I have three canes. One of the three I use most of the time. Not a one of them even remotely looks like a rifle or shotgun barrel. I drive a pick up most of the time. Because my truck has a bed cover the cane is in the front seat beside me. So should I be shot if I moved my cane? It's very poor training and very poor supervision. A Rookie out of the academy should be required to spend a minimum of three years preferably five with an experienced officer. A lot of this stems from one patrolman per car. Put two cops back in patrol cars. Have the senior officers train and evaluate the junior officers actions and judgments.
But as one poster said if as cop approaches a pick up with an open bed the cops will look in the bed as he approaches the driver for visible reason to further investigate such as beer cans etc. IOW the story stinks.
I had to walk with a cane for a few months. It was, as I recall, long, black, and cylindrical for most of its length, and it bent around at the top to form a handle.
I have fired rifles. As I recall, the barrels were long, black, and cylindrical.
If you do not see the top, and all you see is the long. black, cylindrical portion, I can easily see mistaking a cane for the barrel of a rifle. Especially by someone who is already hyper alert—because police officers do *not* know how the person they are pulling over will react, and police officers *have* been killed during traffic stops.