Oh, The Comments....

      As expected, several commenters have taken me to task -- they tell me those officers in the Capitol being menaced by rioters were heavily armed!  They (may have) had a path to retreat!  So it was perfectly okay for a mob to be bashing in doors with a helmet to get at them!  I guess the Capitol Police were supposed to leave the entire House and Senate, along with the Vice-President and all the staff, to fend for themselves?

      You're idiots, carrying water for thugs.  There are clear aggressors in the actual event, just as there are in the scenarios I sketched.  Somebody's initiating force.  It isn't the defenders.  And as for any "duty to retreat," that has never applied to police; Castle Doctrine laws explicitly extended to all citizens something police have always had de facto if not universally de jure: the right to self-defense. 

      If you are making excuses for howling, violent mobs -- and I don't care if it is BLM-associated rioters, an historical lynch mob, black-masked Antifa, the Capitol rioters of 6 January 2021, or any other bunch of self-appointed nitwits out to break heads, rules and property -- then you're arguing in favor of force over law, in favor of mobs over an elected, representative government.  Is that really the world you want to live in?

      If it is, you're an idiot.  Again.  Stop making excuses for the worst impulses of humanity.  Stop making excuses for the initiation of force.  Stopping violence against yourself or innocent others is a good thing.  Starting violence against others is not.