A few problems: 1) He appeared to snatch the phone recording the video and throw it aside". No, the phone recording the video wasn't touched. The man whose phone was taken was too close to the scene (right up next to the cruiser's door) and he needed to be moved. Not sure why he took and threw THAT phone, but the throw was clearly not done in an attempt to damage it (the officer looked for, and threw the phone onto grass not concrete) 2) The arrested man claims he left the scene when asked first time but was arrested anyway. The officer claims the man refused to leave. Which is it? Let's figure that out before condemning either side. 3) It is not clear from the video (or the story) why the woman and teenager were removed from the vehicle. Neither side explained that. 4) For the sake of argument, assume the 3 people needed to be removed from their vehicle and controlled... How else should he control them? Cuffs and on the floor at taser point is clearly what the officer opted for. What would you have done? Think of it from the cop's angle. He is dealing with a person for diving with a fake license plate, and a car full of people drives right up to the back of his cruiser and acts in an aggressive manner. Tactically the cop is now in a bad place, stuck between a man who needs to being arrested on one side of his cruiser and a man who is angry enough about that arrest to interfere with the scene behind him. He can't simply ignore the car behind him, and if the car won't leave when asked he can't simply walk away from it. I still have a question about what the woman and teen did to require them to be removed from the vehicle (Did he remove them himself despite them being 100% passive, compliant and quiet? or did they get out and in his face once the male was arrested, requiring them to be controlled too?) I also want to know what prompted him to grab the other man's phone. Beyond that I see nothing but an outnumbered cop staying in control while waiting for backup.