Zseni wrote:

laudablepuss wrote:

In this particular case, I gather that the cop may have had little cause. (I'm going to keep an eye out for future updates.) And also, the police in general seem overeager to use supposedly non-lethal weapons since, who cares, they can't kill people anyway. I have heard multiple reports that during the riot after the Broncos won Super Bowl 32 the cops fired tear gas at small groups of people (like, three or fewer) apparently just walking along fully a block away from where the fires had been started. A reporter with a camera who was covering the scene was kicked in the chest and knocked to the ground. Do police officers get training of some kind? Just curious.

Well there's a can of theoretical worms you've gone and opened. Did you ever read about the two experiments in psychology, the one with the electrical shocks administered for delicious cash! and the other about people assigned roles as prisoners and others as guards? I'll link em up if you haven't, but the short answer to your training is: yes, and everyone else gets the same training without even knowing it.