Shot in the Dark

Keystoned

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Neither the Castile shooting nor the Miami shooting seem like racial incidents.  They seem like Keystone Kops incidents: running in circles, nobody in charge, contradictory commands, misinterpreted actions, improper over-reaction.  

When a mass of cops arrive at the scene, who’s in charge?  Who gives the orders?  Who decides when to shoot?  Doesn’t seem to be a consistent policy and as a result, people are getting shot.

 I can forgive an honest error in judgment.  I can’t overlook incompetence. 

 Joe Doakes

A few years (OK – a few decades) back, I read about the training involved in a hostage rescue team, including the danger involved with lots of men running around in a cramped space, high on adrenaline and guns.  The training to develop the teamwork necessary to make the team more dangerous to “the enemy” than to themselves alone was a long, drawn-out process.

Do local SWAT teams, much less patrol cops, get this?

I don’t think so, but I’m genuinely curious.

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Mitch Berg

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5 responses to “Keystoned”

  1. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    But this means spending money on training. Can’t have that when there are fountains, stadiums and bike paths to build!

  2. wendy Avatar
    wendy

    Short answer: Yes.

    Long Answer: While the training is readily available, it depends on leadership support, to fund the salaries to cover training time, and to fund the training itself, choosing from a variety of types of training and prioritizing which ones you think are most useful.

    There was a big push in Mpls for this type of training after 9/11, and when the bridge collapsed in 2007, many of the cops who responded thanked my husband for pushing for the training, because it really helped them keep their heads in the game during the carnage and chaos. My husband wasn’t there, because he was disabled in the line of duty 2 years before that.

    In the current political environment, that type of training is being portrayed as too aggressive and militaristic, and the flavor of the day is de-escalation. Cops need to be able to do both, but the cops don’t get to choose what types of training they get to go to. That is a leadership decision by the chief and senior staff, who, in turn, answer to leadership and policy decisions by the elected officials they report to. Unfortunately, if something goes wrong, it is the cops who die, or are thrown under the bus later by the leaders who failed them.

  3. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    That is a leadership decision by the chief and senior staff, who, in turn, answer to leadership and policy decisions by the elected officials they report to.

    Bingo! We have a winner!

  4. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    That emphasis on de-escalation doesn’t seem to be working very well.

  5. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    jpa,

    Don’t forget the boondoggle to repair the Old Cedar Avenue bridge that the lefty moonbats running the City of Bloomington approved a couple of years ago, to the tune of about $13 million. Another limited use, feel good libidiot project.

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