bluekungfoo
25th May 2016, 01:01
Most here should be familiar with the term conditioning, I really wish this could have been posted to some law enforcement website / forum but I do not know of any so this will do.
I was reflecting on my time in the military, especially basic training. During combat exercises , learning how to fight with our rifle, in particular I remember going through one obstacle course. An when we reached a target we would have to strike using our bayonet and yell KILL. Now imagine a few hundred young men doing that on a daily basis, but here comes some confusion , I specifically remember one dummy target in particular with a sign over the head that read, Do Not Slice The Face.... I remember being so dumbfounded having to move as fast as possible yelling kill at certain points and then reaching that particular dummy and reading that sign, and being dumbfounded, so I said what ever took a quick look around to make sure there was no one who could reprimand me an took a slice at the foam dummy and went on...
Now in hind sight I can realize that more likely than not the sign was intended to infer that one is not maim an individual, or perhaps someone was trying to preserve the foam dummies for as long as possible I do not know. Though we were also taught to fire our rifles in three different ways, shoot to maim, warn, and to kill.
Then years later I end up in college, deciding to take classes for becoming a corrections officer ( which never happened ) but we had police officers teaching classes as well, and the question arose for some reason about how as a recruit how a person is trained to shoot a person as a police officer , and someone for some reason in the conversation mentioned shoot to kill, to which the officer/ instructor laughed but quickly corrected, and said, we do not shoot to kill, we shoot to stop the target. An his reply has never left my mind. An neither has a documentary on how our police force is in some ways becoming more militarized; especially in the case of S.W.A.T, and the use of military vehicles. Really I wish I could direct all of this to law enforcement as a whole, but here will suffice because I think someone may be able to add to this or elaborate better.
Teaching a person in law enforcement to combat crime is beyond different than training a person to be prepared for combat as a solider in a war or conflict. To train a police recruit to not view a HUMAN / A Person as a " Target " or a " THREAT " is dehumanizing at its' finest. More over to provide police " non lethal weapons " and train them how to use it, but not train law enforcement to be able to fire a weapon to be able to stop a person by maiming vs killing is stupid to me as well. I do though understand why police are trained to shoot center mass, it is the easiest and biggest area to hit on a person. Though I do not find that to be the end all excuse as to not train someone to be able to hit an arm or a leg first before resorting to a center mass shot where all the vital organs are.
An as to uniforms of the police, and swat, and even the painting of police force vehicles, the colors Black and military camo colors should never be used, it is beyond obvious that those color schemes are intentionally designed to be threatening , also how many times has confusion occurred in a police raid, where a group of police are in black, screaming police, but are not easily identifiable. Blue and black and white should be a mandated color for their uniforms, same for the vehicles. It sends the same message when you see a police vehicle decked out in black an camo that it is a threat. The impression upon society should always be seen that Police are there to Protect and Serve, not one of intimidation and fear.
To those in law enforcement that think the bad guys need to be as scared as possible, and a show of strength is needed and the colors help with that, I will always call bs to that. Maybe if police were trained to shoot to maim first, a lethal shot as a last resort, and to emphasis that they are shooting at a person, and not a target or threat, perhaps that training would help when the officer who does resort to a lethal shot when he or she is then mandated to report to a psychologist for counseling . { Stop the threat, and after you do, we force you to go see a psychologist. Because now that threat is a person. Brilliant training. } ( sarcasm )
Feel free to add too this thread, just needed to vent.
peace.
I was reflecting on my time in the military, especially basic training. During combat exercises , learning how to fight with our rifle, in particular I remember going through one obstacle course. An when we reached a target we would have to strike using our bayonet and yell KILL. Now imagine a few hundred young men doing that on a daily basis, but here comes some confusion , I specifically remember one dummy target in particular with a sign over the head that read, Do Not Slice The Face.... I remember being so dumbfounded having to move as fast as possible yelling kill at certain points and then reaching that particular dummy and reading that sign, and being dumbfounded, so I said what ever took a quick look around to make sure there was no one who could reprimand me an took a slice at the foam dummy and went on...
Now in hind sight I can realize that more likely than not the sign was intended to infer that one is not maim an individual, or perhaps someone was trying to preserve the foam dummies for as long as possible I do not know. Though we were also taught to fire our rifles in three different ways, shoot to maim, warn, and to kill.
Then years later I end up in college, deciding to take classes for becoming a corrections officer ( which never happened ) but we had police officers teaching classes as well, and the question arose for some reason about how as a recruit how a person is trained to shoot a person as a police officer , and someone for some reason in the conversation mentioned shoot to kill, to which the officer/ instructor laughed but quickly corrected, and said, we do not shoot to kill, we shoot to stop the target. An his reply has never left my mind. An neither has a documentary on how our police force is in some ways becoming more militarized; especially in the case of S.W.A.T, and the use of military vehicles. Really I wish I could direct all of this to law enforcement as a whole, but here will suffice because I think someone may be able to add to this or elaborate better.
Teaching a person in law enforcement to combat crime is beyond different than training a person to be prepared for combat as a solider in a war or conflict. To train a police recruit to not view a HUMAN / A Person as a " Target " or a " THREAT " is dehumanizing at its' finest. More over to provide police " non lethal weapons " and train them how to use it, but not train law enforcement to be able to fire a weapon to be able to stop a person by maiming vs killing is stupid to me as well. I do though understand why police are trained to shoot center mass, it is the easiest and biggest area to hit on a person. Though I do not find that to be the end all excuse as to not train someone to be able to hit an arm or a leg first before resorting to a center mass shot where all the vital organs are.
An as to uniforms of the police, and swat, and even the painting of police force vehicles, the colors Black and military camo colors should never be used, it is beyond obvious that those color schemes are intentionally designed to be threatening , also how many times has confusion occurred in a police raid, where a group of police are in black, screaming police, but are not easily identifiable. Blue and black and white should be a mandated color for their uniforms, same for the vehicles. It sends the same message when you see a police vehicle decked out in black an camo that it is a threat. The impression upon society should always be seen that Police are there to Protect and Serve, not one of intimidation and fear.
To those in law enforcement that think the bad guys need to be as scared as possible, and a show of strength is needed and the colors help with that, I will always call bs to that. Maybe if police were trained to shoot to maim first, a lethal shot as a last resort, and to emphasis that they are shooting at a person, and not a target or threat, perhaps that training would help when the officer who does resort to a lethal shot when he or she is then mandated to report to a psychologist for counseling . { Stop the threat, and after you do, we force you to go see a psychologist. Because now that threat is a person. Brilliant training. } ( sarcasm )
Feel free to add too this thread, just needed to vent.
peace.