State Cop Shoots at Minivan Full of Kids

[Orrex]

66. I suspect that most of the editing was done by the network

If the story seems slanted in some way, then we need to take that up with the network. I'll also have to listen to the audio, but I have a few thoughts:

Was she asked to make her decision about payment/court on the spot, or were those given as options? When I've been involved in traffic stops, the cop has always presnted the choices to the driver, so it wouldn't surprise me if the cop did something similar in this case.

Years ago my friend was pulled over for reckless driving (though he was completely sober). He was asked to exit the vehicle and he complied. I was in the back seat and grumbled some dumbass comment about the situation and was then directed to exit the vehicle as well, which I did. The cop in that case made some pretty scary statements about what might happen as a result of the stop, but in the end we were sent on our way with a warning. I'm confident that the episode would have ended differently if either of us had taken a swing at the cop.

My point is that I don't think it was unreasonable for the cop to address the passenger directly, if the passenger initiated the exchange.

Also the 2nd cop pulled out his gun and pointed it at the son point blank before deciding to instead smash windows.

Well, the first cop is the one who broke the window, and he did so after he'd been assaulted by the passengers. Also, when someone assaults a cop, he can certainly expect to have weapons drawn against him.