We need people who are comfortable asserting their authority in some situations; we need cops. I respect them and their service. But with authority comes responsibility and accountability and our society has not been following through on drawing those lines. We need to recognize the tendency you refer to and guard against its expression as a power trip not a regrettable occasional necessity.
These guys should not have had the authority for those actions. Their boss says they didn’t and he will be dealing with it. They were under trained for their duties and the passenger paid the price.
United should not have called in cops for an administrative problem. They bear culpability. The crew wanted to accommodate the other airline’s flight crew. But they also lacked the training about what they could and couldn’t do legally to seat those extra flight crew members. The passenger paid the price.
What irks me is people saying the passenger deserved what he got because he didn’t just give up his rights and disappear. He even made noise and made other people uncomfortable by not letting the airline personnel ruin his plans and illegally deny him passage.
I absolutely agree that we're fortunate to have people with the mindset to be in the military and law enforcement. There are bad people in the world, and we need good guys willing to take them on head-to-head. Where I hesitate in giving my full respect is that it seems like there is too much of a tendency to cover up for their own when some DO go over the line. Too many (most likely a large majority) take an "us against them" attitude, even when someone on their side uses unnecessary force.