Wrong. The only reason someone wasn't injured or killed was because the subject wasn't paying much attention and apparently hadn't taken any weapons retention training.
The police have NO RIGHT to lay their hands on you unless you have committed a crime, or they have probable cause that you have. I still haven't seen a single poster state what law the citizen was accused of breaking. It is not illegal to go to a bookstore in New Hampshire. Nor is it illegal to carry openly in New Hampshire.
The police recieved a complaint, investigated, found the complaint to be groundless and immediately released the suspect on the scene. It doesn't get anymore perfect than that.
Like I said, they got very lucky. Bad guys are starting to impersonate police officers more and more often nowadays, and it's very reasonable for a citizen to assume that when someone comes up and grabs them when they haven't committed a crime, that the person grabbing them isn't a cop.
The cops got lucky that this guy didn't have much formal training.
Police officers can come up and engage you in conversation, but you don't have to acknowledge them, and they sure as hell can't put their hands on you if you ignore them (unless of course, you have committed a crime).
This is where you keep tripping up. The police have to determine if a crime has been committed. Sometimes that's affirmative and the suspect is arrested, and sometimes that's a negative and the suspect is released. The police have EVERY RIGHT to proceed agressively if the suspect is believed to be armed. That's just common effing sense.
Actually, I looked over my right shoulder and there was a uniformed officer standing there to the right of the one who'd grabbed me. It's true I was absorbed in the book I was perusing and didn't notice them sneaking up behind me, though. Big mistake that I don't intend to repeat.