Cops Take ‘Highly Entertaining’ Class to ‘Win’ Media After Shootings

According to a recently

released flyer, the St. Louis County and Municipal Police
Academy is going to teach “upper-echelon law enforcement
professionals” how to “WIN WITH THE MEDIA” (emphasis in original)
after one of their subordinates shoots someone.

Talking Points Memo
blogged about the flyer earlier today and noted some features
of it that don’t mesh well. The class comes in response to the
shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, which has sparked
widespread, persistent
protests against police brutality. The flyer describes the
shooting as “tragic,” but quickly moves on and assures that
“training is… highly entertaining… and you’ll have fun
doing it!” (Again, emphasis in original). The class will cover
issues like “‘No comment’ is a comment,” the “media assault and
battery” against cops, and how to “meet the 900-pound gorilla,”
whatever that is.  If you’re not convinced yet, the academy
promises, “There is NO PowerPoint!”

St. Louis isn’t the only department trying to make a better name
for itself on the Internet. New York City Police commanders
apparently need to go back to school for “common
sense” training after some serious mishaps like making fun of
dead people and the backfired “#myNYPD” campaign that
generated floods of images of police abuse.

But, getting better at social
media and learning how to elusively say “no comment” without
literally saying “no comment” when an officer shoots a teenager or

chokes to death a father of six for allegedly selling untaxed
cigarettes is not a solution, it’s a way of avoiding a solution to
bigger problems.

Reason has extensively covered
the Pentagon’s distribution of surplus military gear that
breeds in local law enforcement a “must use” impulse for things
like
sniper rifles and
grenade launchers, and mindset of “if
you don’t want to get shot… just do what I tell you.” Reason TV
caught a
glimpse of troublesome policing at the Michael Brown rallies,
where protesters discussed their own encounters with police
harassment and abuse. And, the cops who responded to those protests
didn’t make their case much better by putting on body armor and
driving armor-plated vehicles that made them
virtually indistinguishable from ground troops in
Afghanistan.

St. Louis’ top cop is still
unconvincingly defending this approach to policing, so we’ll
have to wait until after the class is over to decide if the pig’s
new lipstick suddenly makes it sexy.