Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

A caption on a break dot com video says a student hit a cop with a snowball during a big snowball fight....200 kids involved (of course no exaggeration)...kid gets OC'd and cuffed. Of course everyone is simply outraged.


Please, with all due respect, I understand that a crowd is a highly volatile situation....where taking a snowball and laughing it off can lead to a great loss of respect, which can lead to potential harm; while taking it too seriously can cause a potentially dangerous mob mindset as well, how do some of you LEO's draw the line and balance these delicate situations?

(No, I don't think the video tells even close to the whole situation at all, but I thought the caption/video combo. led to a decent discussion)

I can't post URL's yet, but it can be found on the website pretty easily.

I'm not a cop but throwing a snowball at one unless you know him personally isn't the best of ideas. You never know if there could be a chunk of ice in it, or even if he's just in a bad mood.

Videos like that are worthless for determining the entire situation. However, let's think about it for a second. There is a huge snowball fight with kids just having fun. The campus police had an officer there to make sure everyone kept their "fight" at playful levels and to make sure nobody got hurt.

My understanding of common sense would predict that most likely, an on-duty police officer is not participating in this event. It is a 50% chance on what an officer would do. He probably was not allowed to participate in the event.
If someone threw an object at you, and you did not know that person, what would you do? Even as a civilian, would you respond playfully if some stranger threw an object at you?

Note: I am not *yet* a law enforcement officer. I am an explorer, a volunteer who can't arrest people or carry a gun. However, I'm starting to develop the mindset of an officer after working public events and realizing officer safety risks.

Sounds about as good of an idea as trying to tickle a rattlesnake on it's belly.

"Yeah, while we're all being childish and stupid & all, in the name of fun, I think it would be a good idea to go "Pants" a Cop..." :rolleyes:

Good idea or No?

That was an ignorant question.

Were I on duty, I'd assume that the snowball was a distraction in a larger plan. The same as if someone had painted me with a light pointer.

After I took rapid Defensive action, I'd sort things out when things calmed down.

I figured that would be about the response, and rightfully so. Maybe I could rephrase...How does one deal with a potential "mob" situation? A bunch of people who think they're in the right, and feel slighted by someone in a uniform? cuff and move them quickly? call backup?

Just curious.

Replay the video in question and listen to the background noise at the beginning. The crowd doesn't exactly sound composed or friendly to start with. I think there was much more involved prior to the snowball.