Bringing the police in to deal with relatively minor schoolyard incidents teaches kids the lesson that they, their teachers, their parents, and their community, are incapable of, and have no responsibility to, handle their own little problems. This is an idea that does not need any further encouragement.

Furthermore, kids, teachers, parents, and communities have a great deal of flexibility in how they respond to any particular incident; the police often seem to be bound by laws and protocols that have the effect of escalating a relatively trivial incident into a crisis, sometimes on the international arena. 'Zero tolerance' policies can have a similar effect.