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It seems that after last week’s Tasering in Powell Library, everyone has become an expert on police conduct.

Each student is ready to opine on whether or not a Taser actually hurts that badly, or on whether Mostafa Tabatabainejad was actively resisting the officers.

But in the midst of the debate, we’re missing the point.

The conversation should not be about whether officers used excessive force in this specific case, but rather about what kind of police force we want to serve us.

Do we want one that blindly enforces rules, jumping to the use of force without regard to situation or circumstances?

Or do we want a police force that prides itself on public service with sound judgment and restraint?

I argue the latter. We should have a police force that works to resolve conflicts not as gun-slinging (or Taser-toting) enforcers, but rather as community partners who work with discretion to ensure the safety, dignity and trust of our community.

Students present that night were horrified by the officers’ conduct, and more than a few students, myself included, have been left wondering if they’ll ever trust the police again.

Los Angeles has seen this situation before.

The beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police Department officers in 1991 escalated public rage against the police force that eventually led to the L.A. riots.

In 1998, residents living under the purview of the LAPD’s Rampart Area just west of downtown lost most of their confidence in the department when allegations arose that officers had covered up the brutal beating and asphyxiation of a gang member.

Now, it’s not like student groups are getting ready to torch Murphy Hall. In fact, it’s laudable that they’ve refrained, for the most part, from unleashing their militant rhetoric and instead stuck with poise and restraint in the past week.

But after the incident in Powell, as in Watts and MacArthur Park, the resulting enmity between the community and its police threatens to divide the two in a way that will threaten both the ability of the police to do their job effectively and our safety.

If university police does nothing to assuage the rage directed at them by the UCLA community, they risk facing a distrustful student body and more noncompliant students like Tabatabainejad who view the police as an enemy and not a friend.

But it need not be. In the wake of the revelations of LAPD brutality in the Rampart Area, the city commissioned an independent review of LAPD policy that we can learn from today.

Beyond its technical recommendations, the review advocated a change of culture. The LAPD was to be a department whose officers took a problem-solving mind-set into the field instead of hard-charging into situations as they had in the past.

An officer with such a mind-set would have come into Powell Library looking to talk down an angry student and help him verify his identity, without immediately resorting to confrontation.

Folks such as my colleague and archrival David Lazar have argued that after the Tasering we should give the police the benefit of the doubt in use-of-force controversies.

I say no.

The police are the only people in the country licensed to use force. If there is ever a question that they’ve used that license in a manner contrary to what their community expects, there should be an immediate response to the community’s demands.

Why have neighborhoods rioted over this point? Because to expect anything less would be undemocratic.

Students will not feel safe until we know that every officer licensed to use force has the ability and training to do so judiciously.

UCPD needs to put on leave Officer Terrence Duren, who discharged the Taser into Tabatabainejad, until his conduct that night is officially and independently reviewed.

We should expect more of our police than just blind-rule enforcement. Officers must solve problems rather than bluntly neutralize them.

They must treat everyone, no matter who they are, with dignity and respect. To expect anything less from the only people we allow to use guns and Tasers on us would be simply absurd.

If you’re still wondering how to pronounce Tabatabainejad, e-mail Reed at treed@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.