PERSPECTIVE ON LAW ENFORCEMENT : Push Comes to Shove and Everyone’s Expert : In any plan for arresting violent subjects, human behavior is the wild card that must be dealt with instantaneously.

As the officers convicted in the Rodney King civil-rights trial prepare to be sentenced, U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and FBI Director William Sessions are under a barrage of career-threatening criticism for their decision to use force at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex. Can cops, even with the best equipment and training, meet the expectations of a public educated at the college of television fiction and informed by so-called media experts?

In the King beating, two separate jury trials established that, when stopped at the end of a police pursuit, King did not submit to arrest. As corroborated by independent witnesses, the first baton blow struck was in response to King’s lunging at Officer Laurence Powell. Seconds later, Powell was on the judicial conveyor belt on his way to becoming a convicted felon. Juror No. 9 in the King federal trial explained that he became convinced Powell was guilty of a felony by one single videotaped baton stroke Powell administered to King’s chest during the 81-second police incident.

Yes, the jury system worked in the case. It did its duty as instructed by the judge. What does this mean to other cops? How does one subdue a Rodney King--physically, at the moment; not as a second guess, but in the street at 3 in the morning at the end of a police pursuit?

In another police snafu, four agents of the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau were killed by Koresh and his religious fanatics as they raided his home. The storm of criticism, like that after the King beating, was extraordinary. Everyone was suddenly an expert on law enforcement. Retired Col. Charlie Beckwith, commander of the failed Iran hostage-rescue attempt, came out of the woodwork to criticize ATF for bad planning. Commentators questioned why the agents didn’t wait until Koresh came outside to arrest him. People who would never tell a fry cook how to scramble eggs on a grill had all the answers: Wait. Don’t wait, more weapons. Fewer weapons, shoot. Don’t shoot, less force. More force.

No one gave credit to ATF for being a hands-on law enforcement agency that has been arresting freaks like Koresh year after year without incident. ATF had failed. Like the Los Angeles Police Department the moment after the King beating, its reputation dissolved. Suddenly, ATF agents were incompetent, poorly led and foolhardy. The FBI took over the Koresh problem and negotiated with him for 51 days, finally deciding that further negotiations were fruitless.

Then, after extensive planning, FBI agents executed their plan to arrest Koresh. It didn’t work either. People died. Was it because of poor planning or tactics? No, it was because, as in the King incident and the ATF raid, human behavior proved to be unpredictable.

Proper procedures were followed in these events. In the Rodney King beating, a sergeant shot King with Taser darts to get him to submit without a struggle. The feds in Waco chose tear gas rather than submachine guns to flush out Koresh. Nothing worked as planned. The human factor prevailed.

There is no magic way to arrest a combative suspect without the risk of physical harm. Even the best hostage-rescue team has no sure-fire way of saving children from an insane murderer like Koresh. Ask the detectives investigating the murder of two Compton police officers killed after a routine traffic stop two months ago--or those who handled the 1971 Attica prison hostage situation. There, authorities, taking advice from well-meaning non-professionals, allowed outsiders to act as middlemen in the negotiations. The result: 39 dead and 80 wounded. In real life, sometimes it just doesn’t work out right. Human will, rather than regulation, controls police conflicts.

Would King have peaceably submitted to authority if the officers had just stood there and done nothing for an hour or two? Would Koresh have surrendered if the FBI had waited a year? No one knows. But to those charged by law with arresting these men, the decision was never academic. It was practical. King was a convicted armed robber. Koresh had caused the murders of four federal agents. How would you have subdued King? What would you have done to save the children in the Koresh compound? Would you risk your career--or your life--on the outcome of your decision?

Society is not responsible for King’s drunk driving any more than it is responsible for Koresh’s homicidal insanity. Neither are law-enforcement officials. We should try to learn more about law enforcement and our crumbling judicial system if we want to change it. Though we should rightfully fear the power of the state and the unwarranted actions of law-enforcement officers, we must be reasonable and prudent. Though Matlock manages to wrap up the case neatly at the end of the show, it doesn’t always work out that way in real life.