God could force all of us to be perfect.  To be His "mindless" robots and all of us would then do exactly what He wanted, but then how would God know if we really loved him or not?  If you are in love with someone, wouldn't you at some point want to know if they truly loved you back or were just in the relationship because they had to be?  That is the way it is with us. We have the gift of free will.  We can choose God or not.  We can choose to hate or to love, to forgive or not, to accept God or not.  In some ways it is one of our greatest gifts but in that comes the fact that man is sinful and we end up hurting ourselves, each other and God too.  It pains him.  

Which led to my statement that God allows things to punish people.  God is patient but there does come a point when he does choose to move (such as in the flood).  We do not want to anger God.  When He gets angry and decides to act on that we don't stand a chance.  He chooses to punish when our hearts become so hard and so against Him that He has no other choice.

My personal experience: There was a guy that did horrible things to me as a very young child.  My parents did not believe me when I finally told them as a young teenager.  I felt powerless but I ended up praying that God would help me understand why it happened.  I was able, with God's help, to let go of my extreme anger and hate.  God showed me that the reason he abused me was because he was actually abused too (the guy's father was put in jail later).   One day, several years later, this guy was driving on the freeway and a large beam from a construction crew "accidentally" dropped on the front of his van instantly killing him.   Was it really an accident or God finally saying He had enough chances?  I don't really know.  You would think I would have been happy to see "justice" done.  I was actually sad.  It is heartbreaking when people choose destructive things.  God does not want to bring harm, but I think that the cries of His children does cause Him to move and He will intervene when His anger is aroused, out of His love for us.