He had no justification for pulling his weapon in the first place, and thus no reason to simply switch to pepper spray.
It really is an amazement to me what city folks see as justification. If something seems off... THAT is justification.
De-escalation would have involved in putting the weapons away and simply explaining the reason for the stop, like a good police officer would have done.
He was not a good police officer.
Really. An non-compliant - PURPOSEFULLY non-compliant person - Still offering non-compliance, and you say put the weapons away? you don't know what's in the pocket of the door - you can't see that... or what might be on the floorboard, or hell, who might still be in the back damn seat, crouched down on the floorboards!
No, he had every right to stay armed. I would not have de-escalated, myself. I thought that to be too much trust.
It's not like he didn't see the tag in the back window. His claims that he couldn't see that was a lie.
LOL! How can you say that? If it is dark tinted, you literally can't see it. - MAYBE from 3-5 ft away in decent light, you might see it's outline... The very same thing happened to me, and in fact, you could not but barely see that tag, even with the light coming from behind it.
And it does not matter if he could somewhat see it anyway - It is to be CLEARLY VISIBLE.
I was pulled over by a cop who passed me going the other way, at a relative speed of over 90 mph, because the inspection sticker in my window was expired.....and he saw that at night, and he did not walk to the front of the vehicle to check it a second time...he just saw it the first time. That was a good cop doing a good stop. Cost me 15 bucks, that.
LOL! Plate ID software IDs the plate and they know before they even turn around who you are, wants and warrants against those plates, whether your tags are up to date, and whether you are insured. Nobody is seeing a tag at 90 mph, in the dark of night.