Originally Posted by
747FC
What a misinformed view of the world. Police are called on by the public (including corporations) to keep order. Without them, the world would be chaotic indeed.
Once police are called to lawfully enforce laws/the peace, they will attempt to achieve compliance with their verbal directives. After a subject repeatedly refuses verbal commands, there is NO alternative but to force compliance by physical means. Once force is used, bodily injury may occur, both to the subject as well as the police.
Let us use an analogy: Someone is trespassing on your front lawn. You ask him to leave and he refuses. You call the police and they ask the subject to leave, and he still refuses. Do you really want the police to say "Sorry, Sir, I asked the trespasser to leave but he refused. We have to leave him on your front lawn because there is a danger that he might be injured if we employ physical means to ensure compliance. Have a good night. Bye."
It's a rough analogy (particularly since what I would expect/want applied in the case of a private residence is different from what I would expect to see applied in a public setting). There are, in fact, circumstances where the police would be justified in saying "We're not getting involved" or, alternatively, "We've spoken to the guy over there and we're not making an arrest". An otherwise paying patron in a restaurant who was seated and then declined to be "moved on" to make way because the host(ess) screwed up in seating them but was otherwise peaceable comes to mind...I could easily see the cops point blank telling the restaurant owner "It is not worth the time or paperwork for me to do this". And even in the "front lawn" case, I could see cases where the cops in many counties would be disinclined to actually "get physical" with someone (depending on who was known to whom, etc.; I can produce a fact pattern where the cops would decline to act).
(Actually, I have a friend who was an LA cop back in the 60s who told me the story of a traffic stop for a minor moving violation. He pulls over a little old lady, I think for speeding, and goes to her window. She doesn't roll it down. He taps on the window and gestures for her to roll it down. She doesn't, and she looks scared as anything. He ended up just letting her go. As he said, "What was I supposed to do, smash in her window?")
In this case, it probably
would have been less trouble for the cops to say "Nope, not going to help you on this one."