I completely agree that the reason the police were ineffectual was because they were up against a bunch of armed men. In fact I think that this is really important to remember- walking in like you've got the biggest dick in the room and blowing someone away is what cops do when they're NOT afraid for their lives. When they're afraid they keep their heads down.

I think that's very true and very worth remembering.

But I also think it's important to push back on the people who are trying to preserve the police mystique by arguing that these cops totally coulda woulda shoulda, but didn't because of diplomatic immunity.

Anyone who reads the damn paper has no excuse for thinking that a cop can't stop a violent crime in progress if diplomatic protection is involved. Cops do this ALL THE TIME. Every time a diplomat gets hammered and drives his Bentley home drunk, when the cops pull him over they take him in. They don't let him just keep driving drunk because the law says they have to. And if a diplomat can be forced to sleep it off in a cell to prevent him from endangering people on the road, lower level persons can definitely be physically stopped from kicking someone's head in.

I knew that just from being an American citizen and paying attention. I didn't need this issue to go viral, I knew that last week and last year and ten years ago. And I //certainly// haven't received whatever training a D.C. cop gets on the issue- presumably they're more knowledgeable than "random guy who reads the morning paper."

And of course all the discussion of this has in fact confirmed that the cops had the legal authority to stop this.

They just didn't have the capacity. Shockingly, it turns out it's really hard to get large groups of violent men with guns to do what you want.