[Rathji]

A police officer who gets assaulted repeatedly cannot pull his gun to defend himself against people who clearly have no intention of stopping and think it is a joke?

I agree that he probably didn't need to pull his gun, but at what point does "mob throwing snowballs at him for fun" turn into "mob throwing anything else at him for harm?" It is at minimum obstruction of justice and could easily be considered full blown assault. I am sure there is some guidelines for police officers facing a mob performing either of those actions, and it wouldn't suprise me if they allowed him to pull his gun if he felt he was in danger of the situation escalating, which it seemed to be in the video.

I am not a lawyer, judge or cop nor am I stupid enough to launch a snowball at someone who is armed with with a lethal weapon, so my opinion really doesn't matter. However, my sympathy resides fully with the cop and not with the idiots who feel they are somehow entitled to throw snowballs at him.