I found this interesting from Evan's link.
So all the times that there are claims that it's illegal to ride on the sidewalk are false. While I clearly understand why they discourage it and it can cause incidents, I do find it interesting that many times cyclists state "it's against the law for me to be on the sidewalk" as a reason for being on the road. It seems to me that if you're in a dangerous situation on the road, that the sidewalk is a viable alternative in which you just need to make sure you stop at all road crossings and look before entering the street.
As for my own experience, I generally try to show courtesy to cyclists on the road and seem to get the same in return. I regularly run into them riding on the "back" side of Hoover and haven't really run into any issues. Not sure they like the sound level of my FD exhuast though. haha.
For the guy in the OP's story, if he was riding above the speed limit in that area then he deserved to be ticketed. If he was being an ass when questioned by police for it then he deserved to be tazed and I'm happy that they're holding him accountable. As stated before, if you want to use the road you can't pick and choose when you want to pay attention to the laws (looking at those damn red light riders out there).