@ossobuco,
If this turns out to be a shootout and lives are lost, it will be another PR victory for the Right. Remember Waco? Federal agents arrived to serve an arrest warrant on David Koresh, and four Federal agents were shot and killed. How was that interpreted by the so-called liberal press? They said the agents could have done a better job serving the warrant.
How long would a compound last in other countries if a legal arrest warrant was made out for their leader, agents were dispatched to execute it, and they got killed by the compound's inhabitants? Not long. But in the USA, the cops become the bad guys-for serving the legal warrant. And the killers in the compound became treated like misunderstood victims.
Even if no kids are present, there should not be a shootout. The people are in some far off bird sanctuary, you can wait them out forever. They go back and forth from the compound freely, they can slowly cut back that privilege, except for kids.
Once these guys are in custody, by all means treat them differently from people who did unarmed, nonviolent protest. People who don't take guns to their civil disobedience usually get no or very small sentences. People who take guns and threaten to shoot any authorities who come to get them should not have the same kind of treatment.
