NEW YORK (AP) – When police confronted a white man suspected of killing 10 blacks in a Buffalo supermarket, he was very armed and dangerous, carrying an AR-15 rifle and wearing armor and hatred.
Still, the officers talked to Peyton Hendron, persuaded him to drop his weapon, and arrested him without a single shot. Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramagia quoted them as training the other day, calling it a “huge act of courage.”
However, in a country where black people have been killed in meetings with the police for minor traffic violations or no violations at all, the question arises: Where is this training that definitely follows the protocol when it comes to them?
“It is important to emphasize that this is not about why the police do not kill white-dominated terrorists,” said Kassim Rashid, a human rights lawyer and satellite radio host who was among those on social media who published publications on the topic. “That’s why the same restraint and control cannot be applied to a situation involving an unarmed black man?”
He and others cited numerous examples of white men being quietly detained in police custody after a shooting, including Dylan Ruf, who killed nine blacks at a church in South Carolina in 2015; Robert Aaron Long, who killed eight people at massage services in Georgia last year; Patrick Crucius, who is accused of killing 23 people in a racist attack in El Paso, Texas, Walmart in 2019; and Kyle Rittenhouse, whose attempt to surrender immediately after the shooting of three white men in protest in Wisconsin was rejected. Meanwhile, George Floyd, Atiana Jefferson, Tamir Rice and many other black people died at the hands of police when the initial circumstances were far less unstable.
“There is a stark contrast to the way the system treats Kyle Rittenhouse or Peyton Hendron in these incidents, to the way a black man is treated in general,” said Insha Rahman, vice president of advocacy and partnerships at the Vera Institute. a national non-profit research and advocacy group focused on criminal justice.
Rahman said there are many similarities in the public perception of the two cases. Rittenhouse walked toward the police with an AR-15-style rifle slung over his shoulder, arms raised. He testified during the trial that the police had told him to “go home” and that he had surrendered himself the next day. He was acquitted of all charges after arguing in self-defense.
“Several people said at the time that if Kyle Rittenhouse was a young black man, he would not have escaped Kenosha that night. He may not have reached trial, “she said.
Rahman also warned against watching high-profile incidents in a vacuum. She said people should consider daily interactions with the police, which, along with arrests, take place at a disproportionate and often more dangerous level for blacks.
The difference was seen in Buffalo, said Gillian Hainsworth, 29, a city poet who is a laureate and director of leadership development at Open Buffalo, a non-profit organization focused on social justice and community development.
“We see the police treating black and brown people,” she said, adding that police were reluctant to “take lethal action against blacks and brown people.”
Martin Sabelli, president of the National Bar Association, said there has historically been a racial divide in the United States that affects every aspect of the criminal trial.
“The perception of racism persists because it is rooted in reality,” Sabelli said, noting that the impact of implicit biases on the police has been thoroughly studied. “Unfortunately, we are in the process of trying to turn decades or more of outright racism into many police departments in the country, and this is often exacerbated by implicit biases that exist on a subconscious level. And unfortunately, this tarnishes these encounters by subconsciously leading police officers to believe that people of color are more dangerous than white people.
Frank Straub, director of the National Police Institute’s Center for Targeted Violence Prevention, said he hoped there would be a rethink of how the police respond to situations after what the public has seen as different attitudes in recent years.
“Maybe the fact that these videos are there … hopefully it is now influencing the way officers are trained to respond to arrest situations,” he said.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, an organization dedicated to improving police professionalism, said Buffalo’s Gramaglia had asked his group for help with de-escalation training last year as deputy commissioner.
Specific training is known as ICAT, to integrate assessment of communication and tactics. Wexler’s team trained Buffalo police instructors on tactics in February 2021, he said, adding that the department had not yet completed that training with all of its staff.
“It gives you an idea of what the department thought,” Wexler said. “It’s communication, slowing things down, using time, distance and cover, not rushing into a situation.”
“I think you have to look at the facts, the training and the tactics and realize that every situation is different,” Wexler said. He noted that a security guard, who was a former police officer, shot the shooter while lurking on the aisles of the Tops Friendly Market. The guard was killed.
“But the situation has changed,” he said. “I don’t know all the facts, but when the suspect comes out, officers may have a different perception of whether he is an immediate threat.
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Lauer reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press video journalist Noreen Nasir contributed from Buffalo.
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Hajela is a member of the AP team, which covers race and ethnicity, and is on Twitter at twitter.com/dhajela.
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