The police are given training on how to defuse a situation, so making an arrest should be easier. Obviously if someone is continuing to be obnoxious, they have to be restrained but the techniques are also taught. There are one or two bad apples and they taint all the decent coppers.
Many people who appear before the courts now have mental health problems. I'm not saying this person had mental health problems but there are a lot on the streets who aren't getting any help or keeping up with their medication.
It sounded great, in the 80s, closing the mental health...