what force is reasonable?

ocalhoun

Okay, if you show violent intentions (by the driving style) and then reach in your pocket, the police are going to fire. They may be wrong in thinking that you are going to pull out a gun, but it would be worse for them to assume that you were not, and be wrong about that. If you want to survive as a cop, you have to assume the worst a lot of the time. There is a reason for such a policy. If cops gave people the benefit of a doubt in such situations, then cops would be ridiculously easy to kill, it would be easy to be faster at the draw when the cop can't draw until you've already got your gun in hand and in sight.

Apparently these cops share some philosophy with the training I had in the military. If you shoot, you don't shoot to injure or to intimidate. You shoot to kill. If that takes two clips to be sure of victory, then so be it.

I would think that everybody would know that if you're disobeying a cop, and bumping him with your car besides, you should be careful not to make any action that could be interpreted as reaching for a weapon. By doing so, you authorize them to use deadly force.

smarter

Judging post factum the reaction of these cops appears as excessive.

But the cops are still people. Even after years of police work they can get scared and react accordingly.
Also we will never know what exactly happened there. Anyway it is hard to judge what was a reasonable
reaction.

Groups of young males (generally perceived as more likely to act violently) should refrain from acting with any hostility toward cops.

In general I don't blame the cops for acting violently. In the end police is what keeps anarchy at bay. And of course some of them are stupid, corrupt, racist.