“The guy doing the engaging *WAS* the police. He had been doing that same job for 25 years.”
No, he wasn’t. He was retired.
Perhaps the law is different in Georgia, but I am told that here in my state, a police officer is regarded as legit law enforcement until he dies.
I've been told that many times by police officers whom I have happened to know over the years.
But what is this artificial barrier you have created before he retired and after he retired?
Why do you see a boundary there? It's the same man doing exactly the same job he has always done, yet there is something about retirement that suddenly makes him incompetent and/or illegitimate?
His actions would have probably been even more aggressive had he still been an active duty cop.
Once a peace officer, always a peace officer. That's what they tell me anyways.