14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, the news broke that, about a month ago, a bunch of cops, all members of the Miami Beach Police in the US, were caught practicing their shooting skills on photos of actual criminals. Specifically, the cops were caught using mugshots of black criminals in target practice.
Not at all surprisingly, this one piece of news took the world by storm. A whole lot of people were outraged and many were quick to condemn the police officers for their actions. The thing is that, the way the cops involved in this incident see things, they didn’t really do anything wrong.
Thus, they insist that using actual mugshots of people who at one point in their life got in trouble with the law is vital for facial recognition drills and that their habit of firing their arms at photos of criminals does not in any way go against existing rules and regulations.
Otherwise put, there are two sides to this story, and chances are that some of you are inclined to say that the cops did not do anything wrong while others are convinced that they should be held accountable for their actions. So, which one is it? Were or were not the officers wrong in using mugshots in target practice?
For starters, here’s how this entire conundrum got started
The Miami Beach Police officers were caught using mugshots in target practice by Sgt. Valerie Deant. The woman says that she noticed the mugshots with bullet holes in them when she visited the Medley Firearms Training Center in Florida just after the cops had completed their training exercises.
The reason Sgt. Valerie Deant noticed the photos that the police officers used in target practice was that her brother’s mugshot was included among them. Apparently, it was back in 2000 that her sibling, Woody Dent, was arrested for taking part in drag racing.
“I was like, ‘Why is my brother being used for target practice?’ There were like gunshots there. And I cried a couple of times,” Sgt. Valerie Deant detailed her reaction to seeing her brother's mugshot at the Medley Firearms Training Center in an interview.
Following this incident, Sgt. Valerie Deant and her brother Woody are considering filing legal charges against the Miami Beach Police cops who used photos of black criminals to practice their shooting skills at the Medley Firearms Training Center. As mentioned, the officers insist that they did nothing wrong.
“Our policies were not violated. There is no discipline forthcoming from the individuals who were involved with this,” North Miami Beach Police Chief J. Scott Dennis summed up the officers’ viewpoint in a statement with respect to this incident.
Were the cops right in using mugshots in target practice?
Admittedly, it might be that the Miami Beach Police officers did not violate any existing rules and regulations when hanging photos of Woody Dent and other black criminals and firing their guns at them. Still, this does not mean that their actions are not condemnable.
In fact, if you ask me, the fact that the mugshots they used were of black criminals is of little importance. True, some might argue that their choice of mugshots makes the cops, well, racists, but the way I see things, it’s never OK to fire one’s weapon at a photo of another human being, regardless of their race.
What Woody Dent and all the other criminals whose mugshots were fired at may or may not have done when they were younger is no excuse to use their photos in target practice. Past run-ins with the law aside, these guys are human beings and, therefore, deserve respect.
Otherwise put, the cops involved in this incident had no business firing their guns at their photos. Not unless they are OK with having folks practice their shooting skills on photos of them. Somehow, I imagine they would not be all that happy to finding pictures of themselves with bullet holes in them.