• Home
  • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
  • Contact

JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Jim Wirken: No longer “Wirken on the Law”
Single-source Rolling Stone story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia cast into doubt »

With public outrage swelling, changes in police training are on the way

December 5, 2014 by jimmycsays

It is gratifying to see that the cacophony emanating from the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson has exploded into a unified chorus of voices demanding that police receive better training, particularly in de-escalation techniques.

Thankfully, the shooting of Brown, the “chokehold” killing of Eric Garner, and other police killings of unarmed black people seem certain to bring about widespread change.

Here are some of the stories flaring around the nation Thursday that pointed to an upheaval of the status quo:

The New York Times

“One day after a grand jury declined to indict a New York police officer in the death of Eric Garner…Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday announced the start of a significant retraining of the nation’s largest police force.”

Among other things, the three-day program will train the city’s 22,000 officers on street tactics and presenting a “nonjudgmental” posture.

Police commissioner William Bratton first announced the program after Garner was killed on July 17. Yesterday, the program got the mayor’s full support. “People need to know,” said de Blasio, whose wife is African-American, “that black lives and brown lives matter as much as white lives.”

In addition to the retraining, about 60 New York City police officers will today be outfitted with body cameras as part of a pilot program.

The Associated Press

“Cleveland — The U.S. Justice Department and Cleveland reached an agreement Thursday to overhaul the city’s police department after federal investigators concluded that officers use excessive and unnecessary force far too often and have endangered the public and their fellow officers with their recklessness.”

In a study, the Justice Department found “a systemic pattern of reckless and inappropriate use of force by officers.” The report also said officers frequently violated people’s civil rights “because of faulty tactics, inadequate training and a lack of supervision and accountability.”

The federal investigation was prompted partly by the November 2012 deaths of two unarmed people who were fatally wounded when police officers culminated a high-speed chase by firing 137 shots into their car.

Then, last week, Cleveland officer Timothy Loehmann fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice outside a Cleveland recreation center…Shot him within two seconds of pulling up next to him. Loehmann said he thought Tamir was holding a firearm, when he actually had an “airsoft” gun that fires nonlethal plastic pellets.

But Loehmann shouldn’t have been on the force in the first place. When he was with a suburban Cleveland police department, he had received a terrible job-performance rating partly because of his “dismal” performance in weapons training. He resigned in 2012 after that department had taken the first steps toward terminating him. Eight months ago he caught on with the Cleveland force, which failed to review the officer’s personnel file from the suburban department.

Reuters

“(Reuters) – A white former police chief in Eutawville, South Carolina, has been indicted on a murder charge in the 2011 shooting death of an unarmed black man he was trying to arrest, according to records released on Thursday.”

The former chief, 38-year-old Richard Combs, fatally shot 54-year-old Eutawville resident Bernard Bailey in the town hall parking lot in May 2011 after they argued and scuffled over a traffic ticket Bailey’s daughter had received. Last year, Combs was indicted on a misconduct in office charge, related to the shooting, but the local prosecutor’s office subsequently pushed for a grand jury indictment on the murder charge.

**

Better training isn’t all that’s needed, of course. Officers like Loehmann, who are sorely lacking in temperament and skill, must be identified and fired. In an Op-Ed piece posted on The New York Times website Thursday, Eric L. Adams, a retired New York City police captain and now a local elected official, expressed it like this:

“There is reluctance on the part of police leadership, which has long believed in the nightstick and quick-trigger-finger justice, to effectively deal with officers who have documented and substantiated records of abuse. These individuals need to be removed from the force. That is an essential component of the larger response we must have to address this history of abuse.”

We know for sure a lot more Darren Wilsons and Timothy Loehmann are out there patrolling the streets in cities across America. Let’s hope many of them are rooted out in the coming year.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Uncategorized |

  • Pages

    • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
    • Contact
  • Archives

    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 563 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Join 563 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: