[Above My Pay Grade]

I don’t know why he approached him. I would love to find out so we could intelligently discuss that, rather than speculate.

However, I don’t think he needed much of a reason to approach and when the guy refused the reasonable and minimally intrusive instruction to take his hand out of his pocket and immediately became agitated, the officer had a totally valid reason to fear for his safety. Unholstering his gun seemed like a reasonable precaution to prepare himself in the event he needed to escalate use of force. Despite the taper contuing to yelling in a confrontationial manner and being uncooperative, the officer chose not to escalate and actually deescalated the situation.

[papertyger]

However, I don’t think he needed much of a reason to approach and when the guy refused the reasonable and minimally intrusive instruction to take his hand out of his pocket and immediately became agitated, the officer had a totally valid reason to fear for his safety.

Bull! The guy became agitated because the cop immediately took up a low-ready firing position after his order was refused.

Only after the taper told the cop he had no reason to draw his weapon did the cop start to lose confidence in his actions and release his supporting hand.

Unholstering his gun seemed like a reasonable precaution to prepare himself in the event he needed to escalate use of force.

He drew and took up a low-ready posture. That is NOT the same as "unholstering" his weapon.

Despite the taper contuing to yelling in a confrontationial manner and being uncooperative, the officer chose not to escalate and actually deescalated the situation.

Yeah, after he was told the tape was going out over Youtube. And lets be clear here, the cop is the one that initiated a confrontation, any reasonable man would be uncooperative with suffering battery under color of law.