Cops do enjoy the (un)due power vested in them by law, by the way of these latitudes that you talk about. So are the notions of "contempt of court" and such. Why should the cop have behaved any differently in this particular case? Why was the arrest stupid?
It was stupid because it was a waste of scarce public resources. It did not serve the interests of the state or the community. It was a choice the cop made that was based on personal emotion that pales by comparison with the public interests.
