim that standing in front of a vehicle is necessary.
I wouldn't say never stand in front of a vehicle. But I would say that if they do, they've deliberately escalated the lethality of the situation by putting themselves in harm's way and as such, the standard for them using lethal force should be made stricter. (And I don't believe that shooting the driver is likely to prevent being hit by the car anyway.) If you think the police should be able to shoot people for fleeing, make a law that says the police can shoot people for fleeing. Without such a law, the police shouldn't turn fleeing into a lethal confrontation just so they can shoot anyway.
And yes, this does apply to other people who block vehicles to put themselves in danger from the driver. The most prominent examples being, ironically, protestors who do so. Hurting such a protestor in the process of getting away from them should be treated leniently.
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