BCC said:
At best, a person following this course of action would spend the rest of their life in prison.
Depending on the situation that life could be measured in seconds, if you comply, or tens of seconds if you don't; at the time that the situation occurred in the report this was a possible outcome. Which is preferable risking court and jail, or death? Given that death is terminal, and doesn't leave many options I might also take court and jail.
Anyway more reasonably, I really cannot fathom the logic. The police rely on the people for information to help catch criminals which is their job. Alienating the public will prevent them from performing their job, so it's self defeating.
Everything has an element of risk associated with it, and police work is no different. You minimize the risk, without alienating the public, by say putting cuffs on and disarming the RP. If you can't handle the risk and behave rationally then you shouldn't be doing the job. Also as Ed mentioned, having a badge does not necessarily give you the right to do something that someone without a badge would be prosecuted for.
However in this particular officers instance, I would be very concerned with their response should the come across someone who does not comply. Given the demands that she made, would she have shot the RP if he had refused to relinquish his gun and allow himself to he cuffed? It's not known but I'd be really concerned based on this behavior.
As far as the LEO's complaining about regular people becoming a-holes, some have a predisposition, others don't. Some just become instant a-holes when some arrogant sumbitch with a uniform tells them to do something which infringes their legal rights (I have been known to be in this group from time to time). There's always two sides to every story, and maybe if you're finding a lot of people becoming less than polite, it might be an interesting exercise to review your behavior towards them to see whether you provoked that response before assuming that everyone else is at fault.