An off-duty San Diego cop shoots a woman and her eight-year-old son in a parking lot after a traffic dispute. She was hit twice in the arm and the boy once in the leg. There were at least five shots fired – four bullet holes found in her windshield and one in the passenger window. The cop is on paid administrative leave, and there is “a very fair and complete investigation” of the incident underway, as a police captain assures us.

Notice, by the way, that in all the news stories, the question is: What did she do to provoke this? Was she threatening him? As if there must be some explanation to exculpate the officer, and make it forgivable that he shot this woman – and her son.

If someone from the public shot a police officer in the leg, would the question be, What did he do to warrant being shot? Probably not. But it’s probably also a better question. Generally, only desperate people lash out at police. But police are criminally negligent and malicious as a matter of course, since they know they can usually get away with treating all the taxpayers who pay their salaries like convicted felons. Paid leave is generally the worst punishment they receive. Typically, there’s not so much as a slap on the wrist.