I remember some of the incident you were describing. It was a ‘training’ about hands-on tactics, and he somehow ended up in the group with three or four of the officers he was investigating.
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/08/1127580159/houston-tipping-lapd-death-lawsuit
I used to have problems with clumps. I still do, but I used to as well.
For the most part I now make things in batches. Hot chocolate, tea, whatever. With big batches I can use the mixing bowl and use the immersion blender. Nothing stays clumpy when you have a blade whizzing around at 3000+ rpm.