Former Police Cadets Say Academy Trained them to be Hostile to the Public

[MrScorpio]

By Ben Keller



Former Austin cadets describe a culture at training academy where instructors degrade less fortunate community members.

Several former cadets at the Austin police training academy notified the city through a formal letter about the brutal and violent nature of the training they received to become police officers as the 137th Cadet Class for the Austin Police Department.

Instructors would threaten to "punch you in the face" if you said you wanted to become an officer to help people, according to former cadet Summer Spisak.

Academy staffers told cadets that a suspect who resists "just earned a legal ass-wooping," Spisak also told the Austin-American Statesman.

​Spisak, who wanted to become an officer after the Dallas police shootings in 2016, was unable to complete police academy due to an injury she suffered while practicing take-down moves after an instructor ordered another cadet to "throw her down like a man."

(snip)

One instructor told cadets they needed to achieve a "winning warrior mentality" by choosing some person in their daily lives - preferably not a child or older woman - and visualize themselves "shooting that person in the face."

https://www.themaven.net/pinacnews/police-brutality/former-police-cadets-say-academy-trained-them-to-be-hostile-to-the-public-amVDhcHwbEGLU1fd106_VQ/?full=1

[Mopar151]

1. Now we are getting to the REAL source

Of the facist attitude displayed by police in too many places.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Yes. A failure of command from top down that condones and allows this. . . . nt

[lpbk2713]

2. Looks like "to serve and protect" has a broad interpretation.

Everyone has their own style.

[raging moderate]

6. Like that Twilight Zone episode, "To serve Man."

The aliens land, someone finds a book they dropped, works on translating the language. Turns out it's a cookbook.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Just like the North Miami PD used mugshots of black men

for their sniper training, until the sister of one (an Army Sargent in training) discovered it.

Family Outraged After North Miami Beach Police Use Mug Shots as Shooting Targets
By Mc Nelly Torres and Willard Shepard
Published at 6:31 PM EST on Jan 15, 2015 | Updated at 3:45 PM EST on Jan 17, 2015

<...>

The police chief said he suspended the sniper training program as part of the internal investigation. Dennis said his department will resume use of human image targets after it expands the number of images in its inventory. His officers, Dennis said, will not use any booking photos from suspects they have arrested and he’ll direct his officers to remove the targets after they use the shooting range.

But Woody Deant, who did four years in prison after his 2000 arrest, expressed outrage. “Now I’m being used as a target?” said Woody Deant. “I’m not even living that life according to how they portrayed me as. I’m a father. I’m a husband. I’m a career man. I work 9-to-5.”

The Deants contacted Attorney Andell Brown. He said he finds the use of human images for target practice extremely disturbing. “This can create a very dangerous situation,” Brown said.

“And it has been ingrained in your subconscious what does that mean when someone [police] comes across Woody or another person on the street and their decision-making process on using deadly force or not.” The Deants agree. “Automatically in his [police officer] mind he’s going to think target, target, target…,” Woody Deant said.

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Family-Outraged-After-North-Miami-Beach-Police-Use-Criminal-Photos-as-Shooting-Targets-288739131.html

[dalton99a]

5. +1

[Bettie]

4. And some people wonder why

cops are distrusted more and more.

Seriously, there needs to be an enormous change in police training and culture.

Oh, and some psychological screening to root out the ones who are becoming cops to dispense "legal ass-whooping".

[raging moderate]

7. I once was a typist for a police station.

Earning my way through graduate school, I typed reports for the campus police. They were nothing like this crew in Austin. I remember so many differences. As my fellow typist said, after awhile, you forgot they were policemen. One of them did tend to get mad and yell at people; his fellow officers teased him gently about it, nicknamed him Trigger, and frequently cautioned him to rein it in. I know that because it was a small station, and we could see into the main section and overhear conversations in other rooms. One day, the police chief, flanked by two new recruits, was doing a background check on a guy who had applied to be a policeman. "Oh, oh," he remarked to them, "see, guys, this is why we do background checks. If this is the kind of guy who goes around hitting women, then we don't want him." Another time, late at night, they brought in a drunk driver, and he was obviously drunk, staggering and yelling and cursing at them. They studiously ignored what he was saying until he started to issue physical threats; then, one of them said mildly, "Now, now, maybe you want to just simmer down a little." The drunk guy kept fulminating, but they just put him in the holding cell and wrote their reports, chuckling a little.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. So they acted like professionals

Good for them, not all police stations are the same.

[heaven05]

8. And

the beat goes on as it has always gone on...... it's a wonder any person, especially brown skinned minorities and immigrants survive ANY contact with ANY black, white, female police officer, anywhere in ameriKKKa..

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Bookmarking. . . . . nt

[WinstonSmith4740]

11. Been suspecting this for a while.

I mean, it seemed to me that cops have been trained to shoot first, ask questions later, for the last few years.

Can't imagine this has anything to do with it, however. Note the date.

http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/402521/doc-26-white-supremacist-infiltration.pdf

[Johnny2X2X]

13. I know many cops

I married into a cop family and my little sister is in law enforcement. I know many officers. I can say that it is the training, too many get training like what is described above. While there is variance from department to department, there is a culture of abuse ingrained in most levels of policing.

I remember an officer I knew, every day before he went to work he would post on Facebook, "On the way to ruining someone's day."

Law enforcement in this country is absolutely out of control and there's no easy way to change it.

[Dustlawyer]

15. I used to do legal work for a police organization with 18,000 mainly Texas law enforcement.

What I discovered is:

They emphasize their safety over anyone else to make it home at the end of every shift. Their safety above the Public’s;

The “good cops” are out-numbered and cannot come forward without losing their careers and placing themselves and their families at risk;

Us v. Them mentality; and

They can get away with whatever they want.

One solution would be to have a special prosecutors office deal with all police related charges/incidents. The local DA can not afford to alienate the police departments since they work together. If cops knew there are repercussions to bad behavior it would reign in a lot of the abuse.

[Johnny2X2X]

21. Weed out the aggressive ones

The need better psychological screening for applicants. It's a tough job, you get to see people at their worst day after day after day, but they need to weed out the people who aren't suited for that.

[Merlot]

23. Screening applicants only goes so far if the training is based in abuse

The "good" candidates who are then subjected to that training have two choices: go with the flow, or be quiet to get by.

[tblue37]

25. Or drop out, thus leaving an even larger majority of bad cops. nt

[treestar]

22. They are over emphasized on how their lives are at risk

Which there are statistics that it is not as bad as claimed. In the big city departments, they probably are at greater danger, but they need to not see the public as the enemy. They likely go out there too much with the idea they could get killed. And the fact is they do sometimes get killed. We had an AA cop shot and killed a year ago at a convenience store parking lot. A few years earlier, a cop was chasing a guy who suddenly turned and killed him with a knife.

[zentrum]

14. Needs to be a much

….bigger story. More media on this.

60 Minutes etc.

[Ilsa]

16. If this is the training in Austin, how aggressive is it in

Republican red cities Run by Sheriff Arpaio types?

[KG]

17. this senior citizen honkey says 'fuck da police'

been saying it most of my life

[WhiskeyGrinder]

18. Well, no shit. The entire institution is dedicated to protecting property and hunting down people

trying to escape slavery. That's what the police force is all about. Throw in some military hero-worship, and here we are.

[marble falls]

19. The police are trained to be a cold calculating occupation force. They act more as an adjunct to....

the military than a policing agency.

Interestingly enough, more than 60% of Austin cops live outside of Austin. That needs to be changed.

Can we at least get rid of all the military looking aspects of their uniforms? Couldn't they look a lot less SSish?

[FakeNoose]

20. When did the municipal police forces become quasi-military?

And who thought it was a necessary thing? I can only guess that this happened slowly during the Nixon administration, when there were so many violent anti-war protests. The Kent State shootings etc. and suddenly city police were decked out in riot gear. I guess this is one more thing to blame on the baby boomers.

In earlier generations the police used to be the "good guys" who gave a helping hand to regular citizens, but maybe I believe that because I grew up in the suburbs.

[RKP5637]

27. I think it's been building for some time, especially when the gov. started giving the municipalities

military weaponry, etc. When I was a kid it was much the same as you, police were seen in some areas as the good guys. ... I lived in the suburbs. But way back I heard some horror stories, particularly against anyone that did not fit the stereotype of the perfect white American.

[sharedvalues]

31. We have to get military equip out of the hands of police.

And the second big reform we need:

We MUST have neutral, external parties investigate police misconduct.

Right now, in cases of police misconduct, police colleagues of the accused do the investigation, and prosecutor colleagues of the accused do the prosecution. This is a HORRIBLE conflict of interest.

If a policeman in GA is accused of misconduct, immediately bring in a team from OK to investigate and if necessary, prosecute.

[Iggo]

24. Please tell me that absolutely no one is surprised by this. (n/t)

[RKP5637]

26. Not surprised. Glad to see this coming out. n/t

[Initech]

28. This is absolutely scary- our police departments are becoming fight clubs.

[DashOneBravo]

29. Not surprising

Since 9/11 you’ve seen this a lot. Cops dressing up like soldiers, including traditions that started from the military. Like para cord, tactical gear and Warrior t-shirts.

They and some politicians have even started using “civilian” when describing the public. Most have never been in the military. It’s used as a derogatory term when taking about the citizens. Same as when describing the public as sheep. That mentality is now in a lot of politicians and law enforcement.

Most of the ones I’ve met with the Warrior t-shirts were wanna-bees with huge arms but didn’t want to sign a dotted line for the military.

[sharedvalues]

30. Jesus. This is horrible.