Besides all the police wanted to do was to look through his bag. Had he consented to a simple search he probably would have been taken in for further questioning and released, or arrested.
In a free society, why should you HAVE to allow the police to search through your bag? Would you consider it fair if I beat you up for not letting me search you?
As for the police dept. using excessive force, these are people who are armed with guns, tazers, batons, dogs, etc. They also have hundreds of units to back them up. There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON why they should have to kill an unarmed man just to take him in, even if he was guilty of a crime.
I also believe that punishments should be much stricter for police officers than what they are in most parts of the world. They are given an authority by the people and "with great power comes great responsibility." My impression of the American system is that there is a much harder line for citizens than there are for police officers. This is flawed because going easier on those with more power leads to abuse of that power.