[JohnBovenmyer]

If you sincerely believe you will die if you don't go somewhere and someone is trying to forcefully prevent you from getting there, is it in self defense to use force, if necessary lethal force, to get past them? I don't claim to know the legal answer. Would it make a difference if the blocker were acting under the color of state authority? Again I don't know.

If the blocker was following orders and believing he was blocking not to prevent someone from doing something illegal, but just in the belief, contrary to theirs, that they'd die if they went forward but are safe if they stay, would in a free country he be within his rights to warn them that they were taking their lives into their own hands by going forward, he didn't advise it and believed his information was superior to theirs, but that he couldn't/wouldn't stop them if they insisted on going to their otherwise legal route?

[piytar]

Those are great questions. Wish I knew the answers.

All I do know is what I’d have done: I would have treated it as a self defense situation and dealt with legal ramifications afterwards.