Cops using pictures of actual people for target practice?

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So I found this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/25/florida-police-used-mugshots-of-black-men-for-target-practice-clergy-responded-usemeinstead/

Apparently, cops use pictures of actual people for target practice...maybe people of certain groups. I sort of like how the church who called them out on this is handling it. Even if there was no racial implications and they really do use pictures of people from all races equally....that they are even using pictures of actual people is disturbing. The only real purpose of it I can see is trying to desensitize cops towards fellow humans.

Some law-enforcement suppliers have provided such targets (also showing children holding toys, pregnant women, seniors, angry individuals and others) for years now. The presumption is that they are intended to desensitize officers who fire their weapons (the large, vast majority shoot just a few rounds a year for recertification purposes).

So, the questions remains ... why?

I saw that on the news not too long ago.

I just heard of this today on another site...but I do not watch the news so yeah, only see news on the internet either in sections like this of websites or on occasions I visit a couple news sites for general updates on the state of things.

Different types of targets are used for training purposes to make the officer able to quickly discriminate between real threats and civilians. I guess you could call it a form of sensitivity training since the goal is to spare innocent lives.

One of the men's images with bullet holes between his eyes is a father of two children, professionally employed and a respected member of society. They uploaded his teenage mugshot.

A mugshot is sufficient for single-target practice.

Sounds kinda like the old NES game "Hogan's Alley". It was a game where you used the Zapper to shoot at cardboard cutouts of thugs and hoodlums, while trying to avoid shooting cutouts of innocent civilians or other officers.

Sounds like the shooting test scene in MiB first movie.

- Why didn't you kill the alien that was about to attack you?
- He was just sneezing. He was holding a tissue.
- What did the poor girl do to deserve being killed?
- No normal girl would read such kind of a book.

(Or something like that, it was a few years since I watched the movie, and I watched it in Polish.)

Edit: Ok, here it is, I found the scene on youtube:

Using actual mugshots of people is at least kind of childish and in poor taste IF that's actually what they're doing.

However, targets like these pictured are common stock and represent no specific individuals.




Cberg and Sweetleaf, I don't think you really want Bugs Bunny to saw Florida off of the US. That's a BLUE state with about 30 electoral votes that might be dearly missed by the democrats next November......

http://www.infowars.com/law-enforcement ... nant-women

@Raptor: Bugger off, what makes you think I'm a democrat anyway? My curiosity is piqued. Vermin Supreme is my main man. Once he opposes cannabis prohibition he's got my vote as long as he's still breathing.

And those are photos of SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALS, just dudes holding unloaded pistols with lines showing the fastest ways to kill them.

It does not seem that was the goal here...the article shows an example of the picture used, it was just the faces of what 6 actual people sure they where mug shots but yeah didn't look like different kinds of targets to choose from in the sense of choosing the ones representing a threat over the ones not representing a threat. Also if the goal was more along the lines of what you suggest why would pictures of actual people be needed? Looked more like desensitizing towards shooting people in general....But I'd hope what you describe is more common that what this article is describing.

Also unethical but hey...why should the police have any respect for human life.