I don't think he was out of control. I read him as overwhelmed by the situation after an already bad day (read his previous calls). There is no sign that he posed a danger to others, just that he had less patience than was needed for the entitled urban youths he was facing. The uninvited guests at that neighborhood's private pool were out of line, and he failed to handle the situation in a photogenic manner.
There is fault on both sides, but it's not as bad as portrayed on the police officer's side. On the teenagers' side, I expect some of those kids to get shot while pushing their luck in the next couple of years, and they will deserve it. If their parents don't care enough to correct them and their community doesn't care enough to step in when the parents fall short, I will not shed a tear when the natural consequences of being brats catch up with them.
Unless faced with an immediate threat, the right thing to do if overwhelmed (bad days worth of calls or not) is to withdraw from the situation, gain better situational awareness and wait for backup.
It looks like the cop was over the line right up until the point where the two guy’s made threatening moves from his gun side. So drawing his weapon was legit. But being in a situation where he had to do that was his own fault.
I’ve heard this pool referred to, in different reports, as both a private pool and a public pool. Does anybody know which it is?
You don’t think that he was out of control, but then explain why he was, he supposedly was too upset about the day he was having before he arrived on the scene that revealed him unsuited for street police work.
By the way, Mark Furhman disagrees with you about the not cop being a threat to the public’s safety, Furhman says that he even removed himself from the trained position of being able to help his fellow officers.
Watch Furhman at the link in post 15.
This cop and the union, didn’t instantly decide not to fight, because they all thought that he was acting normal and professionally as was caught running around and escalating everything.