The cop was hot and unless he is emotionally unsuited for his work, someone did something to stimulate his emotions...
The source might not have been Brown and the officer probably over reacted but something set his hair on fire. CNS seemed to think Brown had a lesson to learn from this. At the least, that would be learning the phrase, "Yes sir, I am leaving now." It takes two to tango right? Bottom line ... I am going to let my coins ride on "don't rush to judgement" for one more roll of the dice.
Let's review what you said. The cop lost his cool, and unless he's emotionally unsuited for his job, he had to have had good reason to loose his cool. Then you allude to the two to tango, and you're right, it takes two people for a cop to pepper spray someone other than himself.
What could justify what apparently happened? Back talking? Nope, a hidden weapon? A direct verbal threat? That's about it. Unless Tony did something quite specific, to threaten the police officer, his actions were 100% unwarranted and unjustifiable, and it doesn't matter if Tony said something about the guy's mother. By all appearances yes, the police officer was emotionally unsuited for his work, because following a guy around yelling at him, then pepper spraying him, then once he was on the ground waving your gun around is exactly how a nutjob acts. It just so happens we live in a society that tolerates this kind of behavior from certain people in authority. We put nutjobs in powerful positions and sadly nutjobs seek those positions out.
I'm particularly annoyed by your assertion that Tony just had to have said the wrong thing, and the two to tango line. So what if he didn't say sir, so what if he mouthed off? That somehow warrants being violently assaulted? Are you serious? This abuse of authority tolerance we have is sickening, and let's analyze it from another perspective. Let's say you have a kindergarten teacher, and one of her students is just a foul mouthed little brat. If the teacher suddenly lost their cool, whipped out the pepper spray, and starts abusing the child, would you roll out the two to tango, didn't say sir talk? No, of course not, because we understand how severe the abuse of authority is when an adult becomes violent with a child.
But, in this instance it was just a teenager, and a police officer armed with various weapons, so then it becomes something we might defend. Hey, Tony might have had a smart mouth on him, he might have deserved it... no, unless Tony did something violent, or threatened something violent, he did not deserve it! Abuse of authority is intolerable, and whether it's coming from the TSA, the principle of a school, a police officer, a congressman, whomever, authority is the side that has to be held to the higher standard! That's what upsets me so much with the defense of this sort of thing. Tony is not empowered by the state, Tony is not in a position of authority, if anything, it's the police officer that should go around being polite, and saying sir, and bending over backwards to serve, which is in fact their job. It's become backwards when we expect civilians to walk on tiptoes around hair trigger police officers, that's despicable.
