Columnist: "It is not lack of training that breeds killer cops, but the training, itself." [picture, video]

“It is not lack of training that breeds killer cops, but the training, itself.”

There is no military gear on display in the video of a New York City cop’s take-down of James Blake as the Black former tennis pro leaned against a pole in front of a Manhattan Grand Hyatt hotel — just a white guy in a t-shirt suddenly body-slamming a totally inoffensive person into the sidewalk. But, in fact, the assault on Blake by officer James Frascatore, part of a squad of six plainclothes cops prowling the hotel lobby on East 42 ^nd Street, is a prime example of the militarization of policing in the United States. Police behavior — the routine tactics they employ “in the line of duty” — is the best indicator of the actual police mission in the community — better, even, than the inanimate equipment they drive around in or carry.

Although Blake was not seriously injured, his case shares an essential commonality with that of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old shot dead by a white Cleveland cop while playing with a toy gun in a neighborhood park, last November. No tanks or machine guns were involved in that case, either — just a cop with a pistol who shot a Black child from only a few feet away within two seconds of pulling up in an ordinary squad car.

The behavior of the victims is incidental to the actual mission of the police. Blake was on the ground with the cop’s knee in his back before he seemed to realize he was under attack. Afterwards, the one-time Harvard student shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if he had put his hands up in a “normal reaction…to defend myself.” The Cleveland cop gave Tamir Rice no time at all to put away childish toys, before neutralizing the target.

“Today’s police bum-rush is clearly a national phenomenon, a standardized tactic.”

For decades, the essential U.S. police mission has been military in nature — certainly in the Black community, but applicable in calibrated form generally in the country. Routine police behavior closely tracks the U.S. armed forces field manual tactical operations guidance on “strike campaigns” to “find, fix, destroy, and capture” the enemy. Speed and decisiveness of action are emphasized, for rapid engagement.

“It is not lack of training that breeds killer cops, but the training, itself.”

The routine police practice of suddenly slamming people to the ground on the slightest pretext — or for no reason at all except to establish immediate control of the person or area — and then pinning them in place with knees or feet to the neck and back, or with the full weight of multiple cops (often yelling “Stop resisting! Stop resisting!” whether there is resistance or not) is a relatively recent development. U.S. cops have always been brutal, but in their own ways. Today’s police bum-rush — which can be observed on Cops, the TV show, any day of the week — is clearly a national phenomenon, a standardized tactic.

Cops all over the country engage in similar tactics in street encounters, rapidly closing in on “subjects” (like young, innocent Tamir) and shooting them, afterwards claiming the officer’s life was in danger because of physical proximity to the unarmed victim. The tactic — moving rapidly to close with the targeted individual — justifies the fatal outcome, whether the victim was engaged in criminal activity or not. If Blake had reacted like a “normal” person in the instant that the cop attacked, the 34 year-old athlete would likely be dead. These fatal scenarios recur with numbing regularity because the cops are source