When Johnny Crackhead leaves the store with a garbage bag of loot, the officer goes to arrest him, and the guy offers some level of resistance. He gets wrestled

When Johnny Crackhead leaves the store with a garbage bag of loot, the officer goes to arrest him, and the guy offers some level of resistance. He gets wrestled to the ground cuffed and arrested. The guy getting arrested files a brutality claim, and the cop is jammed up for a few days with pay. Because the garbage bags of shampoo and shaving cream are <$1500, it’s petit larceny, and the DA won’t prosecute. So the guy gets printed and released assuming no warrants. When the cop gets off of the leave, the sergeant sits him down and says “Hey asshole, officer bob over there missed his kids concert covering your dumb ass. The lieutenant is pissed because you’re burning his budget.” Police aren’t idiots and faced with knee-jerk policy, they take the pragmatic approach - do nothing. Same thing happened with shootings. Pre 1990s, people pulling knives on officers would get beaten with a club. Lawsuits/liability made it more pragmatic to leap to lethal force.