The issue in the Minneapolis police shooting

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

53. I would take issue with your statement "the problem isn't race."

Black men get shot by police more often than any other identifiable group of people. This strongly indicates that at least a large part of the problem is race, because the cops, whether consciously or subconsciously, tend to see black men as more of a threat than other people. The notion that there is a threat that needs to be resolved instantly by shooting the threat is tied into that racism. In some cases there is an actual, immediate danger but in many cases there is not. The frequency of these shootings suggest a real problem with both training (to recognize a real threat vs. something harmless) and mind-set.

Some 25 years ago I knew a few Minneapolis cops who were friends of a friend. These guys are certainly retired by now, but I distinctly recall a comment one of them made (laughingly): "There are just two classes of people: cops and assholes." This does reflect an attitude that still seems to exist almost everywhere: Civilians are presumptively assholes. The police shoot black men more than they shoot other people, but they also quite regularly shoot mentally ill people who are acting out because they aren't trained to deal with the "threat" their behavior seems to pose except by shooting or tasing them. There is little training in de-escalation.

I do know that officers go through training that involves shooting or not shooting at "friend or foe" targets in simulated situations that have become pretty realistic. But that's never the same as the real world. Also, the cop who shot Philandro Castile had recently attended a voluntary "Bulletproof Warrior" training session in which the trainees were taught to assume all interactions with civilians are dangerous. This attitude, I think, is the essence of the problem. Read more here: http://www.startribune.com/officer-in-castile-case-attended-bulletproof-warrior-training/386717431/