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?

No. Absolutely not. "Officer safety" isn't a blank check. Officer's first duty is to the law and the constitution, even before their own safety. You don't get to violate someone's right because you were scared, especially when the officers never once mention a safety threat. The only thing they say when they pull out the driver is "when we tell you to do something, you do it." You can keep imagining that this is about safety, but it's transparently not. It's about an officer who got butt-hurt when someone didn't suck his dick hard enough.

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.

You are not a cop I assume, which is why I said person. The legal standard is "reasonable officer". The point still stands, nothing he did was objectively reasonable by the legal standard.

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?

If I was a cop, I would recognize that I volunteered for a dangerous job where my primary responsibility is to the rights of the citizens I supposedly protect. I would not violate someone's rights just because I had a completely unjustified fear. Are we just going to brush past the fact that this unjustified fear just happened to be directed towards a black man? That must just be coincidence, right?

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.

Well, no it's not. The courts determine what is reasonable and legal. The cop doesn't get to violate rights or laws even if he thinks the situation warranted intervention. He must have an objectively reasonable and legal reason for that intervention. Short of that, what he did was unreasonable and illegal. That's the whole point. And again, you haven't pointed to a single thing he did as showing non-cooperation, especially not enough to warrant all that followed in a legal way. As I've outlined numerous times now, he didn't refuse any order given. The only one he didn't comply with fast enough for the officer was the order to exit in which the officer gave him 7 seconds before resorting to violence.

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.

It's shocking how little you understand about how this all works. QI gives them legal protection for things that are not well established at the time of the interaction. It gives them cover for interpreting a law in the grey. Pulling someone out without reasonable suspicion they are armed and dangerous is not a grey area, it was decided by the Supreme Court decades ago. Not using excessive force is per-se well established (meaning QI does not apply when using unreasonable and unjustified force, like say punching a handcuffed suspect). I'll gloss over your completely insane framing of officers as "putting their lives on the line" and "willing to wade into this shit" and just say, do yourself a favor and look up the Castle Rock case and Uvalde before trying to suck them off next time.

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.

I don't give a shit about sports ball or this guy in the slightest. I had never even heard his name until this news broke. This isn't about "not being polite enough". The driver was treated in an illegal manner by a power-tripping cop because he didn't act as nicely and apologetically as this officer thought he was entitled to. That officer can get fucked. And the fact that the police union stated their full support of him before the video even came out should tell you something.

What exactly would you suggest to make things better? This kind of talk online led to the largest protests in American history just a few years ago and after months that led to nothing. And you aren't here advocating for change, you've been defending the officer and presuming he is right about everything this whole conversation.

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.

Oh yes, the classic "our job is so hard, why don't you try it". Got any more stereotypical cop defense lines you wanna throw out? Maybe a "he should have just complied" in there? No thanks, I have too much self-respect to be a pig. That being said, I don't have to be a quarterback to know when a footballer makes a bad play. I don't have to be a doctor to know not to listen to a quack. I don't have to be a cop to know a power-tripping tyrant when I see one.