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PaperclipPerfector  25d ago (text post)   32466 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026

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When she drove towards him (into him seems presumptuous).

The phone recording from the cop who shot, as well as the original footage, does suggest that she at least grazed him. With that fairly rapid acceleration when pedestrians are that close to the car, that is very dangerous driving for sure, regardless of whether she hit him hard, grazed him, or barely missed him.

The question is still whether she knew he was standing there when she started. The vehicle starts moving with the wheels turned towards him. That was used to argue that she intentionally drove towards him. But then the wheels quickly turn to the right. It's hard to tell how exactly that turn intersected with the ICE agent. We don't know how much contact was made.

She likely saw him as he starting walking across the vehicle, but he stops while she looking down. She may have assumed he kept walking. She also may not have actually noticed him with the first glance.

This is all just apologia. As a driver she is in all circumstances obligated to drive safely and not come this close to hitting people with her car, and not accelerate this fast near pedestrians. It doesn't matter if she assumed that he had moved far enough to the side, misjudged her turning circle, pressed the go pedal too hard because she was agitated, was high on drugs, etc. Once you put someone's life in danger, they are allowed to act like their life is in danger. I don't think that shooting his gun was necessarily the best way for the cop to react to it, but she chose to flee from the police in a way that endangered a cop, and from a legal point of view that seems unlikely to result in a conviction of the cop (given the perspective of the cop and the brief time for him to act).

But then the wheels quickly turn to the right.

This would have been impossible to see from the perspective of the cop in front of the car, given how close he was. He would only have been able to see the hood of the car.

He could potentially have seen the wheels pointed to the left earlier, when he was still to the side of the car, and then taken that into consideration when he saw the car moving towards him, but whether that is actually true requires knowledge of what the cop was thinking.

The phone recording from the cop who shot, as well as the original footage, does suggest that she at least grazed him.

It doesn't. The point where he made contact with the vehicle is not on camera. You hear something. We already knew that the hand holding the phone likely made contact with the car. Eye witnesses report him leaning over the hood with his outstretched arms. The phone recording tells you nothing about what happened to the rest of his body at that point.

With that fairly rapid acceleration when pedestrians are that close to the car, that is very dangerous driving for sure, regardless of whether she hit him hard, grazed him, or barely missed him.

Dangerous, yes. But there is a massive gulf between driving dangerously and needing to be killed.

As a driver she is in all circumstances obligated to drive safely and not come this close to hitting people with her car, and not accelerate this fast near pedestrians.

That's not in dispute. What matters is whether the shooter was reasonable in his belief that he was subject to imminent severe bodily harm. She can drive dangerously and still not provide him with a justification for killing her.

It doesn't matter if she assumed that he had moved far enough to the side, misjudged her turning circle, pressed the go pedal too hard because she was agitated, was high on drugs, etc. Once you put someone's life in danger, they are allowed to act like their life is in danger.

It does matter because her state of mind should have informed his beliefs of the risks. If you see someone make eye contact with you and accelerate towards you, you are reasonable in believing he is trying to hit you. If you see that he doesn't see you, you are not. You can act like your life is in danger, but you cannot assume that the person is trying to hit you in order to justify killing them.

He could see that she could see where he was after she started driving forward. His assessment of the risk had to take her likely state of mind into account. If he knew that she knew he was there and still started driving in his direction, that would increase the likelihood that she was trying to hit him. If he knew that she had not known where he was when she started driving, then he could not rule out the most likely possibility that she started in his direction because she didn't know he was there.

This would have been impossible to see from the perspective of the cop in front of the car, given how close he was. He would only have been able to see the hood of the car.

I'm not convinced of that. Normally, when you're standing in front of a car, you can see its wheels, at least if you're standing far enough away, which I think he was.

He could potentially have seen the wheels pointed to the left earlier, when he was still to the side of the car, and then taken that into consideration when he saw the car moving towards him, but whether that is actually true requires knowledge of what the cop was thinking.

It is actually relevant what he should have been thinking.

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