Its not what you say or do, its what you say you do.  In a PR campaign semantics are everything, and every public encounter is a PR campaign.

I once had an officer cuss out a drunk while gently arresting him.  There was in fact minimal force used, IE lifting by the arms and carrying to the car.  Because of the language used the presumption of the neighbors was that the officers opened up a can of asswhup on the guy.  He was in fact uninjured and later told me he appreciated the officers picking him up so he didn't get mugged.

In another case a drug suspect resisted arrest forcefully and did need medical treatment.  The officers kept calmly asking him to stop fighting and that they didn't want to hurt him. I will leave it to your imagination as to how he was treated after he bit one of the cops.  While investigating the incident all of the neighbors who had been standing around complimented the officers for trying so hard not to hurt the guy. This happened on the same public housing block, and was witnessed by many of the same neighbors but occurred about 3 months later.

BTW, suspect in first incident paid a $25 fine for public intox, suspect # 2 served 4 years probation for drug trafficking. The resisting charges were plea bargained.

Perception is everything.