Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting. Napoleon Hill
Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash
There is a video making the rounds on social media, of two police officers trying to take a suspect into custody. The male, allegedly a shoplifter, is tall and wiry. He is actively resisting the efforts of the two smaller officers, who persist even as the struggle spills out into the fruits and vegetables department. The cops aren’t winning, but they aren’t losing, either. It’s something of a stalemate.
Nearly a minute after the video begins, two more officers arrive. Presumably, they have been alerted by a call for assistance. Their presence tips the balance of power, and the suspect is quickly subdued. Problem solved.
Did I forget to add that the original officers in the struggle are women?
Social media noticed. The point of the original post was to alert casual observers that two women cops could not subdue one dude. The secondary intent was to provoke the sorts of keyboard warriors who traffic in this kind of thing, to have them line up in predictable order decrying DEI, women in policing and perhaps women in the workforce in general.
Of course that’s what happened. The parade of…
This is where I usually launch a rant, the subject being the general ignorance of people who typically comment on things about which they know little. Since there are so many other of my pieces to sample, let me just post a few calm remarks, and move on.
Many years ago, a college professor named George Kirkham made the daft decision to take a leave of absence from academia and join a police department. He did so, quickly resuming his teaching career but continuing his law enforcement job part time for two decades. The excellent book Signal Zero resulted.
So what, right? Except, when he and his partner got into a tussle with a suspect one night Dr. Kirkham broke his flashlight over the guy’s head. “Wow, you’re a real brawler” the other cop said. That was that.
Can you imagine, in 2025, seeing one of the police officers in the posted video cracking this guy over the head with a flashlight? Set aside that modern illumination devices are small and light. Pick your poison. He or she would spend the next several months on some form of alternative duty while city officials tried to negotiate the minefield of public opinion, plaintiff’s attorneys and the DOJ. Social media would erupt, and the memes would be savage.
So today’s officers are left with what? Tazers? They can be the 21st Century version of the multiple-cell flashlight (those who began their careers in the 70s, like me, remember the company name we all turned into a generic). The rules about “The Lightening” can be difficult to navigate when you have a fist full of uncooperative suspect with which to contend.
Did you turn on your body-worn camera? Is your weapon secure? Is the suspect fighting, actively or passively resisting? What is a reasonable amount of force, given that there are two of you? Your blood is up and you’d love to smash this guy’s face into the avocado display, but what will the hand-wringing types in your chain of command think of that when the videos are posted on X before you even get the arrestee back to the station?
There’s a lot to consider, and not a lot of time. The suspect has only one goal - avoid arrest. There is no way for the officers to know how far he is willing to go to accomplish that. Will he kill them? To stop him, will they have to use deadly force just to stay alive? They live with a law library full of rules. His only rule may be, “Do whatever it takes.”
Fighting to a draw until help arrives is often the best of many shitty alternatives, no matter the gender of the officers. We’ve all done it. And every street cop will do it again.
So, spare me the “Two female cops against one guy” post. Forty-six years ago it was me and one of my buddies - two young men. When his weapon was jarred loose from his holster and fell on the floor, the fight took an ugly turn. I was “treated and released.” So was the suspect. We all got lucky, and I got to go home that night.
So did those female officers who, in the end, did the job expected of them.