Hillary Clinton Calls for National Standards On Police Use Of Deadly Force
Clinton pledged that as president, she would push to develop national standards for the use of force by police and she would commit $1 billion to police training programs and new research into the best policing practices.
www.washingtonpost.com/...
This is a policy we should all support. In fact, the idea of a national standard for police training came to my mind when I noticed something in common about officers involved in the recent murders of Alton Sterling and Philandro Castile:
Alton Sterling was killed by Officer Salamoni who had four years experience on the police force; his partner, Officer Lake, who tackled Sterling, had three years experience.
Philando Castile was killed by Officer Yanez who had four years experience on the police force and his partner Officer Kauser, also had four years experience.
Also note Officer Loehmann who shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 had barely a year’s experience. Worse, he had been fired from his first job for a “lack of maturity” and “inability to perform basic functions as instructed” during a weapons training exercise. Yet he was hired by another police department before they completed his background check: www.latimes.com/...
Officer Wilson, who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, in 2014, had five years experience. Worse, he lost his first job at the Jennings, MO, police department when it was decided that all Jennings officers needed to be replaced due to extreme tension between white officers and Black citizens: www.washingtonpost.com/...
It’s a clear trend. These cops were not only inexperienced, their actions in these killings clearly show they were poorly trained. I’m not saying racism did not factor into these tragedies — in my heart I believe racism was a huge component.
However, I also believe better background screening, training, and educational standards for police recruits, would go a long way toward rooting out racist cops.
Unfortunately, this is related to another growing issue – with fewer and fewer applicants seeking to become police officers, police departments are lowering their educational and test score standards for recruits. www.usatoday.com/...
My heart goes out to the families of the police officers killed in Dallas. As I explained in a comment earlier this week, there are six NYPD cops in my family spanning two-plus generations. Suffice to say I am deeply sympathetic.
With this said, rightly or wrongly, I truly believe trigger-happy cops who take innocent lives highly contributed to the Dallas officers’ deaths.
It was only a matter of time when someone would snap and seek vengeance.
In closing — I believe Hillary’s call for establishing national standards for police forces is a huge step in the right direction.