While a person intent on hurting officers would likely have distain, they would be more likely to act cool and calm until they pull out their gun as to keep the officer from sensing a threat and reacting to it.
You make a great point. I can see why cops would be on edge and would rather risk taking someone into custody unnecessarily rather than putting their life at risk. Based on your reasoning they would probably be hyper vigilant for signs a stop might go wrong. Given an employers responsibility to provide a safe workplace, they are probably trained to err on the side of caution, right?
Take a look at all of the officer's actions and attempt to see them from a reasonable person's perspective.
A rather obvious diss and strawman argument, but I see your point. What you are ignoring though is the reasonable person who is employed as a cop. If you had that job, how much would you be willing to risk death on a daily basis to give people the benefit of the doubt?
He punched the driver while he was handcuffed. He lied about a 25ft law and then expanded it beyond what the made-up law would allow. After 18 minutes of having him in handcuffs, he only started to write the citations, the whole reason for the stop, when a supervisor asked him if they were already done.
So sue the fuck out of him! That's what the courts are for. That's a separate issue from whether the cop decided he was non-cooperative at a level that warranted intervention.
You're arguing that we should defer to the officers because of a million imaginary what-ifs. That's not how this works.
That's the whole point of qualified immunity. Cops are the ones willing to wade into the shit on a daily basis. They put their lives on the line, so they get the discretion to decide they are going to cuff you for the rest of the interaction if they feel unsafe.
If they break the law, sue them. If policy is bad, lobby for change. People wrote the laws, people set the culture, people can change it. But just whining online that some sports guy you like wasn't treated as politely as you would have liked is like having a quick wank, it makes you feel good, but won't change anything.
If you think you can do better, go apply for a job with the force, show us what the police could be. If you are going to let someone else do it so you don't have to take the risk and can sit safely at home whining about it. Sure you can get some attention, but you aren't going to be taken very seriously.
Like I said, if all you do is complain online, nothing will change, you said it yourself that they just ignore protests these days.
I'm not saying there aren't problems, I'm saying that all your answers are cop outs. (Unintentional pun, but I'll take it)
If you won't be a cop because they are all degenerates, then don't be surprised if the only ones who want to the job are power trippers. If you can't talk about the problems in a way policymakers relate to, they are going to ignore you. Have you talked to county or city commissioners? Have you gotten involved at a local level? I'm not saying you personally have to solve this, but if everyone has the same attitude, who steps up?
But it's easy to talk about sucking dicks and otherize, and whine online.
And to answer the question you dodged earlier, according to the news, he later told the cops he did have a 9 mil in the car. So it isn't unreasonable of them to assume anyone they come across could be armed, he actually was.