We already know that cops are state-sanctioned killers who get away with murdering people all of the time. They are basically gangs, but with the legal power to prey on whomever they choose, and when they face public scrutiny their police unions provide legal cover to beat the charges.
Accountability was handed down this week when Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd. But soon after he was convicted, a Columbus cop killed a 16-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man was killed by a Brooklyn Center cop a week before the Chauvin verdict.
The culmination of all of this state-sanctioned death unearthed some old footage of Dave Grossman’s sick training techniques that literally condition cops to kill people, as if they don’t do a good enough job of it already. Under his Killology Research Group, the ex-military officer has become one of the top independent police trainers over the past 20 years. Grossman is booked nearly 200 days a year and police departments pay the bill.
The video that has resurfaced gives us a taste of how he conditions cops to see the communities they serve as battlegrounds.
“Once you’ve made the decision to take a human life, you’re a transformed creature,” Grossman says in the 7-minute clip provided by The New Yorker. “You’re a predator. What does a predator do? They kill. Only a killer can hunt a killer. Are you emotionally, spiritually, psychologically prepared to snuff out a human life in defense of innocent lives? If you can’t make that decision, you need to find another job.”
This dude is a real monster.
The old clip from 2017 has been trending on Twitter since Thursday. Journalists began posting old clips of stories they have written on Grossman’s killology trainings, which he defines as “the scholarly study of the destructive act, just as sexology is the scholarly study of the procreative act.”
One Slate writer wrote that he took an online course from Grossman last year and noted how much fear mongering was part of the curriculum. In the course, Grossman claims cops are under siege.
“We know that if it were not for all the body armor, bulletproof vests worn by officers, law enforcement fatalities in the United States would easily be double or even triple what they are today,” the writer recalls Grossman asserting. “If this is not war, then you tell me what is.”
We know this isn’t true, but Grossman is unrelenting in his resolve to assert his hyperbolic claims anyway. Grossman wants cops to be able to turn their killer instincts on and off or, as the Slate writer recalls from his class, to be on autopilot so that the officer isn’t flat footed in case he needs to kill.
The officer who killed Philando Castile during a 2016 traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota took a course from Grossman called “Bulletproof Warrior” two years earlier.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, that officer sat through more than 100 hours of firearms usage, street survival, and the use of force training. As for de-escalation training, that was only a few hours.
It would be interesting to know how many of the cops who took his training have killed people on the job. While the video is a few years old, Grossman is still out teaching cops how to treat citizens like enemy combatants. Hopefully, departments will cease paying for his services amid this new scrutiny.