Except to the cop.
So given your scenario, he should have fought the guy? While doing so, the wife gets out of the car and he is vulnerable to an attack from her.
How does the cop know that she does not carry a gun?
Of course you have a point.. It just pisses me off that police have to be so afraid of ordinary citizens. This makes them do stuff like tazer some nervous guy in front of his wife and child. Which makes ordinary citizens more afraid of police... and so it goes. People have to treat each other like monsters now, apparently.