In considering violence, the celebrated writer Richard Rhodes sets up a dichotomy between impulse and choice. Rhodes has recently written a book entitled Why People Kill. Rhodes speaks of people having been more violent people in societies where violence has been more approved. And he holds that those who speak of impulse obscure the ingredient of choice in acts of violence.
Violence is the most primitive response to conflict.
We can see it on the Jerry Springer television show, where our most primitive citizens air their conflicts publicly and often have to be separated by Springer's enforcers. Children have resorted to violence against other children out of frustration. Even infants have been seen to flay away with their arms at other infants in conflict over possession of a toy. Cops have license to use violence under certain circumstances and need to control an impulse to cross the line into inappropriate use. That an impulse to violence exists in humans cannot be denied.