The Problem & The Solution Lies In How Police Are Trained.

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By David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)

1) Demonstrations and riots

2) Lawsuits, and

3) Promises from Mayors and Police Chiefs

will not reduce police misconduct because none of those things will change

• The police culture of dominance and control over citizens that is instilled in the new cops by the old cops
• The police training that when someone looks like a threat, shoot first and shoot to kill.
• How police are routinely not punished for conduct that a majority of civilians think they should be disciplined for.

No matter how many

• Demonstrations there are,
• Riots there are,
• Lawsuits there are,
• Promises from mayors and police chiefs there are

Nothing will change as long as the police believe that:

• Every day on the job they are in significant danger of being shot
• Every person they deal with poses a material, potential risk to their safety
• When they are on duty they need to think and act like soldiers on patrol in conquered enemy territory
• They need to use physical force, personal searches, handcuffing and arrest as tools to make civilians

— — so fearful of them that they will not physically challenge them

— — always do what the police tell them to without question

— — always answer a police officer’s questions

— — understand that the police can do whatever they want to do

— — understand that any resistance or refusal to follow an officer’s orders will be punished

— — upon demand justify their presence in any location

— — never argue with the police

— — never insult the police

As long as

• new police officers are taught these principles by old police officers
• complaints against police officers are upheld or dismissed by other police officers instead of by civilians
• police departments are managed by police officers instead of business executives
• there are no explicit rules of conduct that

— — forbid retaliation against civilians for refusal to cooperate

— — forbid challenging citizens who video record police activities

— — officers cannot shoot someone unless they are sure that it is necessary to stop that person from imminently inflicting serious harm

— — being a black person in a white neighborhood is not grounds to stop or question that person

Nothing Will Change.

You can’t take a teenager who has been spoiled rotten since birth and expect to punish them into suddenly now complying with your rules. It’s too late.

You can’t take police officers who for years have been formally and informally trained to dominate and control citizens by making them afraid of what the police will do to them if they don’t comply, and then threaten or punish those officers into changing their ways.

If you don’t want cops to be bullies, you have to train them from day one not to be bullies. Trying to punish them into no longer being bullies after ten or twenty years on the job will never, ever work.

Change has to begin with

• changing who the teachers are in the Police Academies,
• changing what recruits are taught in the police academies,
• changing who are rookies’ training officers,
• removing police officers from deciding citizen complaints
• changing the rules of engagement, and
• changing the rules of conduct

from day one.

• Trying to fix the problem of excessive force through the use threats of punishment,
• Trying to re-wire the uniformed officers’ ingrained police culture of dominance and control through fear after they’ve been on the job for ten or twenty years

is a fool’s errand.

— David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)

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