The movie-style takeout of a fleeing car along the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl parade route was impressive police work that potentially saved lives.
While high-speed pursuits in heavily populated areas are often inadvisable, the swift and decisive action by law enforcement officials from Kansas City, Independence and Clay County saved a celebration that was decades in the making from being overshadowed by catastrophe.
What if the driver, identified in court documents as 42-year-old Addae Doyle of Kansas City, Kansas, had been a terrorist? In this case, Doyle, who has a history of fleeing police, told police he was high, which is plenty dangerous, too.
But vehicular terrorism is a real threat, and it's reassuring to know that local police agencies were prepared to stop Doyle _ or someone hellbent on destruction _ in his tracks.
"Every day in America there are stories in the news about police activities, what went wrong," Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Thursday. "If you think about yesterday, you see an amazing example of what went right.
"In a situation where there was a threat to literally thousands, we saw our police department ... work exceptionally well in tough situations to make sure everyone was unarmed."
Lucas is right when he says the entire community should be grateful for the heroic acts that prevented a disaster on parade day.
