She sounds like truly lovely lady. Frankly I find spitting in public minorly disgusting. It depends on the size and composition of the lougie. I understand sometimes you just gotta spit, like when you inhale fly while riding your bike. If I were an officer I would view the spitting as a threat because incarcerated criminals commonly use spitting as a weapon, albeit, a non-physical type of assault. Who knows what's in their saliva? They could have something contagious. Bottom line, she should have swallowed.