there was no knife that I saw and certainly no threat
As to your argument in arrest them next time you are opening yourself to major liability, not to mention guilt, if you let a felon go and he commits a felony against someone else because you were afraid of doing your job. Would you like me letting a felon go and a short time later he assaults your wife/child? How loud would you be screaming then for my head since I didn’t get him off the street?
You train of thought can be applied to the problem we have in also letting felons out of jail to offend again with hours/days of being released. It is just stupid.