Posted on Apr 1, 2014
Are military trained veterans the reason for the recent spike in police utilizing lethal force?
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<p>With more and more veterans depart the service, more and more are turning to local law enforcement as a viable alternative career. More and more police are responding to simple disturbances in full tactical assault gear, as if they were dressed for a patrol down Rte Tomato in Baghdad.</p><p> </p><p><span class="a-size-large">Following the police killing the homeless man in New Mexico recently, and the current riots and backlash against that police department(there have been 23 civilians killed since 2010 by the one department) and other instances such as the officer in Georgia shooting the kid who answered the door with the xbox controller in their hand, do you feel that the Military trained tactics are necessary for every Officer? Do you think that the amount of veterans in the police force is playing a part in the spike? Do you feel that the police are becoming too militarized? <br><br>http://video.foxnews.com/v/ [login to see] 001/chaos-in-albuquerque-/#sp=show-clips</span></p><div class="pta-link-card"><div class="pta-link-card-picture"><img src="http://a57.foxnews.com/media2.foxnews.com/thumbnails/i/033114/0/0/033114_factor_chaos_640.jpg"></div><div class="pta-link-card-content"><div class="pta-link-card-title"><a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/ [login to see] 001/chaos-in-albuquerque-/" target="_blank">Chaos in Albuquerque </a></div><div class="pta-link-card-description">Police clash with demonstrators protesting a recent wave of police-involved shootings</div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="pta-box-hide"><i class="icon-remove"></i></div></div>
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Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 13
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I agree with CPL Sandberg, I don't think this is particularly a military veteran's issue. Are the people who are escalating force so quickly veterans, or are people making correlations where there isn't any data to support them?
From what I understand this is the correlation being made:
-Lots of Veteran's are getting out, a small percentage of them go into law enforcement
-Police killing civilians is rising
-Because some veteran's are getting out and joining the police force, this must mean that they are causing the killings.
I have another correlation I'd like to share then:
-When it gets hot outside, more people buy ice cream
-Also when it gets hot outside, more people commit violent crimes
-Ice Cream causes Violent Crimes
The data is being skewed into an unfair correlation that works to label Veteran's as murderer's just waiting for the next chance to pull the trigger. This kind of comparison makes it seem like we are unable to adjust to society, and I have to completely disagree with it.
From what I understand this is the correlation being made:
-Lots of Veteran's are getting out, a small percentage of them go into law enforcement
-Police killing civilians is rising
-Because some veteran's are getting out and joining the police force, this must mean that they are causing the killings.
I have another correlation I'd like to share then:
-When it gets hot outside, more people buy ice cream
-Also when it gets hot outside, more people commit violent crimes
-Ice Cream causes Violent Crimes
The data is being skewed into an unfair correlation that works to label Veteran's as murderer's just waiting for the next chance to pull the trigger. This kind of comparison makes it seem like we are unable to adjust to society, and I have to completely disagree with it.
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I think the real issue is training police correctly, I honestly don't think this is a veteran issue, but an issue of sociopaths in the force, every Marine that I have met at least had been taught escalation and descelation of force, from what I have seen for the most parts in these incidents is police understand how to escalate a situation, but have no concept of how to perform the latter, and try to reach a peaceful solution...
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SGT Seth Wardell
I should make the same point here that the SSG made in the previous post, your correlation seems to be
violence = sociopathic behavior
police = violent behavior
sociopaths are police
you could just as easily prove that the rise in tattoos is the explanation for gang violence.
Over-generalizing a complex situation typically leads to misunderstanding of that situation, and what I think is a valuable point regarding the average training/competence of law enforcement is likely lost.
violence = sociopathic behavior
police = violent behavior
sociopaths are police
you could just as easily prove that the rise in tattoos is the explanation for gang violence.
Over-generalizing a complex situation typically leads to misunderstanding of that situation, and what I think is a valuable point regarding the average training/competence of law enforcement is likely lost.
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Cpl Westin Sandberg
Sergeant, I understand and respect your opinion however, when making this argument, for one you ignore the fact that several police departments require mental evaluations before hiring, and still hit sociopaths, so that argument in the favor of some not all of the police departments is invalid, also, you completely missed the point of point, being the manner of training police are given.
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SGT Seth Wardell
Corporal, what are trying to convey with the point that "several police departments require mental evaluations before hiring, and still hit sociopaths"?
My point is that just because there is a percieved increase in police violence, that does not necessarily equate to an increase of mentally unbalanced police officers. I am not saying they don't exist, or even that there aren't more of them. My point is that an increase of violent police encounters is not directly/soley resultant from unbalanced police officers.
My closing sentance attemped to address your training point, and I agree that it is the more valid point. I would like to know what you think the relationship is between mentally unstable police officers and police department training?
I would think the more valid argument would be in favor of tying escalation/de-escalation of force training to CALEA (Commission on Accredidation for Law Enforcement Agencies) standards, or developing/enforceing another law enforcement training standard (through NIST OLES or elsewhere).
The thought would be that making training broadly available, or trying to tie it to something like CALEA accreditation, would incentivise police departments/agencies to conduct training.
My point is that just because there is a percieved increase in police violence, that does not necessarily equate to an increase of mentally unbalanced police officers. I am not saying they don't exist, or even that there aren't more of them. My point is that an increase of violent police encounters is not directly/soley resultant from unbalanced police officers.
My closing sentance attemped to address your training point, and I agree that it is the more valid point. I would like to know what you think the relationship is between mentally unstable police officers and police department training?
I would think the more valid argument would be in favor of tying escalation/de-escalation of force training to CALEA (Commission on Accredidation for Law Enforcement Agencies) standards, or developing/enforceing another law enforcement training standard (through NIST OLES or elsewhere).
The thought would be that making training broadly available, or trying to tie it to something like CALEA accreditation, would incentivise police departments/agencies to conduct training.
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and a link to the book if anyone is interested.
Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces [Radley Balko] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <DIV>The last days of colonialism taught America’s revolution...
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