Re: Would it not be possible to give a patient list to the police...
I don't think those consequences were unintended.
Of course the situation is always more complex than any synopsis can convey. I have friends and relatives in the police, and I've known other good police officers who are deeply concerned with avoiding unnecessary violence and injury, applying the law fairly, and so forth. The post-2001 militarization of police forces is indeed a big problem. So is the ever-broadening mandate of police forces to deal with all the social problems that states and the public have given up on: domestic strife, child welfare (aggravated by popular dangerism), homelessness (often coupled with mental illness), alcohol and drug abuse, and various other ills. The war on social services that began during Nixon's presidency and has continued since has severely overburdened many police forces, and put officers in situations they're not adequately trained for, nor given resources to address properly.
Then we have the problem of similarly under-trained officers being asked to respond en masse to (supposed) hostage situations and the like, as in the Finch case, where they're inadequately informed and under-supervised.
And we have various Federal agencies trying to use local law enforcement as proxies (e.g. the TSA) or in conjunction with their own forces (e.g. the DEA, ATF, ICE, etc).
Meanwhile, abuse of qualified immunity, endorsed and encouraged by SCOTUS (particularly Antonin "Drop a Tree" Scalia, of blessed memory, and Clarence "Nothing's Cruel" Thomas), has emboldened those who'd like to see more police thuggery. And politicians know that on the balance "tough on crime" often gets them votes, particularly since a majority of Americans are convinced that violent crime is getting worse even though the opposite has been true for decades.