Thinking About Philando Castile

David CouperJune 22, 2017June 23, 2017Leadership, police

“As a nation, we should be working to prevent these deaths from happening. Both the recent Task Force on 21st Century Policing and the Police Executive Research Forum (of which I have been a longtime member) have recommended steps toward this end. Communities need to implement these recommendations now.”

I wrote a piece this week in The Progressive about how things could have turned out differently when St. Anthony (MN) Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez stopped Philando Castile for driving with a broken taillight.

See http://progressive.org/dispatches/lessons-from-the-shooting-of-philando-castile/
More from the New York Times and other “experts” on the shooting: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/us/video-police-shooting-philando-castile-trial.html?_r=0
On his limited training, who’s to blame?http://www.startribune.com/yanez-had-limited-training-in-defusing-situations-records-show/430256953/
What happens to Castile’s 4-year old daughter? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/22/opinion/charleena-lyles-philando-castile.html?emc=edit_tnt_20170622&nlid=14523611&tntemail0=y
And this from The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-continued-erosion-of-the-african-american-right-to-bear-arms/531093/

Published by David Couper

I served over 20 years as the chief of police in Madison (WI), four years as chief of the Burnsville (MN) Police Department, and before that as a police officer in Edina (MN) and the City of Minneapolis. I hold graduate degrees from the University of Minnesota and Edgewood College in Madison. I have written many articles over my years as a police leader. After retiring from the police department, I answered a call to ministry, attended seminary, and was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. After almost 30 years serving in and leading two Episcopal Churches in the Diocese of Milwaukee, I am "sort-of" in the process of retirement. Life is good. View all posts by David Couper

6 Comments

daveyone1 says:

June 23, 2017 at 11:07 am

Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..

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officermeraz says:

June 25, 2017 at 6:05 pm

Preservation of life is definitely key. It takes not only well-trained officers but also courage. It’s all good to speak about mindfulness and empathy but it doesn’t mean anything when someone is gripped by fear and that fear doesn’t allow them to access their tools and suppresses their emotional intelligence. I would like to see more police candidates realizing that they are joining a profession which not only requires critical thinking and problem solving but also requires that you do so while remaining cool under bureaucratic pressure.

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1. improvingpolice says:
  
  June 26, 2017 at 10:23 am
  
  That’s why I am such a strong advocate of traditional asian martial arts training because it puts you into combative situations in which you must control your emotions! That can also be done with frequent hands-on grappling training in the police gym.
  
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  1. officermeraz says:
    
    June 28, 2017 at 4:13 am
    
    Emotional intelligence is big now, very big. It’s the currency of the future for businesses and without it, cops will only get into trouble. I agree sir, martial arts is an excellent way to master emotions. It’s fine and dandy to preach it, but its a whole different ball game when someone is trying to harm you.
    
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  2. improvingpolice says:
    
    June 28, 2017 at 8:56 am
    
    Sounds like a good argument for training that is on-going and hands-on. Just as many depth. use theatrical enactments to get reality into managing conflict (even though it’s not “real”) it improves officers’ performance in this area — so with some mat work! And I say this as having taught police defensive tactics for a good part of my early career.
    
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