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Many years ago I taught the police science majors at a community college. Most of them resented having a woman teacher, disliked women, were racist and ethnically biased.  Prejudice was rampant.  I threw out the regular materials they were supposed to learn and began teaching multiculturalism.

Some came around but the rest continued to be like the obnoxious undereducated types you see in high school.  They were definately unfit for police work in the barrios and black ghettos that were part of our city.

Mentally ill people do present another set of problems which we need to train our officers how to handle.  COMPASSION is a commodity that is in short supply among many who do police work.  Screaming at or threatening a mentally ill person in the midst of a crisis does not work. 

If the officer who shot Jack Dale Collins had any type of training including going to the veterans groups that help those with PTSD he might have had an idea how to connect with the victim.

posted 3 years, 2 months ago
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