The Associated Press published coverage of the police murder of a 17-year-old in France that has sparked nationwide unrest that is now gaining international attention. According to the Associated Press, the outcry and repercussions are drawing parallels to the racial reckoning in the U.S. spurred by the killings of George Floyd and other people of color at the hands of law enforcement. CPE President, COO, and Co-Founder Dr. Tracie Keesee joined the conversation to provide insights.
The following is an excerpt from the publication:
Police in France typically go through training that runs for about 10 months, which is long compared with many U.S. cities, but one of the shortest training requirements in Europe.
However, experts said they did not believe French police receive training that is equivalent to the implicit bias training required of many U.S. police officers as an effort to improve policing in diverse communities, though many U.S. critics have questioned the training’s effectiveness.
France and other European countries have growing African, Arab and Asian populations.
“If you are in a country with a colonial past, it carries a stigma. And if that is painful enough that you can’t handle having that conversation about race, of course you aren’t going to have relevant training for officers,” Tracie Keesee, co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity, who serves on the United Nations’ International Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement.
Read the full article on APNews.com.