Once upon a time I was at a relative's house when they were away and went to a neighbor's house to borrow something. The neighbor, whom I knew well, wasn't home, but their kid was visiting, whom I didn't know. Now, I don't know what the kid was thinking but after I left, he called the police and reported a stranger'd cpme to his door. Odd, because I'd known those folks for years and he'd never been around. Later, I heard this was something he'd done many times before. Anyway, the first I knew of it, here're a couple of sheriff's deputies coming at me with their guns drawn.

To answer your question, no, I didn't go off on them. I'm not an idiot, I hadn't been drinking, I've got respect for the law, can look people in the eye and wasn't looking to get shot right then. They were polite enough, unless you count drawing down on me as rude. I wasn't too busy to let them put me under submission, interrogate me and check out my story.

Ultimately, after an hour or so on the ground with my hands cuffed behind my back, and my story checking out better than that creep that tried to get me killed, they let me be. One of the deputies, who turned out to be a friend of the family, sent word later that he was sorry about the whole thing. I had a strongly worded conversation with the kid a month or two after that.

We don't know what we don't know about this confrontation. I can imagine it was something like what happened to me. Still, from what we do know, the pedestrian doesn't seem to've done anything wrong. To my mind, the cop is the one escalating. I don't buy his claim he wants to have a conversation about the pedestrian's behavior. He's gone beyond maintaining a command bearing and into intimidation. He's sweating the guy, and seems to think panicking him is getting him somewhere. Reminds me of the pointless arrest of Sandra Bland that led to her death. Power tripping cop power tripping.