It is clear what went wrong, and where the fix needs to come from. The issue is training, and the Chief and others below him who determine what that training will be are the ultimate responsible parties. There are three ways for any person - officers included - to react in a time of perceived danger:
1) Do as much damage as possible to stop any potential threat. This includes spraying bullets, beating down the threat and anything in the way until it stops moving, etc. This approach is unconcerned with limiting damage only to the target, and others nearby are often hit. 2) Do whatever is necessary to stop the target. This is the next level up - it requires training to shoot only the target, strike only the target, etc. 3) Do what is necessary to stop the target while preserving life. This is the most advanced level of training, where a combatant learns to fight well enough that she can control where a shot will go in the heat of the moment and avoid lethal damage, or disarm, immobilize, etc. with minimal permanent injury. The Mpls cops seem to be at around level 2, with some backsliding to level 1. Sadly, what few training programs teach is level 3 - either in skill level or, more importantly, in mind-set. What the Mpls PD is failing to grasp is that we don't need a bunch of trigger-happy brainless thugs in uniform. We need people who are better trained physically and mentally than the vast majority of the suspects they'll encounter. What we see here are very poorly trained officers who haven't been prepared to not go berserk when the adrenaline hits and start emptying clips into people. That turns the rest of the blame on the cops themselves. They know what happened when a suspect goes to the morgue with 5 clips of bullets pumped into his body. But we don't see them trying to get better training through the department, or on their own. Whether it's a matter of denial or loyalty taken to a damaging point, they're the other half of a vicious cycle that's creating an atmosphere for more murders by the police. That same mind-set is also driving investigatory white-washes. We've seen how well the police respond to the public when they cry foul over a particular tragic death. However, rather than trying to fight an unjust review board decision after yet another murder, or asking for changes in procedure (cops are NOT thinking about procedure when their adrenaline is bursting their eardrums), we can demand that our city officials require that change in philosphy in police training, and the additional skills training to back it up. Along with everything else, a better, more able cop is a less frightened, paranoid cop who needs his big gun as a security blanket. Roxana Orrell Central > Message: 10 > From: "Garwood, Robin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: 'Matthew Devany' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [Mpls] police bashing > Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 15:33:05 -0600 > > I agree with Matthew, Wizard, and Jordan on this one. > > One of the points I took away from Jordan's post was that a limited > investigation of the individual police officers' behavior will most likely > exonerate them, since they were ostensibly following police procedures. > Therefore, an effective investigation must go deeper than the officers > themselves. Someone outside the MPD must examine their policies. If these > officers' behavior was indeed "by the book," we must thoroughly and > dispassionately examine the book itself, with a readiness to discard those > chapters that have proven they do not work. > > The question I ask myself is this: what should be the goal of policing, in > situations like the one yesterday? My answer to that question: the goal > should be that no one--including individuals behaving in a dangerous or > inexplicable manner--lose his or her life. > > I find it tragic that I cannot believe that the MPD currently share this > goal. > > If we could convince the department that this is the goal to follow, I > believe we could effect some extremely important positive change. > > Robin Garwood > Seward > > --__--__-- > > Message: 11 > Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 15:16:38 -0600 > From: "Chris L Beckwith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Mpls - Issues" <mpls@"mnforum.org.".mnforum.org> > Subject: Re: [Mpls] police bashing > > > Mark Wilde wrote: > > > > > > > The events which give rise to the notion that the police are trigger > > happy is the procedures police are trained to follow when confronted > > with a person who is waving a weapon or behaving in a way that is > > inexplicable to them. The Chief says they followed procedure, that the > > incident was "textbook." Therein lies the problem. > > Indeed. The textbook sounds rather suspect. More importantly, we'd like to > know where in the textbook it says 15 bullets are required to immobilize a > street schizophrenic. Shall we look in the index, perhaps under "Overkill?" > > Wouldn't a single bullet to the leg have been sufficient? > > Chris Beckwith > Ward 6 _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
