It’s not so puzzling if you’ve ever been in a situation where the cops mistake themselves for God. If it’s happened to you, you’re far, far more likely to understand that some see themselves as paramilitary troopers who are very much above the law and abuse their authority wantonly, so there’s little point assuming that you’re dealing with a good cop at any point in time.
Here’s my story - do with it as you will: Long ago, I and a friend went to a concert in Hampton, Virginia, travelling from Dover, Delaware to get there. As you may know, radar detectors are illegal in Virginia, and my friend had one in his car. So we’re in the arena’s parking lot and a cop happens by and sees the detector on the dashboard. He tells us they’re illegal in Virginia and that we’ll have to get rid of it. We refuse. Cop busts out the driver’s side window and confiscates the detector and tells us we’re lucky he’s not taking us in. We drive back to Dover, in October, with no driver’s side window and it cost, IIRC, $300 to get it replaced. When you’ve experienced that, it’s easy to believe the worst all the time.
Okay, I read your story. Is that enough to paint every cop as and wrong by default, and give the benefit of doubt to every criminal as I said in my posting?
Sorry. I do not see it as justification to treat every LEO (as some on this forum do) as a steroid injecting paramilitary trooper.