“I am not ashamed to admit my fear of criminals, it makes me cautious.”
Nothing wrong with being cautious and since you’re not a cop then it’s appropriate that you don’t deal with the public the same way as a cop should.
I just think escalating a situation like this where there are a lot of scared teenagers who were being rousted from a pool party was not the actions of a trained professional.
You mentioned an altercation when you were 13, these kids were 14-16 and being that it’s suburbia and the fact that they weren’t rioting, no throwing rocks no weapons, i’m not surprised they acted like they did when the cop started running back and forth screaming obscenities at them. I’m sure they were terrified.
I think the cop got over the line. I know I wouldnt want to be manhandled maced or shot because some idiot cop was pissed off and lost his temper but I’m not a teenager either so experience tells me to be calm myself.
I did not see the cop running around shouting anything, perhaps we saw two different videos. At 13, I knew that if I got into trouble with a police officer, my dad would have spanked the hell out of me. A teenager should know better than to provoke a police officer.