Comment on NYPD arrest retraining: 'Talking people into their cuffs'

NYPD arrest retraining: 'Talking people into their cuffs'

The scenario was fake — the suspected drunken driver was a fellow officer and the street scene was a set built in a Hollywood-style sound stage. The Associated Press got an exclusive look at the New York Police Department's three-day course that's aimed at discouraging verbal abuse and needless physical force. The instructors that day didn't mention Garner, the unarmed black man from Staten Island who's videotaped death in an apparent chokehold — a tactic banned by the NYPD more than 20 years ago — fueled loud protests against police. The training is part of a broader effort by Police Commissioner William Bratton to mend the NYPD's relationship with minority communities that were frayed by the previous administration's widespread use of street stops — mainly of young men of color — as a tool to deter crime. "Training is a positive step in the right direction, but ultimately it's inadequate in dealing with the systemic breakdown when it comes to accountability," said Monifa Bandele of Communities United for Police Reform, one of several groups that want laws to give outside watchdog agencies and prosecutors more power to investigate and punish officers if necessary. The NYPD recently got another reminder of the potential pitfalls of seemingly mundane street encounters in the age of smartphones when a seasoned detective was videotaped cursing at an Uber cab driver who honked at the officer to get him to move his unmarked car.

 

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