Zooko Journeyman wrote:

Anonymous <anon@anon.efga.org> mumbled:

...

It's amazing that Freeh would admit that shooting an unarmed woman holding an infant is what "he was trained to do" and was "within the scope of his authority" and that he "reasonably believed [it] was proper" to do so. What are they teaching at FBI school nowadays?

Anonymous, above, would _like_ you to think of the FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi as a murderous baby-killer who chuckled gleefully when he saw his opportunity to take out a toddler.

Personally, I think you are both 1/2 full of shit, for a grand total of Bullshit! It is fortunate that, in my position of Chief CypherPunks Spokesperson, I am able to set you both right in the interests of Truth, Justice, and an Uzi in every pot (bag). I have no problem with people who enter law enforcement with the genuine intention of attempting to serve the ends of equal justice being applied among the citizens in a reasonable manner. I *do* have a problem, however, with the fact that the high level of integrity and responsibility that *should* go hand in hand with that manner of _public_service_ has in many ways been abandoned to serve the convenience (*not* "legitimate needs") of law enforcement agencies. We all know that if we had approached the FBI before they found the guy, and *guaranteed* that if they gave us six men for thirty days we would bring their man into custody, they would gladly have given us what we asked, if the alternative was to let him go free. When it comes to avoiding the loss of innocent lives, however, the motivation to "do whatever it takes" seems to be more lacking. To me, this is unconscienable. A good example is the many lives that have been lost over the years in dangerous high-speed chases over nickle and dime bullshit, merely because the 'good guys' main interest was to get a good adrenaline rush in their pursuit and capture of their prey, however small-fry that prey might be. Only when enough blatantly senseless tragedies had taken place, was there any attempt to introduce the discretion of the "reasonable man" in the slightest manner such as it is applied to the normal citizens in the judgement of their actions according to the law of the land. The fact that the victims were killed by a 'missed' shot which went through a door, does not lessen the responsibility of the agent who chose to use deadly force to understand the potential of the weapon he was using. If Zooko shoots a cop by firing into a steel wall with a cannon, he is unlikely to get cut much slack by saying, "It never occured to me that could happen." I don't know the FBI agent who fired the fatal shot. He may be one of the nicest and most well-intentioned people in the world. However, I have personally known too many law enforcement personnel who had far more interest in exercising egoistic authority, or getting an adrenaline rush from risky situations, than in bringing the end goals of law enforcement to a safe and just end for all involved. I find it hard to believe that the end result of the standoff was not the result of impatience and convenience rather than the way things truly needed to be. TruthMonger