[Kirkwood]

You seem to have the mistaken idea that the officer plays no role in escalating a situation. How wrong you are. If I were a DC police captain and one of my officers escalated a response to chewing a mouthful of candy while entering a subway platform all the way up to an arrest, I would likely demote the officer. Common sense tells you that the officer lost control of a situation that merited nothing more than a citation, if not a simple warning. If the officer repeated this tactic, I would put him or her on disciplinary probation and possibly suspension. If it continued to happen with other officers, I would have a serious chat with the captain of the training division. I want my patrol officers making good arrests and preventing crime, not eating up valuable time with arrests that do absolutely nothing to make the city a better place to live, and are going to get dismissed anyway. I can't begin to tell you all the times I've been disrespected while wearing a badge, but it doesn't mean you escalate the situation so you wind up arresting the person in order to get even or to prove some point. A cop has to learn to deal with his or her emotions and hopefully they will get the appropriate training to learn how to effectively deal with the emotions of the public.

[Poohbah]

You seem to have the mistaken idea that the officer plays no role in escalating a situation.

Nope. I'm saying that the officer can be absolutely committed to de-escalation, but that said commitment will be useless if the person being cited is committed to being a belligerent a$$hole.