Sunday, January 10, 2016

Police "Training" is the Problem



Police “Training” is the Problem: They are Trained to Oppress Blacks 





by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Black people don’t need more “training” of the cops that patrol their communities. What’s needed is a new mission for the police – one that is radically different than the current armed occupation – and Black community control over both the project and the personnel. U.S. police are already well trained – in containing, controlling, terrorizing and incarcerating Black people. “For decades, the essential U.S. police mission has been military in nature.”

Police “Training” is the Problem: They are Trained to Oppress Blacks

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

It is not lack of training that breeds killer cops, but the training, itself.”
There is no military gear on display in the video of a New York City cop’s take-down of James Blake as the Black former tennis pro leaned against a pole in front of a Manhattan Grand Hyatt hotel – just a white guy in a t-shirt suddenly body-slamming a totally inoffensive person into the sidewalk. But, in fact, the assault on Blake by officer James Frascatore, part of a squad of six plainclothes cops prowling the hotel lobby on East 42nd Street, is a prime example of the militarization of policing in the United States. Police behavior – the routine tactics they employ “in the line of duty” – is the best indicator of the actual police mission in the community – better, even, than the inanimate equipment they drive around in or carry.

Read more at Black Agenda Report.