Ah. People want training for police in recognition of replica guns.
I wanna see the syllabus.
I want to see how anyone who knows the meaning of the word “replica” is going to structure that training.
From the Merriam-Webster.com online dictionary:
noun rep·li·ca \ˈre-pli-kə\
: an exact or very close copy of something
Now, let’s see. If it’s an exact copy, how is the officer (or lawfully armed citizen) going to be able to tell that it’s not the real thing, exactly? Does he or she wait for the first shot? Uh-oh, that could be a cap or a blank. Wait for the first bullet to hit, maybe, and make sure it’s not a BB, an air gun pellet, or a little Airsoft projectile?
News flash for those who need it: Bad guys use replica guns BECAUSE they are very hard to distinguish from real ones. That’s why their victims give them money during their robberies. Why would a robber use a fake gun? Maybe he can’t access a real one that day. Maybe he is under the (usually mistaken) belief that if it isn’t a real gun, he’ll be charged with something less than armed robbery if he’s caught.
Paint the fake ones bright colors? Please. They’ll just paint them flat black, the way they remove the orange muzzles from Airsoft guns or paint them to match the rest of the gun, already.
And what about all the pink and other cute color REAL guns on the market today, an idea that goes back to the old High Standard Sentinel pastel .22 revolvers in pink, gold, and sky blue of the 1950s? What about the real guns I see with Hello Kitty™ and such on them?
And what of the punks who take their REAL guns and paint the muzzles or the whole thing Day-Glo™ orange, in hopes of making an arresting officer hesitate long enough that the criminal can murder the cop?
I wanna see the syllabus. This idea strikes me as a big, steaming pile of unicorn feces.
The Weasel Zippers post says that it is taken from this NY Post article:
http://nypost.com/2015/02/23/cops-instructed-to-close-eyes-during-tense-situations/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow
in which the close-eyes-and-take-a-deep-breath comment is an unattributed report from “one cop.” That Post article links, in turn, to this Post article from the day before:
http://nypost.com/2015/02/22/cops-say-training-after-eric-garners-death-is-a-waste-of-time/
which describes the NYPD training in more detail.
– The first day is a course presented by “Blue Courage” a course designed for LEO’s and law enforcement departments with an interest in “self-improvement, increased engagement, stress-management, developing resilience, igniting culture change, combatting cynicism, while improving overall health and well-being.”
– The second day is “lectures on ‘the legitimacy of policing — why police officers do what they do'”.
– The third is a gym day to teach new a new takedown technique to substitute for neck holds.
Now we have to speculate a bit: The Post article talking about breath and eyes doesn’t say which day of the training that advice came from, but it sure doesn’t sound like it came from the second or third, but far more likely from the first day which includes stress management. That was the day taught by Blue Courage. Now here’s the interesting thing about Blue Courage: If you’ll take a look at their website:
http://bluecourage.com/team/
it was founded by and has a board of directors made up either entirely or virtually entirely of cops and ex-cops. Now I have to say that what they teach really seems like kinda odd touchy-feelie stuff, but their client list, also on that site, includes Chicago PD, LAPD, DEA, FBI, and the Secret Service, together with a bunch of other large law enforcement agencies. That raises this question: Do you _really_ think that this bunch of ex-cops are going to tell cops to close their eyes and take a deep breath when in a deadly situation? Or is it more likely that this is just a bit more sensationalism from the well-established sensationalist NY Post, perhaps seeking out and getting a comment from one of the many disgruntled NY cops?
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