Yes, cops can still pistol whip people and can still use their billy clubs. But police officers have to file reports each time their guns are drawn (I'd love to see that report: 23:14 hours, pistol withdrawn from holster; suspect detained through use of pistol "whip" technique...).
Also, billy clubs are actually MADE to club people with. That is their purpose. Guns are made to threaten and inflict harm or defend if necessary. These tools are essential to protect the safety and to maintain the authority that police officers have.
Guns have to be metal (ceramics notwithstanding). They have to contain bullets. Billy clubs have to be appropriately "billy-club-ish." Flashlights, on the other hand, don't have to be metal and are meant to do anything more that cast light. If plastic can do the same thing, then why is this such an issue, especially if it takes another means of abuse out of the hands of bad cops without hindering the ability of good cops to use the flashlight for what it is meant for.
As I said in my first post, you aren't going to eradicate abuse by creating penalties - in all likelihood, these cops probably believe that they are above the law in this respect. Second, you aren't going to eradicate abuse through other means (pistol whipping) without a paradigm shift in the mind-set of abusive cops. Therefore, why not take some temptation away from those abusive cops by replacing their metal flashlights with plastic ones? If it leads to one less beating without any loss of reliable performance by the flashlight, then it is an undeniably good thing.
If cops begin pistol whipping or billy-clubbing people instead, then the problem will only have shifted. But this shift is indicative (in my mind) of the fact that the behavior CANNOT be regulated or eradicated (i.e. these abusers are going to find something with which to beat people, no matter what). I don't know what the next step is (b/c you can't take guns out of cops hands, and there probably is no good substitue for a billy club - except mace or tasers), but it seems that taking huge, heavy metal flashlights is a step in the right direction, if only a small one.
