De-escalation... coercion... what's the difference?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That's rather sad. By such "logic", I guess Monfort was just attempting to de-escalate an overly militarized police force when firebombing equipment and "removing" officers.

Police are not immortal saints, christened in political correctness, to serve us. This is a training session, they're in training, for goodness sake. Allow give and take and heated debate in the classroom. Essentially, it's ultimately healthier.

@3 It seemed to me that the cop who liked to descalate things at the end of a gun showed no signs of taking this training to heart. He seemed quite stuck in his "my way is the right way, no one can tell me what to do" attitude that so many police seem to carry. Until this attitude goes away (and assholes like him are prosecuted) nothing will change.

@4: Yes, but so what? This is a classroom. His attitudes are being challenged. Other officers who feel as he does will learn from it as well. And other officers who have better attitudes to the training will offer their insights heard. Isn't it better that things are out in the open in a training session?

Save the police bashing for when their on out on calls, at least.

@5, I think the thing would be to challenge that by saying "equating a use of force like that to de-escalation" will, at the very least, send you back for more training but could also result in your dismissal from the force without a pension entitlement and make you subject to civil prosecution without the SPOG backing you up as you're refusing to accept being educated about what policies are.

@5 my point is that his attitude in that class (and that of the instructor) was that they were just going through the motions and no amount of training is going to ever change the way these cops behave.

It's not like we kill more citizens by SPD in a year than the entire UK or Canada kill in a year.

Oh, wait.

It is.

See if you can spot the guy playing 'my talking angela' the whole time 😂😂😂

Yes, Akbar Fazil they really are just going through the motions. If you watch the video (at least the version I have been seeing) there is an officer sitting there with his phone very obviously playing games and never even looking up to where the training is supposed to be taking place. The entire video is hard evidence of the attitude of a lot of SPD officers. While there are a few that were paying enough attention to ask questions and criticize the training, it appears that none were taking it seriously, all while on our dime.

We're only seeing bits and pieces of a training session. I'm sure every cop there would much rather be doing something else. We're not seeing how training is certified or anything about the curriculum, but instead ready to pounce on aggressive exchanges regarding scenarios within the training and then to extrapolate that into yet another SPD scandal.

@10: Appearances don't matter. Just be glad there are a few men and women who want to be cops in this town and hope the training sinks in for those who need it.

@12 They all need the training. That's the point. Are you really so dumb as to miss the entire point ? Nevermind of course you are.

in judge robarts hearing/press conference he seems to think everything is wonderful refers to a nyt story as proof of it,,also through out the hearing just about every problem was going to be handled with more training. our hero merrick bobb of course had nothing to say

@14 thanks seattle times took it off their online edition,never saw such a feel-good hearing with an overtly predetermined outcome..this should prove judge robarts " wisdom" in appointing merrick bobb and cronies

@13: Okay, all benefit from the training - some need it more than others. Happy now?

So I guess that cop won't mind some day when a crook decides to de-escalate the situation themselves at his expense.

An employee who acted like this at an Arby's training session would be shown the door.

Likewise, a manager who implied to his underlings that he did not agree with the policy would also be shown the door by HIS boss.

But I guess SPD has different standards for professionality.

Notre Dame cop sitting in front of the De-ecalator of the Year recipient: I love you.

Seattle cop to unarmed citizen : "De-escalate THIS", Sucker".