I completely agree with you. I didn’t see it as a big deal that the guy had parked across several spots in an empty lot, and I don’t see why the cop bothered with it, but clearly, he was already by the car when Sterling Brown came out of the store, so that at the time he’d chosen to go after the violation, he wasn’t doing it based on Brown’s race. Moreover, at the inception of the incident, and even after Brown had repeatedly refused to take a step back despite being asked to do so multiple times, the cop spoke of giving Brown a parking ticket, so he wasn’t imagining the incident would further escalate the way it did (though he did wisely call for backup because he saw a danger there). The reality, as we all know, is that in situations like this, being a nice, reasonable person will often result in the police officer letting you off with a warning (and, at worst, Brown would’ve gotten a parking ticket and nominal fine), whereas if you act like a standoffish jerk who makes it difficult for the cop to do his job, then you’ll get a different result.

In addition to what you noted, I also think the cop was a bit inappropriate and confrontational when he said, “I own this.” But these minor indiscretions — pursuing a technical violation that wasn’t really a big deal and then acting a bit too macho — are really the only things the cop did wrong, in my view. The rest of the incident was entirely Brown’s fault for all the reasons I described in the original article. And, most importantly, I see no indication that what happened had anything to do with race or racism.