Somebody has kindly answered for me, Harpy, I forget their "handle", but thanks.
The point here, I think, is that a police officer, and a reasonably senior one at that,should A) know the law, and B)in the present circumstances have enough sense not to break the law.
I would accept that 99.99% of pax would not know that they are actually committing an offence by "joking" about having a weapon etc etc in their possession, and under those circumstances a private bollocking by a uniform might suffice~if they continued to be unrepentant, then being denied boarding would probably prove both a sufficient and salutary lesson.
In this case, the individual most certainly should have known better. Even if he had a couple of pre-hol drinks, the fact that he was asked to repeat his remarks should have been sufficient warning that he had overstepped the mark. If he had enough alcohol to impair his judgement, then he should have been denied boarding anyway.
Sorry to drone on, but we in the industry are already suffering enough from "knee-jerk" reactions of various sorts, and writing this as an airline captain, I and the rest of my colleagues already see enough mindless behaviour by pax without having officialdom adding to it.