As Mr. Heddon mentioned in his article in a bad economy training budgets are usually the first thing cut. The administrative theory is departments will just need to run more efficiently and they won't need the resources. This is just plain nuts. When you do this your putting officers lives in danger and not to mention civilian lives.
This is a pic of an officer murdering a dog in broad daylight in front of witnesses. The dog's name was Parrot. The dog was barking at the officer because it was scared according to roughly 50 witnesses. The officer didn't know what to do and was afraid of being bitten so he grabbed the dog and threw it down a flight of steps then pulled out his gun and shot it for no damn good reason. Of course this happened in front off the public and now they all hate the police department and the officers will endure the abuse of the public. So what is the department going to say? Well of course they are going to pretend to investigate it then say it was justified because the officer feared for his safety. The problem is that it's bullshit. How should it have gone? The officer should have been trained to know that all dogs have the same anatomical weak point...the legs. The dog never tried to bite the officer or even moved in a threatening manner it was just barking. If the officer was afraid just take out the baton and whack the front legs. Then the dog would yelp and run off. It may limp for a day but it would be fine and the act would easily be explainable. But hey the department didn't think he needed that training and didn't want to pay for it. Therefore he didn't know what to do so he reverted to what he knew which was shoot.. this is very common in departments that don't make unarmed defense a priority. If that officer had known that then none of that ugly incident would've happened and that dog would be alive playing with it's owner. Now if he'd had that training and still murdered the dog then public outrage would be completely justified towards him and there would be grounds for dismissal and the department could use him as a scapegoat and be protected. But because some desk jockey didn't think it was important the public will distrust this department and the media will feed it and violence against officers will escalate. Good job asshole way to save a buck.
How about that infamous video of the Seattle cop punching that 17 year old girl. If you look at the video the cop wrestled with the girl for several minutes before her friend intervened and got punched. They didn't even have the training to restrain a child. So what happened? Well basically the officer didn't have any type of basic grappling training and when he couldn't restrain the girl he got frustrated. When her friend stepped in and shoved him what did he do? He reverted back to the boxing training he had at the academy and punched the girl. Of course the departments will say he was justified I think the actual statement was it's not an officers job to get hurt. Now this is true, but that department endured one hell of a media shitstorm and they deserved it. The public is not going to continue to tolerate this shit. If he's had some basic training he wouldn't be on camera punching a teenage girl and you know it. But no you went on the cheap and tried to save money and this is the result. Officers need training and if you don't give it to them then they are gonna do what they gotta do to get home at night. You see I've dealt with these types for years. Now I will say not all departments are like that. The majority of training directors I've spoken with over the years understand the problems and want to fix them but the pencil pushers won't come off the money they keep slashing and slashing those budgets like a serial killer in the night.
I remember just last year an assistant instructor that helps me teach in Texas sent me an email about a drug treatment hospital there for teens. In the last two years the staff had murdered four patients...beat them to death. He thought maybe I could help them out. I got on the phone right away and called that hospital. I had a good conversation with the administrator there. They had training but it was a program out of New York that obviously wasn't working but the state paid for it. I basically broke it down over the phone. The patients at times were getting violent when they didn't want to take their meds is when most of the incidents went down. They'd try to use the training they had and when it didn't work and the patient assaulted them they snap and beat the hell out of them. The guys basically agreed that yeah that's pretty close to what happened. Well the state wasn't gonna pay for any more training and the hospital was under funded. I never heard back from that administator. With the lawsuits they were getting that center may not even be open anymore. If they'd had the training maybe they don't get assaulted then snap and beat a kid to death. Four teens dead because of lack of training and nothing is being done.
Now I'm going to play whistleblower against my better judgement but someone has to do it. For years I'd tried to get training for government security and a certain nuclear power plant around here. Everytime I'd talk to the head over there I'd always get the same answer. They aren't going to pay for unarmed training it just isn't a priority for them. Now I'm going to be realistic here. They have gun training out the ass one shot one kill 98% accuracy. If your some type of terrorist trying to get in there your going to be shot. In that regard that plant is completely safe and that's why I don't feel talking about it is an issue. Here is the part where I take issue with unarmed training not being a priority. Though possible the odds of that type of terrorist attack are slim though they are prepared for it. I will tell you however something that is real high percentage. What if a guy shows up to work drunk?. He gets back there working and someone reports him to security. They determine he's drunk and try to escort him out but he raises a stink and starts fighting. Well they don't have any training to deal with that. What if the drunk guy is winning? Well one of two things will happen folks. A bunch of security will jump him and beat him down and get sued for brutality and lose. The other thing is we've already determined when things aren't doing well police and security will revert back to what they know. Oops ...they only got gun training. Do you see where I'm heading here? Not a pretty place is it? In that enviroment there's certain equipment that don't need to be shot. Remember 3 Mile Island people? It could happen. There is an immediate danger to the public there. But to a pencil pusher training to deal with that just isn't very important they need to save money. You know it don't have to be a drunk guy it could be someone getting fired that don't want to leave. It could just be some guy with a smart mouth but you got admins pay all the money in the world for training they probably won't need versus spending nothing on training they all definitely need right now.
This is the sickness that's going on. Police and security will continue to do messed up shit without the right training and departments will keep saying it's ok when it's not. The public will continue to become more angry and misguided taking out their frustrations on police while the pencil pushers sit on there asses collecting a check and counting pennies oblivious to the pain they are causing the public as well as their own officers.
If your reading this write your congressmen and governors and tell them about it. Let them read this article foul language and all. Change doesn't happen at the bottom it has to change at the top and taking your frustrations out on officers isn't going to fix anything it's just going to get you thrown in jail. Flood those state email boxes if they think it will cost them enough votes they'll do something about it and get departments the funding to get the correct training or at the very least demand the jerks at the departments get fired for putting people in danger. Training is the source of the problem but it is also the solution.
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