Why should the rider have "known" it was a cop?
Because he is in a car that is very commonly used as an unmarked car around here and unmarked police cars use
very distinctive license plates so there would have been no question when the car was in front of him. Further, there was a marked cruiser there as well, just watch the video from the news broadcast.
Actually the cop CLAIMS that by visual he was doing 100mph and pulling wheelies. The biker just said he was speeding]
In the video you can clearly see him wheelie, darn straight he pulled a wheelie. Yes, the cop says that he had him going over 100mph. I don't know about other states, but in MD a cop following you and saying you went a certain speed is enough for a judge to uphold a ticket. The video he posted also clearly shows him going
much faster than traffic (even if you don't want to trust what you see on his speedometer), and trust me, MD traffic isn't exactly slow moving (when it is moving).
Cops that dress in disguise and drive unmarked vehicles risk their own lives when they produce a weapon.
So you think undercover and unmarked police should be put at risk, that they are wrong for being unmarked or undercover? Wow.
Now, if you want to argue whether unmarked cars should be used for traffic stops, we'll probably agree. I think it is a bad policy (how do I know who you are, at least until you present a badge). However, we aren't debating policy here, but the policeman's actions. In MD it is policy to use unmarked cars and un-uniformed cops for traffic duties. The cop was doing his job, and doing it correctly.
Also, he looks backwards in the video and only sees the unmarked car with no lights on at all
Watch the news broadcast, they show some of his video. If you somehow missed it on his video, you'll clearly see it on the news broadcast (they point it out if you do miss it), the marked police cruiser is clearly there (around 2:27 on the broadcast).
The fact is that he even turned himself in over the incident because he knew he ****ed up and got caught.
He was ticketed for speeding. Then he posted his illegal video and got a call from his mom that the cops were there looking for him.
Departments allow for off-duty officers to have arrest powers, but they're also much more strict on the use of those powers when the officer is out of uniform.
He wasn't off duty, he was unmarked, big difference (actually, in MD it isn't that big- off duty officers have full police powers, not that it matters since he wasn't off duty, he was unmarked).
He should NOT have pulled a gun in that situation.
Why not? He was at the ready position, it wasn't pointed at anyone. He had every reason to think something was about to happen- this guy led the police on a chase at insane speeds and was backing up (to get away, to put distance between him and the cop to run him over, to put distance between them to buy time to draw, no way of knowing). The guy had shown reckless disregard to his own safety and that of everyone on that road. He showed that he was potentially dangerous and possibly not thinking clearly. The cop then put it away when everything was clearly under control. I'm not so willing to say the cop shouldn't have drawn.
The cop took it wayyy to far trying to arrest him for something else later
He recorded the audio of the encounter (illegal in MD without the expressed consent of the other party) and then posted it very publically on You Tube, that is the only reason he was arrested (not some cop trying to "get" him, he was actually let off quite easy at the scene- that kind of driving he could have lost his license and been taken to jail, and he was ticketed and let go). The video would have been OK if he released it without sound. If I taped you without your consent (audio, video is OK) and you complained to the authorities I'd be arrested- MD takes that law very seriously.
Why do you think they have to knock and announce who they are before serving a warrant (arrest or search)?
Not true at all. "No Knock" warrants are actually quite common (and a terrible idea)- look them up.
Now, I think I want to bow out of this discussion. I grew up in Columbia MD. The local police there are terrible. I grew up in an upper middle-class home in an upper middle-class community (i.e. I shouldn't draw attention), I was always law abiding. Yet due to the hostility of Howard County police to people in their mid teens through upper 20s I grew up mistrusting and even fearing the police (one local teen back in the 80's when I was in high school was found dead after filing an excessive force complaint). Finding myself on the cop's side here (since it appears to me that he did nothing wrong) is actually a rather uncomfortable position. I know the police have a lot of latitude to abuse their positions, I've seen it, but I don't think that is what happened here.