http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFC8mNdxV0c
Dozen of folks showed up to an apparently peaceful snowball fight in the nations capitol, where a DC detective drew both his weapon and the disdain of the crowd. At one point the crowd began chanting "Don't bring a gun to a snowball fight". There is a fair bit of video, including footage where the detective taunts a citizen repeatedly to "throw another snowball".
The point of this post is to ask two questions. Please confine replies to the narrow questions.
1. Is there any justification for this officer to draw his weapon in the context of an ostensibly friendly snowball fight, or was he clearly over-reacting?
2. Is the department over-reacting by placing the officer on desk duty because of this incident?