What Are We Teaching Our New Cops?

This week, 62 Kentuckians graduated from the State Police Academy. I am not familiar with the curriculum, but I hope in light of the nationwide increase in police brutality over the last few years that they were taught at least one non-violent technique for dealing with the public.

From Firedoglake:

- Police brutality occurs in San Francisco as officers use their illegitimate power to beat a civilian on his bicycle for breaking the law

- A 14 year old teenager is brutalized by police after being arrested for shoplifting

 Here's the video of the teenager. "Brutalized" is quite the euphemism for "beaten and then tased in the face."

Digby:

The alleged crime he committed that supposedly justified all this was shoplifting. This kid needs to learn that if you want to get away with stealing you need to be a white guy in a suit who steals millions. They never get tasered.

Kentucky State Police are revered in the Commonwealth. Mostly that's because in a state with 120 small-town county sheriffs, professional troopers have been the only thing standing between citizens and the corruption and violence of untrained deputies.

I would hate to see KSP degraded by arbitrary violence to the point that people can't trust them any more.