By now you probably have seen this disturbing video originally posted on Facebook by Don McComas of Rohnert Park.
According to the PD's article:
So I'd say the officer may well be guilty of "brandishing", but what about the citizen's behavior?? He sure seems antagonistic to me. If he had originally complied with the officer's reasonable (and I presume legal) request to remove his hand from his pocket, instead of resisting and then complying, it all would have gone differently.
Santa Rosa criminal defense attorney Paul Lozada said that the officer’s reason for visiting the neighborhood and talking with the man is essential to understanding whether police acted within the law.
Lozada said that any officer can have a “consensual” contact with an individual whether the person is suspected of a crime or not and, for example, ask that person to remove a hand from a pocket.
But the nature of the encounter changes once the officer begins demanding a person follow orders and pulls a gun. California law defines brandishing as drawing or exhibiting a deadly weapon or firearm in the presence of another person.
“It becomes a problem when he draws his gun,” Lozada said.
The officer “needs to have a reasonable suspicion that the person he’s talking to is engaged in some sort of criminal activity,” Lozada said. “If that man is not (suspected of a crime) this officer may have committed a misdemeanor brandishing offense.”
Lozada said that he believed there were enough questions about the officer’s behavior and called for the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office to review the incident.
“The officer has to have a reasonable suspicion when he tries to detain or order someone to do something,” Lozada said.
While I think it is true that there are many cases that the police create a problem or use excessive forces it's also true that citizens can provoke a problem unnecessarily. Police are people, too, and they are doing a very dangerous job. They have good reason to take lots of precautions, like asking someone to take their hand out of their pocket. Apparently drawing his gun when the citizen refuses is going too far, but only by a little, in my opinion. Where the officer really goes off the rails, IMO, is keeping his gun out after the citizen took his hand out of his pocket. But again, it was the citizen, that provoked this.
What do you think?