If there is a universal public sentiment following the traffic stop heard 'round the world, it is sympathy for the family of Ryan Moats' mother-in-law, Jonetta Collinsworth, who died while the drama unfolded in the hospital parking lot below.

But when we get to the focal question – Dallas police Officer Robert Powell's fate – public opinion splinters into dozens of directions, some with curious underpinnings.

While I can see a thoughtful debate over a wide range of sanctions for Powell's interminable prolonging of what should have been the briefest of traffic stops, I am bewildered by this occasional gem: "The officer did nothing wrong."

Beg pardon? It is surely true that this was a valid stop for running a red light. It is additionally true that Moats added to the initial tension with a refusal to stop immediately and a wife who chose to bolt inside, in direct violation of an officer's order.

But as soon as there was reason to believe that the reason for both actions was an imminent life-and-death situation – and a dog from the K-9 unit could have figured that out – the moral ground beneath Powell fell away completely.

While I don't know what fuels people who defend the indefensible, I am more concerned with those who have the opposite view of police – an unfairly critical view born of racial anger or stereotype. Cop-haters will be cop-haters no matter what, and this incident gives them an "I told you so" they will use with relish.

But just short of that bitter crowd are countless people who might have been willing to give an improving department a break – until now. This is the additional tragedy of Powell's ill wisdom: a huge hit to the reserves of good will that any department needs to operate effectively.

The Dallas Police Department has progressed admirably since the days of fake-drug scandals and Chief Terrell Bolton's poisonous tutelage.

Chief David Kunkle's sincere apology and apparent revulsion at the infamous dash-cam footage should show everyone that his department knows and cares when one of its own screws up.

But actions, not words, dictate reality. A waiting community will not be assured of the chief's sincerity until Powell is no longer on the force.

Cockiness is not grounds for dismissal. Prolonging a traffic stop with a Barney Fife power trip, while maddening, probably isn't either. But displaying both flaws in a situation whose gravity cried out for good judgment reveals something that no screening could have caught: Powell, on that occasion, was a complete idiot, unable to discern how to act when not just his police manual but basic human decency required it.

That's the kinder of the two possibilities; the other involves actual sadistic enjoyment of other people's distress. Take your pick. Either way, we cannot risk a recurrence.

In a television interview Monday night, Powell seemed likable and contrite. Still, he seems not to know why he acted as he did, and that is not comforting. It is impossible to conclude that this is sincere regret or the familiar song of someone trying to get out of a self-created jam.

As such, I don't want to hear of Powell's return to the streets in a month, or a year. I don't want to hear of his reassignment to some other duty. And if Kunkle shows him the door, any attempt to win his job back through litigation will reveal Powell to be the unrepentant lout his critics say he is.

He should have about 50 years left to think about good judgment and consequences for behavior. I wish him well and offer wisdom from the very lecture he insisted on giving Ryan Moats as Jonetta Collinsworth passed from this life:

"Attitude is everything."

Mark Davis is heard weekdays from 8:30 to 11 a.m. on WBAP-AM, News/Talk 820. His e-mail address is mdavis@wbap.com.