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had the jerk not given his ATTITUDE from the very beginning I doubt that there would have been any arrest

In a lot of these kinds of situations, if you can get the guy away from the woman he's showing off for, get him in cuffs, and give him a chance to calm down, he'll finally come to the conclusions that the rules also apply to him, and agree to sign the cite. I'd say it happens more than half the time in the multitude of similar events I've been present at. If you can't get him into cuffs, though, all bets are off. I've seen guys behaving exactly the same way who suddenly attacked, I've seen them run off, I've seen them pull out knives. You really don't know whether all the confrontational chatter is an attempt to distract you or not. This guy has been on the HP for 14 years, so I'm almost certain he's seen a whole lot of these kinds of situations and knows that if he loses control, everybody's likely to get hurt.

“This guy has been on the HP for 14 years, so I’m almost certain he’s seen a whole lot of these kinds of situations and knows that if he loses control, everybody’s likely to get hurt.”

This cop had lost control; control of himself. His use of the taser was a band aid for his ego. I’m guessing it was because he made a bad stop (speed trap) and realized this guy wasn’t gonna just accept the ticket.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought the driver was behaving very erratically. It's unusual for a person to start arguing right from the get-go, and it makes the situation a whole lot worse when the wife jumps right in and has a go at him at the same time. If the officer is factually wrong about the 40 MPH zone, that's easy to fight in court (and contrary to a lot of posters here at FR, traffic court is amateur night, you don't need a lawyer; the court rules are greatly relaxed as long as you're not acting like a dork and waiting your turn to speak).

Here's what I noticed about the driver that would've raised big flags:

When instructed to show license and registration, the driver instead starts arguing. It's strange that a driver would be so resistant to show his license. Sure raises a flag that this guy has warrants.
When the officer is done writing the ticket and approaches the vehicle for the second time, the brake lights come on. That's a huge flag, this guy is working the pedals like he's getting ready to run.
When the driver exits his car, he immediately walks back PAST the officer.
When instructed to put his hands behind his back, the driver instead walks back toward his own vehicle while reaching into his pockets. Not smart.
When the driver is stopped from getting back to his vehicle, the wife exits the car quickly. Many a cop has been shot in this exact scenario.
With the driver still on the ground, the wife exits the car again and runs straight at the officer. I'm surprised she wasn't staring down his service pistol at this point.
While cuffing the guy and removing the taser leads, the guy is still babbling about his ticket. A normal person at this point wouldn't give a **** about their ticket, they'd be more concerned with not racking up charges and keeping their wife cooled out so that she stays safe and out of jail.
The wife is screaming incoherently the whole time she's in the vehicle with the door shut. You'd think she'd be exhibiting a little fear at this point, but she's absolutely raging and you can see that she's crawling all over the inside of that vehicle. Definitely exhibiting signs of being under the influence of something stronger than alcohol.
While talking to the wife, dude gets up and comes right at the cop, who struggles to keep the guy at arms length.

Both of these people didn't seem sober to me, and the driver tried to flee the scene.