Deadly force is authorized.

Through Marko and John Shirley, we hear of the story of scumbag Paul Landingham, a 37 year old Salem, OR man who attacked and began to rape a woman on crutches. While residents of the apartments behind the scene listened and looked on, the woman called for help. NOTHING would have been done, but for a car full of good Samaritans stopping. Three men hopped out and issued Mr. Landingham the ass-whipping he so richly deserved before he was arrested by the police.

Pretty-boy, Emo-esque, whiney Keith Cole is seen on camera, telling of how terrible it was that this bastard could just try to take her humanity. . . but he did nothing. None of the other apartment residents who heard the attack did, either. Shades of Kitty Genovese. John quite rightly points out that Keith Cole should be ashamed of himself. Indeed, he must never again call himself a man. Stopping a sexual assault in progress is certainly a worthwhile time to employ deadly force, if you're not tough enough to beat the bastard up.

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Even after Tennessee v. Garner, deadly force is still authorized to re-apprehend escaped prisoners. Especially escaped armed murderers. Who just killed a cop to escape.

But the cops in Providence, RI didn't kill Esteban Carpio after he shot Det. Sgt Allen with the detective's own gun in April, 2006. They re-arrested him 45 minutes later, and he was shortly marched into a courtroom with a spitmask on. His relatives declared police brutality when they saw his swollen face. Interestingly, so did the reporters and analysts in this news story on the situation. Apparently, they were able to determine that Mr. Carpio's head injuries (which he fully recovered from) were sustained from unlawful force, rather than from the 60-foot leap from the interview room window, or from lawful struggle with him while he was being detained.

"The boy clearly took a beating," says a news woman. Carpio (the "boy") was a 26 year old man, in custody for the stabbing murder of an 81 year old woman.

It's frankly impressive that he walked into the courtroom alive and under his own steam, after having been arrested by the acquaintances of the cop he had just murdered. An FBI inquiry found no improper actions by the arresting cops.

Look-- I'm a professional cop, and I've NEVER given a late hit on an arrestee. I don't advocate it, and I never will. But in these situations-- both of which would have merited deadly force-- I frankly wouldn't have been too critical of the occasional fist or boot to the noggin of the bad guy.