I know I still find myself (in specific circumstances) defending police in cases where I shouldn’t be, but this is so far beyond indefensible that it’s going to destroy even more of the little bit of trust a lot of people still have in them. This, IMO, makes a lot of police shootings look like they were done for sport rather than self defense or necessity.
This is from an incident that took place about a year ago where local police were doing active shooter training and didn’t tell the teachers they were going to be using airsoft guns instead of, ya know, fake guns, or even no guns since they’re really not necessary in this situation.
Some notable quotes:
“The training included: high-velocity plastic pellets fired at point-blank range, breaking skin, leaving scars; screaming, expletives, and verbal abuse, according to the suit.”
“Another described hiding under a table to avoid any more pellets, but an officer found her and shot her three more times.”
““This is what happens when you just cower and do nothing,” one of the officers said, as he walked back and forth along the line of kneeling teachers, shooting them at point-blank “until his gun ran out of bullets,””
"Following one round of mock executions, one teacher described glaring back at the officers and “was shocked to find that they were grinning back at her.”
" Teachers were taken in groups and, on their knees, repeatedly “executed” by officers using Airsoft pellet guns Others waiting outside for their turn said they [could hear teachers scream]."
It was the quote about the cop finding a teacher hiding and then shooting her three times that really got to me. She was clearly scared and you’re there to protect (and train in this case) not actively inflict paid because you think it’s funny. Along those same lines, what the fuck is the point of bringing teachers in and ‘executing’ them one by one?
I wonder what would have happened if one of those teachers grabbed their pepper spray and defended themselves? That’s the point of ALICE training, right? Once you’re fucked, you fight back, not sit there and wait to be shot. I’m assuming that if a teacher attempted to defend themselves with physical or chemical measures, they’d promptly be arrested for assaulting an officer.
If all that’s not enough, police are trying to rebuild their trust with the community, right? Demonstrating to the youth educators of your own community that the police shouldn’t be trusted isn’t going to help anything at all.