I think it's not exactly that American police are trained to escalate, but that the culture is highly authoritarian, which changes their meaning of "escalation"

I think it's not exactly that American police are trained to escalate, but that the culture is highly authoritarian, which changes their meaning of "escalation". Anything short of instantaneous and absolute deference and obedience is viewed as a threat. If that standard exceeds your ability to comply (e.g. deaf/hard-of-hearing, serious mental illness, dementia, traumatic brain injury), then your existence is implicitly threatening to them.