Shoot first, ask questions later tactics

what i find strange is how unapolegetic the movie casts their behavior in.

i mean, earlier on, the cordell character explains very pedogogically about conservative firearm practices during the shooting range excercise. then it gets to the police shootout scene, and everything he says is inverted. is this some kind of commentary about the inconsistanciess between fbi and police? a chance to show us how the orded world of law enforcement can't escape the defilement of crime?

what i love about these noir police procedurals is the clash between the clean and tight narration/behind the scenes work and the actual violence and brutality of crime depicted on the screen. in some sense it's like a black comedy. i couldn't help but chuckle when the "defenseless woman" is killed during the club robbery and not a split second after her lifeless body collapses against the floor the narrator goes on about bullet markings and the machinations of justice. this is a conflict that i think is taken for granted in contemporary crime drama, and which is exploited a lot of time for cheap gawks (csi wink wink). these noirs depicted something else; a mythic law system and brutal underworld which both prey on and in some sense are naive of each other.

I believe they shot at Alex because they were ordered to by Demry. Demry knew that Alex would spill his guts on him being a rat if he was captured alive. Little did he know they already knew he was involved.