“In the movie ‘Wyatt Earp”, Wyatt disagrees with Ed Masterson working as a lawman, believing him to be too passive (Earp described Ed Masterson thusly — “He’s amicable”. However, the Dodge City council decides that Ed is more acceptable than Wyatt due to the latter’s excessive force, and fires him, appointing Ed to take his place. Ed Masterson is then later shot dead in the street.”
Yeah. That’s a movie. This isn’t really Dodge City those teenage kids aren’t really drunken cowboys and this cop isn’t Wyatt Earp.
If he’s not in control of himself enough to maintain his professional training, you know, like the other two cops then he doesn’t have any business as a cop.
I’ll give you it’s a hard job and I’m sure any number of people or situations can make you see red. He’s supposed to be a professional who’s trained to not go ballistic because some high school kids were being mouthy or not respecting his authority.
The reality is that he was dealing with the same situation that a typical high school teacher handles daily some unruly suburban teenagers.
You can check my posting history and see that I’m not gentle on bad cops or law enforcement that serves an evil purpose. But I’m cutting this particular guy some slack...he followed standard procedures for bringing down and handcuffing someone resisting detention. Situations can get out of control.
Maybe he COULD have used better judgment in retrospect, but he was in the situation REAL TIME without the benefit of Monday morning quarterbacking.