When I was taking my education classes at college I took classes on classroom discipline. Part of the training involved Crisis Prevention/Intervention, a program that focuses on the de-escalation of aggressive student behavior. This information came in really handy when after graduating I started working at a juvenile treatment center, which is basically the last stop a kid can take before going to a juvenile detention center. I got to put a lot of CPI theory into practice during that time and learned that MY choices and actions, not the students, make the difference in diffusing a situation, so it was very interesting and disheartening watching what was happening in my town Minneapolis and other cities across the United States with how the police handled their crisis situations. There are situations where the police could have handled better but let their fight or flight instincts take over, but there are too many aggressive police actions that can’t be excused by fight of flight, and can only be at best a learned behavior, and at worst training that allows or encourages provocative behavior. The point I want to make however is that there are always better options for these police officers to de-escalate, but they instead chose to escalate tensions.
I’m going to use the following clip because it’s legal policing, but not good policing.
This tweet was posted on the first night of curfew in Minneapolis. There was a controversy on my twitter feed about whether the police were within their rights to shoot rubber bullets at people “outside” their homes after curfew. I think of this situation as a grey area because Minneapolis residents were told to stay inside their homes after curfew, but does being on your porch constitute being in your home? Either way the police did have other options available to them to make their jobs easier.
Option 1) - Body Language
It’s tough to tell who is National Guard and who is the MPD in this clip. Everyone is dressed for war and just the sight of these uniforms can be provocative. I do understand the situation these officers are being asked to walk into, but it may help to have at least one person who is not dressed for combat and look approachable that can calmly discuss the situation with civilians.
Option 2) - Proximity
Just by the closeness of a person of authority to someone else the person of authority can change the behavior of the people around them. One of the officers in this situation could have chosen to walk up to the people on their porch and asked them to go inside.
Option 3) - Safety in numbers
If the police officer felt threatened approaching the residents on their porch because they would be outnumbered, the officer could ask some of the other 50 officers we can see in the clip to walk up to the house with them.
What really happened though is very troubling. Instead of working together with the residents to keep them safe, these officers see them as the enemy. The situation went from step 1 - yell at the residents, to step 2 - shoot at the residents. These choices will create fear of authority and more police resistance in the future. The officer should have pointed their weapon at their own foot and shot it, because it does the same thing as shooting citizens filming from their porch. This last week has shown that police departments across the country need reform and accountability. Change will need to start with better leadership, leadership that understands there are other, better policing options than what we currently have.