Why is fleeing a crime in and of itself?

probably because often times it involves fighting and physical resistance, and in a number of other instances dangerous actions that can potentially put other people in a position of harm.

If fleeing wasn't a crime, an officer could initiate a traffic stop, and you could just not stop. Theoretically you could also make a law that says "if initiating a traffic stop, the individual must also stop, otherwise they are illegally fleeing" oh wait, that sounds familiar.

This is like arguing that not paying your taxes on time is perfectly legal because you paid them after the fact.

Trying not to have your life exploded is just a human reaction.

yeah, and to my knowledge, most people normally try to do this by being a polite and cordial individual who doesn't intentionally cause problems.

Fleeing is human. Criminalizing humanity is just another way to abuse power.

i mean, fighting is also human, and so is freezing. And if we're getting to the level of criminalizing humanity. Than i could very argue that we shouldn't criminalize rape because rape is a distinctly human experience, and it's an abuse of power to wield that crime over someones head, for something as human as rape.

Body Cameras are nice. When they’re aimed correctly, or turned on, or even exist in that police department. But the problem remains that a police officer need do nothing but accuse you and rough you up. Even with a body camera that gets a conviction. Unsurprisingly 5 guys pretending to wrestle a 100 pound drug addict sells to a jury. Compliance does not matter. You can be the most compliant person in the world. They can accuse you of letting your body become dead weight. If you try to help them then you’re actively resisting. Either way gets you face down with a taser in your ass.

yeah, agreed, and these are all micro technicalities here. The sun is nice, until you get sunburnt, the road is nice, until you fall on it, and scrape your knee. Cars are nice, until you get into a wreck and your shit gets imploded. Frankly if we're talking about injustices against humanity, i think capital punishment is probably a bigger problem, considering that numerous people, every year are wrongly executed.

Having empty cans is “open containers” in every state I’ve lived in.

it has to depend, if it's just sitting in your cupholder or something, that's pretty suspect, but if you've got cans crushed up and stomped into a garbage can or something, to be recycled, that's gotta legal. Otherwise doing literally anything other than throwing away empty beer cans would be a crime, and i'm almost certain a significant number of people recycle beer cans and bottles.

Your thought experiments are nice, but the police aren’t acting in good faith. The laws and thought experiments assume police act in good faith and it’s just not true.

which would be why the police aren't the only thing that determine your criminal status. Most police would realistically be operating in good faith, because at the end of the day, arresting someone means paper work, and also means transporting that person, as well dealing with any potential court hearings. It's less work to just let someone off the hook with a ticket or citation, than it is to arrest someone. And if police are not to be trusted, i see no reason for them to do more work than needed.