The video of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis is shocking. We are watching a murder. If the officer with his knee on this man's neck has not been arrested...why not?
What have these people been trained to do when one of their own is committing a crime? The answer, apparently, is nothing.
Oh, I guarantee they get yearly ethics "training." A good friend, a gifted cop and police trainer, scoffs at what passes for training in even progressive departments. "You've been informed," he says, laughing derisively. "You aren't trained until you've demonstrated that it changes the way you perform." I'd even bet the yearly in-service classes are done as cattle calls, most of the officers spending most of the time staring at their phones.
"Oh, yeah," says their chief to the Mayor. "We do hours of ethics training every year. We have the sign-in sheets to prove it. Use of force? You bet."
Big fucking deal. You've trained your officers to stand there and watch while one of their own slowly murders a guy begging for his life. How do you explain that?
And hey! MPD. When the doors close behind you, and it's just you, what do you talk about? How the citizens are assholes, the command staff doesn't support you - not just "It's us against them" but "It's us or them?" Get your heads out of your asses. This is on you. Self-talk begets behavior.
Minneapolis PD is in trouble. They will have shit thrown at them, and so will thousands of other officers whose only association is that they are cops. Maybe that will get someone's attention. The question is - who has the cajones to actually get in there and fix it before their officers kill anyone else?
Spot on Cuz
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