Was there to document and distribute some propaganda, we did not get very close to the militant action, but a few things to report:

- At least one flash-bang (probably) and one tear gas grenade (definitely) were used on the capitol steps.

- Their duty as police is to protect and serve, so shooting would have been a terrible idea. Evacuation is not difficult in an ultra-hard target like the capitol, and a lot of civilians had bags, some of which definitely contained firearms. I also heard some shouts about fetching guns from hotel rooms (we did not stay overnight in the city). A gun battle would have been catastrophic on both sides.

Their duty is not to protect to serve though, it's to enforce. Get the bad guy as long as you don't put yourself in danger; collateral damage is fine

What I’m saying is that they almost certainly would not have been able to “get the bad guys” without being shot themselves, unless the tactic was machine-gun emplacements turning everyone into hamburger, with the side effect of starting a shooting war nationwide.

I think you have a very weird and wrong idea of what "collateral damage" means. Actually, the police should avoid collateral damage at all cost, even if it means not catching the bad guys.

I think he refers to the fact that there's been (supreme)court cases about this that generally rule in the polices favour saying they're under no obligation to protect, etc.

And repeated examples of disregard for collateral damage and proportionality during enforcement like: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ups-driver...

Protocol changes are made like ones with regards to high speed chases but often only after a lot of hubris in which police and/or bystanders die

Living in Portland, I can say I'm simply amazed at their restraint! Our own police here will taze, pepperspray, baton, without any law being broken first. It's sort of like Affirmative Action, but for violence.

Did you miss the young woman who was shot and killed?

We still don't know who fired that shot, and there were no reports of shots fired otherwise. Given the scope of what happened, a single lethal shot fired is kind of a miracle. And shocking given how many injuries and deaths we saw from protests earlier in the year which were under far better control, with far more law enforcement involved.

If you poke around a bit on YouTube, there are multiple videos of it happening on there. My guess is that the woman was trying to get into a corridor that the Secret Service was protecting, and they really didn't want anyone in there. Capitol Police seemed unaware of this as a few of them armed with long guns stood on the same side of the door literally right next to the woman who was shot, when she was shot after trying to enter through that broken window.

> D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee confirmed late Wednesday that Babbit was shot by a Capitol police officer

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/woman-shot-killed-after-pro-trum...

This article gives some background color on her public social media. [1] It's pretty depressing honestly to think that she was so caught up in conspiracies and it got her killed.

[1]https://www.businessinsider.com/ashli-babbitt-tweeted-qanon-...

There were concealed guns everywhere on both sides this time, so not as surprising to me. Nobody wanted to start a bloodbath.