Some More News - Revisiting Some News: How Cops Are Trained To Shoot You In Your Home

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

Hi. This week, we're re-releasing the audio of an episode from November 2019, featuring a new introduction from Cody Johnston. This episode was written by David Christopher Bell and produced by Katy Stoll. Next Wednesday, we'll be back with an all-new Some More News episode about police chases. It's not really a sequel; more like another installment in the Ways Cops Kill People franchise. SOURCES: https://tinyurl.com/yymqplh5 Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenews Check out our MERCH STORE: https://shop.somemorenews.com SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA

Hello there, my sweet sweet french fries. Welcome to another episode of an older episode of Some More News. Next week, spoilers, we're going to be talking about police, otherwise known as cops, known by the scientific community as Oinky Oinky Bang Bang. More specifically, we're going to be talking about police chases and the unnecessary damage and cost linked to those police chases. We thought it would be a good primer to revisit this older episode, which discusses how cops are trained to shoot you in your home. As in, it is often recommended to them to do that. It's part of their MO, and as we hear at the show deposit, perhaps it shouldn't be.

You probably see examples of this, and just the coppy urge to shoot you anywhere pretty regularly. From something bizarre and hilarious, like an acorn falling on the hood of a car, causing a cop to unload his gun into a suburban street, thankfully hitting nobody, to something bizarre and upsetting, like a recent video of a cop casually walking by a small, old, fluffy, blind dog, and then just casually shooting it. Of course, cops still do shoot people, and yes, specifically in their homes. For example, just this month, Roger Fortson, a 23-year-old black airman in the Air Force,

was killed by a cop as Fortson answered his door while holding a legally owned gun. The unidentified cop has been placed on leave, though I'm sure he'll, you know, get unplaced on leave soon. You might notice that legally owning a gun can easily get a black man shot, as was also the case with Philando Castile. Also a legally owned toy gun, as was the case with Tamir Rice or an about to be legally owned BB gun, as was the case with John Crawford, the third.

We, of course, do see some occasional consequences for specific individuals when these incidents happen. In this rerun about cops being trained to shoot you in your home, we begin the episode referencing a Tatiana Jefferson, who was shot in her home by a cop in 2019. That cop, Aaron Dean, was sentenced at the end of 2022 to 12 years in prison. It's good that that consequence happened. But notably, cops are still trained to shoot you in your home. So that seems worth still doing something about. Anyway, this intro is a little depressing. So let's just get to the also depressing episode.

Waka Waka, I guess. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] Ah! Here's some news. News in the form of a question, which is the best's some news. News in the form of a question, which is the best kind of news. Hey, should cops have guns? Perhaps the answer is, maybe not.

More on this shocking discovery in a moment, this moment. Tonight, community leaders, loved ones, and the lawyer for a Tatiana Jefferson's family want justice. She went to investigate at the window. An officer was on the other side who shot the commands and before she had a moment to respond, he shot her to death. That's murder. Speaking out after police released body cam footage showing two officers responding to a welfare check when one officer calls for someone to put up their hands.

Put your hands up, show me your hands, Joe! The Fort Worth Police Department saying the officer perceived a threat. The officer drew his duty weapon and fired one shot, striking the person inside the residence. Woo, boy, what a fun video you're about to watch. What a thick ray of sunshine on your brain. You're so welcome for this golden stream

you're about to receive. Now, in case you don't remember because of time, roughly one month ago, a Texas woman named Tatiana Jefferson was shot through her window while playing video games with her nephew in her home where she lived. In what is clearly a turn of events, unlike anything we've seen in this country for the past 400 years, the community was shocked

to learn that her executioner was a police officer. Having failed to identify himself as a cop, Officer Aaron Dean later resigned before being arrested for murder, a thing he did. This comes at the heels of the murder conviction of Amber Geiger, a former Dallas police officer who back in 2018 entered the apartment of Botham Jean, an unarmed black man, before shooting him dead.

But that's totally okay, you see, because Botham had weed on him the night he was murdered. You know, that thing no one but the bad guys have. Oh, how that seductive and totally uncommon jazz T lures in the wicked, sometimes even driving 400 miles from Louisiana in order to purchase that very rare devil grass before shooting a man who just happened to also be

the key witness for the trial of a police officer who shot said unarmed black man. Such a totally normal thing to happen to those insatiable reefer hounds. Let's hug. So, that's all pretty terrifying and totally a thing we've all been talking about and upset about ever since it happened. Even the president spoke up against what happened,

saying all Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here, a lynching. At least I assume that's what he was talking about. I only skimmed the tweet, but like, I mean, imagine if he was talking about anything else, right? Like, how cartoonishly evil would that be? To use a word like lynching to describe his own political problems, can you imagine,

can you imagine that in a country like this that has serious problems with unarmed black people being regularly executed by the police for a president to call himself the victim of a lynching? And like, what if there was a conservative conference at one of his resorts with his son and former press secretary as guest speakers and they played a video simulating him,

the president of the United States, point blank, executing the logo for Black Lives Matter. That would be, that would be, that would be surreally awful, right? Like, objectively a bad look that even his base wouldn't defend or deflect, unless they're like stupid or racist or liars. Like a really terrible president

that should be impeached and removed from office. Also, can you imagine if the president owned hotels and resorts and made money from them and didn't understand how Halloween candy worked? Can you picture it? What a mess that would be for America. Anyway, cops is what this video is about. Specifically, cops who gun people down in their own homes

and why that is happening. You know, besides the racism. Like all your high school history textbooks, we're gonna just push the racism to the side for a second because at least as far as we know, neither officers Amber Geiger nor Aaron Dean wanted to go to jail for murder. Both shootings at least appear to not be premeditated.

Otherwise you'd assume that they wouldn't be so blatant about it. Like if a cop really wanted to kill someone, like a witness to a trial they were mad at, they could easily make it look like, I don't know, a drug deal gone wrong or something like that. I'm just spit balling, not talking about anyone specific. The point is, it's safe to assume,

despite their motives, these cops genuinely thought that they could at least get away with shooting an unarmed black person at the time they did that. Something in their brains made them feel entitled to pull the trigger. In the case of Officer Dean, his two biggest mistakes seen in the body camera footage

were that he failed to announce himself as a cop and then fired his weapon almost immediately after shouting a verbal command with obviously no intention to actually wait for a response. Like, don't watch the video if you don't think you can handle it. But if you do, notice that the murdering officer appears to be completely on autopilot.

His commands clearly just a thing. He was trained to shout before his body fired the gun. And that's what I'd like to explore today. Police training. Starting with this quote from the Fort Worth police chief, Edwin Krauss, regarding the shooting of Atatiana Jefferson. We're trying to train our officers better. We're trying to shore up our policies,

and we're trying to ensure that they act and react the way that the citizens intend them to. That they act and react with a servant's heart instead of a warrior's heart. Now, that might sound like well-chosen words by a department doing what should be considered the baseline apology to any of these shootings. But there's a key word there that stands out.

Let's see if we can spot it again in this next White Guy video. In this new, dark, and desperate hour, God has blessed us with warriors. Wherever they come, whatever they do, the warriors will be ready. A warrior fights violence. And what do they fight it with?

Violence. Violence is your tool. Violence is your enemy. Violence is the realm you live in, and you must master it. Hey! What the f*** was that all about? Is it perhaps relevant to the subject of police violence?

Would be pretty weird if it wasn't. Would be pretty weird if I just showed you a random video of a dude talking about unrelated stuff. Use your brains for Pete's sake! Sorry for lashing out. Folks, I want you to meet Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, an aptly named police trainer who, for the last 20 years, has conducted training seminars in all 50 states for every federal law enforcement agency and even gave

lectures at West Point. Oh also he sure talks about Jesus a lot and seems to be completely unhinged. To live is Christ. Is there anything better than to live in Christ? It is the ultimate joy. To live is Christ and to die is what? It's gain. To live is Christ and to die is even better. What? It's a no-lose situation. If we live, we live in Christ. If we die, we gain. Do you understand? Our nation here on earth was bought with the blood of our warriors. And the kingdom in heaven was bought with the blood of Jesus. That man is training cops!

Anywho, you notice that word again, warrior? It's not an uncommon word in the police lexicon thanks to something called warrior training, a type of supplementary police education that Gross Man is known for conducting along with his business partner Jim Glennon, a former police lieutenant in Chicago. Glennon co-owns a company called Caliber Press, which has a very popular seminar called The

Bulletproof Warrior. Now to be fair and balanced, the class has since been renamed to simply Bulletproof, and to be even more balancer, it sure seems possible that this was because their most notable alumni is the guy who shot Philando Castile while he was in his car with his family. Hey, check out their snazzy promo for the class. ["Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"]

Be sure to use the discount code to reduce the price from $209 an officer to only $189 an officer or just buy this stylish DVD box set for $300 and perhaps even you can become a warrior like that guy I just mentioned who shot Philando Castillo while he was in his car with his family. And some weed. If you're in the Fort Worth area, you can definitely catch one of these seminars, one of which was conducted there just last year. But hey, maybe I'm being too hard,

mischaracterizing this training. So let's take a look at one of the leaked textbooks from the seminar, which characterizes a few pre-attack indicators from suspects as the acts of avoiding eye contact, yawning, or simply the word hands. So next time you're pulled over,

you make sure not to be tired, and also to avoid having hands. Also, try not to be a minority. It's usually, that's sort of the big one. But in this particular copy of the textbook, the pupil was kind enough to note that the slide projector during the presentation simply had the words, don't hesitate on it.

Also, there's a page where the entire text is just Bible quotes, mostly about murder. This is used to train cops. There are just so many questionable bits of advice in this thing, not to mention that Gross Man likes to call his teaching, Kilology. But possibly the most disturbing aspect

has to be the overall warrior theme these seminars instill in the students. There's an ongoing theme in these lessons that police are a separate class of individuals, God directed to inflict violence for a noble cause. There are many ways that this manifests in his speeches, like literally comparing officers to knights of olden times. And God has raised up warriors. Now let me define what I mean by warriors. When I talk about a warrior, we could talk about the Zulu warrior, the Apache warrior,

many ways a noble model. But when I talk about warriors, the model I want you to take away from here are the Knights of Old. Have you ever asked yourself why the symbol of a cop, a firefighter, is a shield? Why is a firefighter, the cop, their symbol, a shield, a badge, a star, a little chunk of armor hung on the left side? Why is that your symbol? It is a direct, intentional, overt reference to the Knights of Old. Today, for the first time in centuries, there are warriors who wake up every morning

and they don armor. Hey, don't touch random people, bro! But the Knight analogy is probably the most tame. In one class, he told officers to literally find an overpass overlooking the city they serve and imagine a cape blowing in the wind. You know, like Batman, famous friend of police seen here kicking a man down a sewer

before blowing him up. This idea of being a superhero then translates to why cops should win off duty and even on vacation should totally bring their guns everywhere they go and be prepared to stop the next 9-11 because nothing like constant paranoia to really round out a holiday. The cop from Toad Suck, Arkansas is authorized to carry in Los Angeles and Orange County and New York.

And the cop from Orange County in New York is authorized to carry a toad suck and the world's a better place for it. You pray there will be somebody there with the life-saving tools of their profession, their moment of greatest need. And we don't care where they come from. Good people can disagree on civilian carry, but can we all agree we've got to trust cops with the life-saving tools of their profession? If you can't trust cops, but can we all agree we gotta trust cops with the life-saving tools of their profession? If you can't trust cops with guns, then fold up the flag and kiss America goodbye, because it's over.

We trust them on duty, we trust them off duty. The warrior watched 3,000 citizens die before your eyes in pain and agony and despair and a puff of ash and a cloud of smoke and you know one person on that plane could have stopped it and you yearn to be that person. Some of you say yeah Dave you got my number. I wish I was on that plane. Well good. They ain't coming to your plane. They're coming to your mall,

they're coming to your theater, they're coming to your church, they're coming to your kid's school. And you need to be ready for them. You cops, that means you carry off duty. Weird how he says that cops yearn for these hero moments, you know? Like, it seems like he's training them to imagine a grand superhero

victory where they get to take out the terrorist and everyone in the room claps. And by glorifying that, it makes them really want that thing to happen. And then he encourages them to constantly walk around while armed, looking for that thing. It sure is weird how he does that in a police training seminar.

But even more distressing than all of that is something he and other trainers call the sheep dog mentality. But why should I explain what that is when we have a totally great teacher for that? An old Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel put it to me like this. He said, Dave, most of the people in our society are sheep.

They're kind, decent, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt each other by accident under extreme provocation. And they're wolves. And the wolves will feed on the sheep without mercy. Are there wolves in the land? Are there people who would go into your child's school and kill every single child and take pleasure in doing it? Are there people who would go into your child's school and kill every single child and take pleasure in doing it? Are there people who would harm you and your loved ones? Are there wolves in the land? Are there? Never forget it. The moment you try to pretend there are no wolves in the land,

the moment you try to deny the existence of evil, you're in denial. And you're just another sheep. And never forget, there are wolves in the land, and there are lambs who need protecting. And then the old boy said, there are sheepdogs. He said, I am a sheepdog. I am a predator too. You write it all down? There are only three kinds of people. Sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs.

Nothing else! And if you don't think that's true and don't believe that some people are undeniably evil despite their mental health status or background, well then you're just another sheep. You fucking sheep. And then there are the sheep dogs, here to protect the sheep.

Even if the sheep are a little peeved, because the sheep dog has this weird tendency to murder non-white sheep, and then claim they were wolves. Often by accusing the sheep of smoking sheep weed, as if that justifies it. Like, really, really often, it's not the sheep dog's fault, of course,

because the sheep, well, they resent the sheepdog. The sheep resent their sheepdogs. The sheep resent their sheepdogs. You go out to the meadow, you ask one of the sheep, you say, hey, what do you think of the sheepdog? You know what he'd tell you? He's a bad man. He's always racing through the streets going,

woo! And of course by woo, he means shooting on our people in their homes and cars and stuff. This of course spins off into something called sheepdog training, which Gross Man is also a part of, and you can check out for only $99. So just to recap, cops are warrior sheepdogs. The public are timid sheep who resent them,

and wolves are evil people who need to be put down the moment they make a move. You don't wanna get hurt, don't challenge the sheepdogs, you'll get nipped, AKA shot in your own home. And again, this is being taught to cops all over the country and it's bad, bad enough for some cities to actually try to ban the training to which the companies are fighting back

by offering free classes. What few studies we have on warrior training makes it clear that it's the opposite of what police need to prepare for the real world. A world where, by the way, a very small percentage of police duties can actually be defined as crime fighting. It's a broken philosophy based on fantasy

that attracts all the wrong kinds of people, and it's being taught to cops. And despite the efforts to stop warrior training, people like Dave Gross Man are heavily embedded in our government. A system that seems designed to churn out shitty impulsive hotheads. For starters, police don't really get

that much official training, likely making them turn to other sources, you know, like the NRA, a totally swell group that not only trains cops, but perpetuates the idea that there's a war on cops in this country. As you probably already guessed, Gross Man has spoken at many NRA events, because of course he has. He's a known part of the culture, and well-liked.

Just ask the many comments on the YouTube video I've been playing of people who sure sound like cops praising his motivational speeches. Remember that meeting Trump had with a bunch of people from the video game industry to discuss shooting violence? Well guess who was there? You don't have to guess. It was Dave. Dave Grossman, who in case you wanted to be super not surprised, believes that video games are the problem. Because of course Dave does, and of course he would have access to the President of the United States. Like, doesn't just everything about that make sense?

Aren't you happy the guy who thinks cops are modern day superheroes for God is also advising the President on video games? Boy howdy, I haven't even mentioned William Lewinsky, Executive Director of therest Science Institute, a consultant company that also offers five day training courses for only $1,650 and boasts training for 10,000 students

from 2,200 agencies around the world. And you know, it must be good, because it has science in the name. And according to their own website, they are dedicated to scientifically determining and fully understanding the actual physical and psychological dynamics of force encounters, which would certainly explain why Lewinsky

charges over $1,000 an hour to appear in court, right? Surely this is all on the level stuff, yeah? Yeah, this man that I just brought up in my video about bad police training? Except, oh, oh. It says nope. Not only is there just no good science surrounding the effective use of force from police,

but Louisnky's science has been specifically flagged as invalid and unreliable by the Justice Department, which might have something to do with the fact that he doesn't peer review his work, opting to publish it in police magazines rather than science journals. You know that $1,000 an hour court fee? Well, that might have something to do with the fact

that old Bill has a reputation for ass-pulling scientific explanations in order to regularly help police departments defend officers involved in obvious acts of murder. When a Sonoma County Sheriff's Deputy shot a 13-year-old boy with a toy gun, they called Bill. When a San Francisco subway cop shot a man in the back while he was on the ground and detained, they called Bill.

When an officer in Oklahoma accidentally shot and killed a man before screaming, fuck your breath, at his dying body, they called Bill. For a thousand an hour, Bill would get on that stand and use vague science to explain away why the officer involved was totally in the right, no matter what the circumstance. Because nothing says credible and scientific like always arguing the same conclusion no matter what the variables are.

Billiam often uses the psychological condition of inattentional blindness to explain why cops might have gaps and lapses in their reports that he himself has admitted is indistinguishable from lying. For example, back in 2003 when a Hartford cop shot a man twice before claiming it was self-defense, before having that claim proven totally false

by video taken during the shooting, Bill Lewinsky was able to use his pseudoscience to convince a jury to let him off. Since then, the officer got his job back and was awarded half a million dollars. Thanks, Bill. You dickhead. Who, by the way way is banned from giving testimony in British

Columbia because of everything you just learned. But here in the States, Bill is training cops. He's training cops. Guys, he's training cops. He's training cops. So yeah, if you're wondering why a cop feels totally justified to shoot a black woman in her own home, this is it. This is the reason. Besides the racism, right?

We can't forget the racism. It's not just one or two people, but a network, a culture embedded in our law enforcement, all designed to train cops to act like impulsive and entitled maniacs before getting a high-powered bullsh** consultant to justify your actions after the fact. The problem is painfully obvious. Again, besides the racism, which is actually also pretty obvious. But if you need some kind of hope to desperately grip onto like a life jacket on a Titanic, well there's a

small push for change here. As I already mentioned, this mentality is legally biting cities on the ass and causing them to change their training methods. Then there's FBI LIDA, an organization devoted to retraining cops to consider themselves servants rather than warriors. Sometimes a warrior mindset can allow you to be an us and them mindset. That's the last thing that we need from our police. Personally, I've lived that mindset. I understand it.

And particularly being a police chief for a number of years. Well, a guardian is a protector of the community. A guardian is a person that sees the cause of policing, not just the action of policing. A guardian is someone who looks out for the community, is a partner with the community, not separate from them. The old adage back in the 1990s when we would do community policing was that the folks we worked with, the folks in our communities were our customers. Well that's not really true. The folks in our communities are

our partners. We must expand our mindset from that of a warrior to be inclusive of that also of a guardian. That's Dean Crisp, a 30 year law enforcement veteran. His name sounds like a lettuce mascot, and who happens to be one of the FBI leader instructors. Are they perfect? I don't know, man. But he sure as shit isn't talking about how God ordained him to pull out his gun at a mall, you know?

At one point in his Ted Talk, he specifically calls out a time he got unreasonably suspicious of a guy at a mall, you know? At one point in his TED Talk, he specifically calls out a time he got unreasonably suspicious of a guy at a Walmart before realizing he was a good guy, and how he wouldn't have realized that had he jumped into a bullsh-t warrior mindset. So yeah, be like Mr. Crisp, the Crisp Daddy, as we call him.

Gross, Cody, come on, man. Again, not much, but a start. Like, the bar is depressingly low here. Because if we really wanna change the system to avoid having cops skulking around houses, holding guns and humming the lethal weapon theme, well, we have to fundamentally change how they are trained in a way that attracts a totally different kind

of personality to the job. It can't just be additional courses. The entire philosophy and culture needs to be uprooted. Maybe they shouldn't have guns? You know, it's just a thought. Otherwise, we might as well give up and convert to a Judge Dredd system. No, not that one, the good one. Yeah, that's the one, that's the a Judge Dredd system. No, not that one, the good one.

Yeah, that's the one, that's the good Judge Dredd movie. If you haven't seen a Judge Dredd movie, that's definitely the one you'll wanna watch. The Stallone one, not the other one. And we're done. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"]