Police are pretty touchy these days. Make anything they identify as an 'aggresive move' toward them, and they nail you. I guess they classify this in the same manner as if he spat on the cop.
Makes them look like a bunch of wimps. I don't have a lot of sympathy for this guy, as he has already done enough, in my book, to be 'locked up and throw away the key', but c'mon....