By Pat Watson
Posted April 5, 2018
CBC’s The Current did a segment on the how police killings of people – in particular people with mental illness and Black and Indigenous people – have increased. The statistics were collected beginning in 2000. The Current audio includes a segment on how Hamilton Ontario police are doing a better job of not hastily shooting people in distress because of a special new program designed to better respond to persons in mental distress. Yet, just 2 days ago, according to another CBC report a 19-year-old who had called the police for help was shot and killed by police in his own neighbourhood. (That’s the second link.)
The concerning information in the Current audio is the explanation of how police train. They work from the premise that whoever they encounter is dangerous and hostile. And, according to this report, they are presented with computer-generated scenarios that create that kind of stressful, life-threatening situation to prepare them for their response to the public.
The question that no one seems to have asked in this Current report is regarding the actual perception police have of the world such that they are trained to see everyone as a dangerous threat to their life.
Furthermore, because certain segments of society have become accustomed to the police as a threat, they reflexively become hostile when police make themselves present.
So which is it? Is it the person in crisis who is a threat or do the police present as a threat to the person in crisis?
The police show up and are already trained to assume life-threatening danger. This model is so damaging. Actually, deadly. Police are being trained in such a way that they are ready to shoot first, and to do so within seconds of presenting themselves at the scene of an incident. The killing of Andrew Loku is a prime example. And, let’s not forget that a new officer in training accompanied the one who took Loku’s life.
The presence of men and women who are being trained for warfare against civilians actually inflame crises because of the way they go into a situation. This is an unholy mess.
How many more people are going to be shot and killed reflexively because of the way police are trained before the public reaches the tipping point of rejecting this type of “public safety” practice?
Here are the links:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/hamilton-children-witness-shooting-1.4607433
In Through A Coloured Lens 