It doesn't matter if it was beer she had purchased. That show of force was completely unnecessary. Drawing a gun on someone you think purchased alcohol illegally? wtf Virginia?

OMG... That's some fucked up agent... Why on earth would you feel the need to pull a gun on a girl with a 12 pack of beer?

If anyone should be charged, it should be that lunatic.

That was the person endangering the lives of both the girl and his/her fellow agents.

Where's the sense of proportion?

Where's the sense of proportion?

As someone recently said (I think it was Gauck?) in context of the Snowden story: "What the fuck, USA? I agree that one needs to protect oneself against harm and maintain order, but not at every price. Not everything that's possible is allowable".

This looks like the same thing in small scale to me. It's the right thing to point a gun at anyone coming out of a drug store. They've probably done something wrong at some point in their lives. Hey, they might be armed robbers. Or terrorists using soda water as explosive. Like you are when you enter an airplane with a bottle of soda...

Yay! The world is coming to an end!

More corrupt, self-righteous people.

Revolts in Egypt and Turkey

Never-ending conflicts in Africa and Middle East.

US-EU relationship in jeopardy, thanks to NSA (are you reading this NSA????)

WW3 is probably coming to your door step.

Yay! The world is coming to an end!

More corrupt, self-righteous people.

Revolts in Egypt and Turkey

Never-ending conflicts in Africa and Middle East.

US-EU relationship in jeopardy, thanks to NSA (are you reading this NSA????)

WW3 is probably coming to your door step.

Now that sounds exactly like this Bible woman at my door tried to explain to me last week.

Wars and revolts, the Enlightened preaching but nobody listening, greed and arrogance among men ----> the end of the world.

Luckily, as Bible lady explained to me, I'm not going to burn in hell for not listening to her, but Earth is being transformed into paradise again. For everyone, including me.

This is what comes of kids growing up watching Lethal Weapon and Tango and Cash, thinking that "real police work" means blowing shit up and spraying bullets around, repercussion-free. You know what? I'm starting to be in favor of gun control, starting with the cops. Just take fucking guns away from everyone.

Did they pull the gun before or after she hit them with the car? I think that makes a big difference in my opinion here.

I agree - the report is confusing and unclear as to the time line.

It says she was 'walking to her car' as they approached and yet at later it says she had to turn on her engine to wind down the windows which caused them to try and break the windows. Even the part where it says one jumped on the hood of the SUV while another pulled a gun implies she had got into the car at this point - so did they pull the gun after she apparently walked away from them, got into a car and started it?

The knee jerk 'omg! agents over reacting!' is predictable given the way the article is structured, the headline used and the way it was written.

Lets say the sequence of events was;
- girl exist store and walks towards car
- 6 people approach holding a badge and ask her to stop
- girl gets into car and locks the door
- agents then ask her to wind window down
- at which point she starts car
- agents react because it looks like she is trying to get away (jump on hood, pull gun)
- at which point she then drives off

Given that sequence of events, where someone is apparently trying to get away from the people in question I'm less inclined to go all 'omg! agents on a power trip!'.

But, as with all things we only get half a muddled story which leads to people biasing it with their own views...

Though hitting someone who pulls a gun on me with the car is what I'd try too, to be honest. The car is the only weapon you have at hand, and if some group of presumed armed robbers jumps on you, you need to defend your life.

I mean, seriously, what else can you do if someone points a gun at you, surely not give in and hope that he won't shoot you. Why wouldn't he shoot you anyway, he's got no reason not to. On the other hand, with his chest under your tire, it's kind of hard shooting you.

Of course it will turn out that the agents were right and the girl was lying. She probably had 200 grams of cocaine in her trunk, too. And a shotgun. No surprise there. Like the agents in that video on tv news last week where 4 or 5 of them were kicking and giving the rod to a person who was helpless on the floor. Sure enough he was a major threat with his face to the ground and his arms around his head. Good police work.

"If you pick up a brick and kill one of those pigs [referring to police] it ain't no loss."

-- Joschka Fischer around 1980 (before his time as Minister).