Wanna-be bikers mixing it up with the real thing
Well, that, too is an assumption.
Some cops can be genuine thugs, when with a group of their peers and off duty, i.e. a gang for all intents and purposes.
Wearing their colors in said bar could mean one of two things:
1. They're wannabes and they don't have a clue.
2. They were looking for a fight because they figured that, as a group, they could win, and it would be fun.
Cops should be able to go have fun with friends and family when they're off duty. However, there are a few things you ought to know you're signing up
not to do, when you become a cop. Drinking and brawling with outlaw bikers (and any other sort of outlaws) is one of these things.
Now, I've been to a cop's party, with a bunch of other cops, and he had a nice little indoor marijuana farm going -- and I'm talking about a LOT more than someone could smoke, not just personal use, here. That, too, is something they signed up
not to do, but that didn't seem to matter to any of them.
Secondhand, I've heard stories of brawls started by thuggish gangs of cops around here -- guess who wasn't charged with anything when it was over, and guess who was blackmailed not to. That didn't happen to me, but I had little reason to disbelieve those who came to work with bruises.
San Diego has had some high-profile cop aggression problems over the years, like an off-duty cop from Coronado (an island near San Diego) following Charger player Steve Foley across two jurisdictions after leaving his own, in his private car, then shooting him in his driveway, and another cop pulling over then bludgeoning Cara Knott, a 20-year-old SDSU student to death.
There is simply no, I repeat NO, reason to assume that these cops were in the right, here.
I don't think anyone should be condemned in the media, but automatic exoneration isn't any better. Let's see what the courts find.