Hey, I'm not a police officer, so this may be a silly question, but wouldn't it be better to just teach the police officers to not use large, improvised weapons to subdue suspects, and to give them equipment and training that provides alternatives to using a flashlight to take somebody down? I'm pretty sure that anybody who's resisting arrest is going to face a fairly unpleasant experience with their arresting officer no matter what technique they use. (Again, though, I can imagine there are better tools for the job than a flashlight.) This seems to continually surprise people in the media, though. Since the officers almost certainly carried firearms, a flashlight doesn't seem all that lethal to me, but I can imagine that incorrectly wielded, it might tend to injure someone more severely than was warranted by their actions. Not trying to be a smart-aleck, I just really want to know - because this seems like a silly way to solve the problem. I mean, yeah, when I'm carrying a big maglight out in the woods, at night, the notion that it's a big friggin' club is reassuring. But then again, I'm a civilian, so I'm liable to do all sorts of questionable things when surprised or distressed that a trained professional simply would not do. (At least that's my naive assumption about trained, professional police officers.)