First, the background to the headline, in terms of the predicating event prompting mayoral candidate Raymond Dehn’s statement about disarming the Minneapolis Police Department, first from FoxNews.com:

Minnesota cop who fatally shot Australian woman was ‘fast-tracked’ into the force

The Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Justine Damond was put on an accelerated police cadet program that required only seven months of training, a nontraditional route that aims to help those who have a college degree enter law enforcement.

Mohamed Noor, 31, shot Damond, 40, after she called 911 to report a sexual assault behind her home. When she approached the driver’s side of the squad car, Noor fired from the passenger side, across his partner, killing Damond.

The Minnesota Police Department has been under fire since the July 15 shooting. Many have questioned Noor’s experience and training after only graduating in 2015. However, former Police Chief Janeé Harteau, who resigned last week, stood by Noor’s training.

That’s a story in and of itself.

A female chief. A lesbian chief. Gone in 60 seconds.

That tells me one quite important thing. An innocent Caucasoid Australian woman and a Somali Muslim magically trump a lesbian chief of department, politically. Color me shocked.

Boom. Gone. Good to know. The hierarchy of politics. What I told each and every Patrol trainee of mine: “If it is fiscally or politically expedient, you will be sacrificed.”

There is truth here. You have to dig it out one or two or three major chisel strikes at a time.

“We have a very robust training and hiring process,” Harteau told reporters at a news conference last Thursday. “This officer completed that training very well, just like every officer. He was very suited to be on the street.”

No political correctness here or there, eh wot? That would never occur in a job as critical as peace officer, would it?

But others believe the fast-track program could leave officers ill prepared to handle real-world police scenarios.

Wait. Are you saying there is Opposition Theory?

“The cadet program is rigorous, no doubt,” James Densley, a criminal justice associate professor at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, told the Star Tribune, “but it is also an immersive paramilitary experience, taught by practitioner faculty without advanced degrees, and I suspect it leaves students with a limited view of the profession.”

Right. They’re well trained but they’re not well trained? Taught by great staff or taught by inadequate staff? Which is it?

But wait. Read this.

Nate Grove, the head of the State Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (which controls police training and sets objectives) said that the nontraditional routes are no less rigorous in Minnesota than the traditional ones. The Peace Officer Licensing Examination includes 275 questions and takes about two to three hours to complete.

The suggestion here is that, in lieu of full training, Noor instead took a paper test which he was able to pass. Otherwise, why include the intimation that he was “fast tracked”? And if Noor was “fast tracked” by having passed only a paper test instead of a full training venue, well, a serious slight was committed in training. Perhaps, now, a deadly slight. But I don’t know because the articles do not so definitively state.

This much is true.

Damond’s shooting death has been ruled a homicide by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office.

And this much is true as well. We know the body cams were not activated at the time of the event but, truly, that’s an internal issue with regard to whatever policy the Minneapolis PD has immured with regard to operation. The dashcam was also off. Same thing with regard to policy. And let me state that would fall under the umbrella of internal policy and not law.

MPD policy does indicate that body cams should be activated if force is used but, of course, one seldom if ever gets to accurately predict when force must be utilized. The priority should be safety and response rather than the activation of equipment.

This, in and of itself, is a massive issue with which, in my estimation, law enforcement agencies have yet to sufficiently grapple. There is yet no “one size fits all” policy with regard to body cam and video equipment. Much less the issues of storage and costs.

Then there is this puzzler from the ChicagoTribune.com.

Australian woman shot by cop ‘did not have to die,’ Minneapolis police chief says

by Ami Forliti and Steve Karnowski

The fatal shooting of an Australian woman by a Minneapolis police officer responding to her 911 call “should not have happened,” police Chief Janee Harteau said, adding that the officer’s actions “go against who we are in the department.”

In her first public remarks since the death of Justine Damond, a 40-year-old life coach and bride-to-be, Harteau on Thursday defended Officer Mohamed Noor’s training but criticized his actions.

Wait, wait wait wait wait. He was well-trained but he screwed up? Just what are you saying here, former Chief Harteau? What are you trying to justify? His training or his actions? Because training, or lack thereof, does have a good deal to do with reactions in the field.

Oh right. She’s a former chief of police.

“He was well trained but we don’t act like this,” is what you’re saying Harteau? It would seem to me, at first blush, that you’re attempting to justify something — a Somali Muslim cop — that many would say needn’t be justified. Just what are you saying?

I’m sorry; were saying. Past tense.

Harteau faced several questions about her absence in the days following the shooting, which sparked anger and a demand for answers in the city and in Damond’s home country. She said she had been backpacking in a remote area, it was “challenging” to return and that she had been in touch with her command staff.

Priorities. Please see above.

Damond had called 911 twice late Saturday to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her house on Minneapolis’ southwest side. Noor, who was in the passenger seat of a squad car, shot at Damond through the driver’s side window.

Noor has declined to speak with the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is handling the investigation. His partner, Matthew Harrity, told investigators he was startled by a loud sound right before Damond approached the police vehicle.

Perhaps his right in Minnesota, but not his right in California. When I was in Homicide, I happened to be tasked with investigating OIS, or Officer Involved Shootings. I had to be well versed in OIS investigations as well as POBR — the Peace Officer Bill of Rights. Officers had the right to determine not to speak to me in detail but they didn’t have the right to not tell me the basics, such as firearm, place, position, backstop, number of rounds fired, location of suspect and the like.

It was a long way to get here, yes, but we can now get to the point: add a Minneapolis mayoral race.

From TownHall.com:

Minneapolis Mayoral Candidate: Maybe Cops Should Just Leave Their Guns In The Car

by Matt Vespa

Is this guy high on drugs? That’s the only explanation for this nonsensical policy proposal regarding law enforcement coming out of the Minneapolis area. Mayoral candidate Raymond Dehn pretty much put forward a policy that would disarm police, requiring them to leave their firearms in their car.

The most striking proposal came from Raymond Dehn, a state legislator who finished first in the Minneapolis DFL’s no-endorsement convention on July 8, beating out Hodges, Council Member Jacob Frey and Tom Hoch and attracting more than a third of the support from party insiders.

“We must divest resources, disarm officers, and dismantle the inherent violence of our criminal justice system,” Dehn said in a statement Friday.

He later elaborated on what sounded like a call to take guns from cops, adding he is not advocating against police officers having access to weapons when they need them.

“Officers don’t need to carry guns on their person all the time,” Dehn said Tuesday. “Currently, officers carry all sorts of assault weapons in their cars. So why can’t one of those weapons be the side arm? It’s important that we begin to have a conversation, and I would say that all things are on the table.”

Look. I’ll be honest. Quite a number of persons have asked me to weigh in on the initial shooting involving Noor. Having served not in the military but instead 41 years in law enforcement, I have something of a perspective from the front lines.

And that is this.

No matter how Noor was trained or whatever his reputation may have been or not been, an individual who, sitting in a vehicle shared by a partner, deigns to reach across and in front of said partner crank off rounds within the unit is one of two things:

1. Brilliant in terms of officer safety, or
2. Massively problematic, bordering on unhinged or insane.

I suspect a bit of the latter. And most everyone in that department now knows just about everything regarding Officer Noor. There are few secrets when lives are on the line.

I also suspect this. Due to his incomplete training regimen — that is to say, the “fast tracking” the department admits to having done — much was known about Noor before he even opened his first Crown Vic door.

That said, I highly suggest each and every Leftist Urban Rat Cage eschew their police and disarm them completely. Take their guns. Give them short truncheons. Whistles. A nice dark hat like Scotland Yard. Give them Smart cars or bicycles and tablets and social media. And sarcasm. Sarcasm can be a weapon. But not too much sarcasm. You wouldn’t want to offend.

In terms of this Great Disarm the Police Experiment, I suggest these cities first:

• Minneapolis
• San Francisco
• Chicago
• New York
• Detroit
• Baltimore
• Los Angeles
• DC

It’s already been suggested, for example, that Chicago defund its police department. No. I’m not kidding.

I think the best summary is this:

But the head of the police union, Lt. Bob Kroll, says there’s not a chance this idea would fly with any cop.

“I don’t think the people in Minneapolis are logically ready for anything like this,” said Kroll. “Who would ever do the job of policing again? It’s absolutely an absurd thought.”

Precisely.

BZ