Florida police use black mugshots as targets - I'm pissed!!!

[kent]

You have GOT to be freaking kidding me! What the hell are these people thinking?

www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/outrage-after-south-florida-police-use-black-mugshots-as-targets/ar-AA8gPnp

A Miami-area police department responded on Friday to public outrage over its snipers using photos of black suspects the agency had previously arrested for target practice, saying that photos of real people were often used for training.

The use of the mugshots was revealed to police leaders in late December after members of the Florida Army National Guard discovered the photos at a shooting range during their annual weapons qualifications training, according to the North Miami Beach Police Department and a Miami NBC affiliate.

"This is not a race issue. There was no mal-intent or prejudice involved," a police statement said.

Not a race issue?  No mal-intent or prejudice?  Of course not.  Let's just call it "conditioning."  Stop the world, I want to get off......

[kent]

Wow! Two hours and not a single comment - I guess I'm the only one troubled by this.

[Value Buy]

It is the weekend here.

What good does it do to have twenty agreements with you.

There are no excuses for it

[mmhmm]

Jan 17, 2015 14:41:28 GMT -5 kent said:

Wow! Two hours and not a single comment - I guess I'm the only one troubled by this.

No, you're not, kent. It's wrong. Dead wrong. It is, however, Flori-duh.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

I read the link earlier but got side-tracked. It does seem "over the top" and extreme.

They could have used basic silhouette outlines like most do for target practice.

[resolution]

I read an article earlier that had a picture of the targets with all the bullet holes through the men's faces. It was very shocking to see.

The police dept stated that was their policy and that no action would be taken other than making sure they take their targets with them when they leave in the future. They also stated they had groupings of women and Hispanic men that they shoot, so its not strictly black men that they shoot at. It seems like a way to desensitize them to shooting at real people, which is concerning.

[Ryan]

Probably seemed like a harmless idea at the time....maybe those guys were child rapists who happened to be black?

[Tennesseer]

Jan 17, 2015 16:44:00 GMT -5 Ryan said:

Probably seemed like a harmless idea at the time....maybe those guys were child rapists who happened to be black?

You must be right. There are no child rapists who are white.

[jkapp]

Jan 17, 2015 14:41:28 GMT -5 kent said:

Wow! Two hours and not a single comment - I guess I'm the only one troubled by this.

Ask yourself this: would you have been less troubled if the mug shots had been of white men?

The police were using mugshots of recently arrested civilians...the ones pointing out that they were black men seem to be only interested in the color of people's skin...which is racist. 

So, yes I am troubled by your and other people's racism

[deziloooooo]

I wish that you had mentioned ' Miami " as the department where this took place rather then suggest ALL Florida police departments are guilty of this .  

I would  suggest that if you check back and see who and what type targets are being used now, since this information was posted , while I don't have a problem with actual pictures of felons as the targets, the department mighty have a good reason for using them vs silouettes , in their own reasoning, I would be surprised if subject used were still all black..Not condoning that, believe it was a private sick joke by a few members of..way off base IMHO, If still using all black  targets, then there is something really wrong with that department, especially since they, Miami, have had racial issues in the near past if I am not mistaken...Especially with what has been going down so recently throughout the country..variouse departments and locals on police, minority relations..really dumb to continue such practices...

[b2r]

Jan 17, 2015 17:21:45 GMT -5 jkapp said:

Jan 17, 2015 14:41:28 GMT -5 kent said:

Wow! Two hours and not a single comment - I guess I'm the only one troubled by this.

Ask yourself this: would you have been less troubled if the mug shots had been of white men?

The police were using mugshots of recently arrested civilians...the ones pointing out that they were black men seem to be only interested in the color of people's skin...which is racist. 

So, yes I am troubled by your and other people's racism

  The mugshot is from 15 years ago!

[Tennesseer]

Jan 17, 2015 17:46:00 GMT -5 b2r said:

Jan 17, 2015 17:21:45 GMT -5 jkapp said:

Ask yourself this: would you have been less troubled if the mug shots had been of white men?

The police were using mugshots of recently arrested civilians...the ones pointing out that they were black men seem to be only interested in the color of people's skin...which is racist. 

So, yes I am troubled by your and other people's racism

  The mugshot is from 15 years ago!

One woman recognized one of the mugs shots being targeted with bullets was that of her brother.

lSomeone recognized her brother among the bullet-riddled mugshots

[Virgil Showlion]

Well... they are called mug shots.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

But why do they have to use actual mug shots of criminals or people charged? A simple "skull" picture or silhouette is enough for target practice. They didn't have to use actual mug-shots to shoot at.

When I used to do competitive target shooting with DH, we didn't shoot at real animals - we shot at metal silhouette targets or bulls-eyes for accuracy.

Police can do the same. They don't need a photo target to "hit" their mark.

[Deleted]

I'd rather they use pictures of real people than "generic silhouettes". They can use my picture if they want to.


They are training to shoot PEOPLE... not targets. I'd rather they train with pictures of people because then, when they NEED to pull the trigger, they are already somewhat conditioned that they are killing people. I'd hate for a police sniper to look through his scope, get the order to fire, pause (because it's a person, not a silhouette), and then the bad guy kills 2 hostages that otherwise would have survived if the sniper HADN'T paused.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

Then why not use pics of police officers instead of actual mug-shots for training?

A picture is just a picture when it comes down to accuracy when target shooting, right?






.


.

[justme]

Yes they should have chose a more racially mixed group, but as a whole I don't see something wrong of them picking mug shots over pictures of smiling models or something. Though I could see how it might be more pc to choose models posing for "mug shots". But I definitely see why it might be a better idea to use people rather than a circle target or outline human target.

[Deleted]

Jan 18, 2015 0:27:40 GMT -5 ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ said:

Then why not use pics of police officers instead of actual mug-shots for training?

A picture is just a picture when it comes down to accuracy when target shooting, right?

I can think of one reason why that's a bad idea... what if the cop on the target picture is in the REAL field of fire one day (undercover or otherwise on scene)... don't want his brain wired by training that that's an acceptable target.

[EVT1]

Jan 18, 2015 2:01:00 GMT -5 @richardintn said:

Jan 18, 2015 0:27:40 GMT -5 ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ said:

Then why not use pics of police officers instead of actual mug-shots for training?

A picture is just a picture when it comes down to accuracy when target shooting, right?

I can think of one reason why that's a bad idea... what if the cop on the target picture is in the REAL field of fire one day (undercover or otherwise on scene)... don't want his brain wired by training that that's an acceptable target.

Are black people with mug shots acceptable targets? 

[Deleted]

Jan 18, 2015 2:47:09 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

Jan 18, 2015 2:01:00 GMT -5 @richardintn said:

I can think of one reason why that's a bad idea... what if the cop on the target picture is in the REAL field of fire one day (undercover or otherwise on scene)... don't want his brain wired by training that that's an acceptable target.

Are black people with mug shots acceptable targets? 

Depends... are they criminals?

(To clarify: Their race is irrelevant, it's their status as law abiding citizens I am questioning... Also: I'd answer the same way if you replace "black" with "white")


ETA: you might also want to note, I didn't limit my exclusion of the target picture to "white cop"... I just said "cop". No one is going to be able to drag me into racial preference crap.

[Tennesseer]

Jan 18, 2015 1:22:57 GMT -5 justme said:

Yes they should have chose a more racially mixed group, but as a whole I don't see something wrong of them picking mug shots over pictures of smiling models or something. Though I could see how it might be more pc to choose models posing for "mug shots". But I definitely see why it might be a better idea to use people rather than a circle target or outline human target.

Maybe the police should take down the pictures once target practice is over. From the link I posted above:

A Florida woman discovered North Miami Beach Police had been using images of black men for target practice after recognizing her brother’s mug shot at a shooting range.

Sgt. Valerie Deant, a musician with the Florida Army National Guard’s 13th Army Band, arrived at a shooting range with her fellow soldiers just after police snipers had been practicing on the same range last month. Deant was shocked to see her brother’s photograph among the mug shots of black men apparently used as target practice by the police. Woody Deant was arrested in 2000 in connection with a deadly drag race when he was just 18 years old.

“I was like why is my brother being used for target practice?” Deant told NBC Miami on Friday. “There were like gunshots there.”

[Value Buy]

North Miami beach police.

I thought it was Miami police.

Is North Miami a white enclave or multicultural?

[mrnewengland]

Gee, cops were acting like asseholes? What a shock.

[justme]

Jan 18, 2015 9:45:26 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Jan 18, 2015 1:22:57 GMT -5 justme said:

Yes they should have chose a more racially mixed group, but as a whole I don't see something wrong of them picking mug shots over pictures of smiling models or something. Though I could see how it might be more pc to choose models posing for "mug shots". But I definitely see why it might be a better idea to use people rather than a circle target or outline human target.

Maybe the police should take down the pictures once target practice is over. From the link I posted above:

A Florida woman discovered North Miami Beach Police had been using images of black men for target practice after recognizing her brother’s mug shot at a shooting range.

Sgt. Valerie Deant, a musician with the Florida Army National Guard’s 13th Army Band, arrived at a shooting range with her fellow soldiers just after police snipers had been practicing on the same range last month. Deant was shocked to see her brother’s photograph among the mug shots of black men apparently used as target practice by the police. Woody Deant was arrested in 2000 in connection with a deadly drag race when he was just 18 years old.

“I was like why is my brother being used for target practice?” Deant told NBC Miami on Friday. “There were like gunshots there.”

Yea, they were stupid on many levels. No argument from me on that.

[Tennesseer]

It's not as if mugshots from long ago times don't exist, like this mugshot of a young John Dillinger.



Use (really) old mugshots.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

I was thinking the exact same thing last night as I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, Tenn.

I thought of Dillinger's pic being used, or Capone or Baby-Face Nelson, Ma Barker, etc.

[EVT1]

I have a better idea:

[Artemis Windsong]

Any well trained range master would not have allowed this to begin with.  The issue was noticed. 



www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/police-chief-suspends-training-program-after-outcry-over-use-of-black-mens-mugshots-for-target-practice/ar-AA8gYHv?ocid=ansherald11

[Deleted]

How ridiculous, these cops should be fired as they have a certain leaning towards racial issues.

[NastyWoman]

Jan 18, 2015 3:43:37 GMT -5 @richardintn said:

Jan 18, 2015 2:47:09 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

Are black people with mug shots acceptable targets? 

Depends... are they criminals?

(To clarify: Their race is irrelevant, it's their status as law abiding citizens I am questioning... Also: I'd answer the same way if you replace "black" with "white")


ETA: you might also want to note, I didn't limit my exclusion of the target picture to "white cop"... I just said "cop". No one is going to be able to drag me into racial preference crap.

We don't live in a world/country in which race is irrelevant.  And I would expect cops to use at least some common sense.   Don't come crying about how the public does not respect you, you major (NY) putsd a target on your back with his comments, etc., if you are not willing to look at your own behavior and what it conveys about you as a group.