[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

I think you need to take your meds... Your not looking at this objectivly.

I think there are too many people "taking their meds" on this thread. I agree that the DEA has file cabinets full of cases where they over step not only legal lines of conduct but moral lines as well. This is not one of those cases.

This isn't a "14 year old against the DEA" case.
This is a "vehicle attempting to flee the scene and endangering agents" case.

The fact that she was 14 have no bearing on the danger involved in this case. As has been pointed our repeatedly on this thread, "They didn't know who was in the car." Of course those making that claim then try to make her age a factor. But you can't have it both ways. Either they knew she was 14, or they didn't know who was driving. If they didn't know who was driving, then it is reasonable to assume that they believed it was the drug smuggler who was attempting to flee.

[KEVLAR]

Is it standard practice to use deadly force based on an assumption?

[babygene]

That's the problem with your argument....

It's not permissable to use deadly force because you "believe it was the drug smuggler who was attempting to flee". Even if it had turned out to be a drug dealer attempting to flee, the shooting would not be justified unless their lives were in iminent danger. (US Supreme Court TENNESSEE v. GARNER (1985))

An officers car getting banged while trying to "box" someone in, at first glance doesn't represent iminent danger. I bet the air bags didn't even go off.