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Excerpt: "The North Miami Beach Police said Friday that it has suspended the sniper education program till a evaluation is conducted, right after reports showed that mug shots of African-American men have been becoming applied as targets at a shooting range for police instruction."

Mugshots of black men used for police target practice. (photo: NBC 6 South Florida)
Mugshots of black men used for police target practice. (photo: NBC 6 South Florida)


North Miami Police Chief Suspends Training Program After Mug Shots of Black Males Had Been Used as Targets

By Union Gazette

17 January 15

 

he North Miami Beach Police said Friday that it has suspended the sniper education program till a evaluation is conducted, right after reports showed that mug shots of African-American men have been becoming applied as targets at a shooting range for police instruction. Sgt. Valerie Deant discovered the mug shot of her brother Woody Deant, who was arrested 15 years ago as a teenager for drag race, at the instruction center last week.

North Miami Beach Police Chief J. Scott Dennis denied allegations of racism at his department, but said that the officers need to have made use of much better judgment. He also agreed to how offensive the pictures with bullet holes might appear, if taken out of context, Miami Herald, a local newspaper reported. Dennis also added that no disciplinary action will be taken against everyone in the division considering that no policies had been violated.

"I immediately suspend the sniper coaching program as we conduct a thorough overview of our instruction procedure and materials, ordered commercially made coaching pictures, and opened an investigation into the matter," Dennis said, according to Miami Herald.

Valerie, who plays the clarinet in the Florida Army National Guard’s 13th Army Band, discovered the pictures final month at the training center. Woody’s mug shot was from the year 2000, when he took element in a drag race, which killed two men and women.

“I was like 'why is my brother getting employed for target practice?'" Valerie asked, according to NBC News, which reported the story first last week. “There were like gunshots there,” she said. “And I cried a couple of occasions.”

Woody had served four years in jail soon after the drag race. “The image essentially has like bullet holes,” Woody stated, according to NBC News, adding: “One in my forehead and one in my eye. … I was speechless."

“Now I’m becoming made use of as a target?” Woody mentioned, according to NBC News, adding: “I’m not even living that life according to how they portrayed me as. I’m a father. I’m a husband. I’m a career man. I function 9-to-5.”

Law enforcement agencies only use commercially developed targets, but not photographs of human beings for target practice, NBC News reported, citing sources at federal and state law enforcement agencies and local police departments.

“This can build a pretty risky predicament,” Lawyer Andell Brown, who was contacted by the Deants, said, according to NBC News, adding: “And it has been ingrained in your subconscious what does that imply when somebody [police] comes across Woody or one more particular person on the street and their decision-generating process on applying deadly force or not.”

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