LSSpam
Practice Squad
Offline
If you look at the cops face and body language right as he walks up, you can tell that he knew he was in the wrong. He tried his hardest to deflect the blame onto the rider.
Yep, it's practiced abuse of power. That sort of aggressive pushing right from the beginning is so off-putting it doesn't allow the other person the chance to even consider the situation. By laying blame and threats from the outset, the other person is immediately put in the position of defusing the conflict and trying to accommodate. Given any breadth of time, the cyclist might have built up enough self-righteous indignation about the situation to take a stand, but the cop kept the pressure on.
A "normal" person would have certainly gotten out and first thought "oh ****, this sucks". But a "normal" person doesn't typically carry enough day-to-day authority to be able to consistently bully their way out of trouble and therefore aren't as practiced.