Police ‘de-escalation’ training
The familiar pattern of police violence against persons of color, followed by the false promise of reforms, is once again in full swing. The usual suspects each play a role: First, the Mayor’s office pretends that it’s the police chief’s fault, and fires him; then, the Justice Department is called in, promising to look into the incident; the officer(s) involved are put on leave or fired; time passes; and, the city/state/federal prosecutors either refuse to indict, or present such a bad case that the officers go free, or get a slap on the wrist. Over and over, the powers-that-be use this strategy.
As part of this dog and pony show, the Chicago Tribune posted a story today (link below) concerning the use of training to de-escalate incidents between the police and citizens. Perhaps many readers will take this article as a sign that the Chicago Police Department is turning the corner on their modus operandi of “shoot first, then cover up the facts,” but they would be wrong to make this assumption.
“Although black men make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 40 percent of the unarmed men shot to death by police this year.” (The Washington Post, Dec. 26, 2015)
As the #occupywallstreet movement showed us, police around the world have been militarized and internationalized. They shut down the protests of millions of people in a coordinated effort, finishing off the demonstrations in a couple of weeks. We see the same tactics used against #blacklivesmatter protests.
In the case of the Austin Seven, we have documented a coordinated effort on the part of City Hall, the CPD, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Northern Illinois, the Justice Department, and the FBI to frame officers who were cleaning up drug trafficking in their district. This raises questions regarding a larger conspiracy to destroy black communities and deprive them of their civil rights.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-police-training-las-vegas-chicago-met-20160324-story.html