>I think the round in the pipe question is a useless approach here, simply because any firearm [or toy for that matter] pointed at a cop is grounds for gettin shot...
While I find your posts to be interesting and/or well-reasoned the usage of ‘any’ here, when applied to a toy, means that any kid pointing his Buzz Lightyear Laser Blaster-Cannon (or even a GI Joe’s gun) at a cop has forfeited his life.
On a thread where the minutia of legalities/justifications are being used or examined precision/accuracy is of utmost importance.... and I’d rather not give the police even theoretical justification for killing a kid who was playing with a toy on *ANY* scale larger than the case-by-case basis.
The logical extension of these arguments is a “throw-down” water pistol...
not that in bad light a buzz lightyear wont get ya dead really quickly...
I'll give cops the benefit of the doubt, so long as they permorm due diligence and at least attempt to verify, which in this case, they forced the issue w/o bothering to check the facts fer themselves...
the only reason mosher 'knew' that scott was armed, was on the sayso of a rent-a-wannabe...he couldve easily passed his piece to the girlfriend and mosher wouldve shot an UN-armed man in the same 2-6 seconds due to his failure to 'know his target'...and im certain his tunnel vision whacked his perception of any backstop smaller than the broad side of costco...