Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of Philando Castile’s shooting death at the hands of St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez. Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton marked the occasion by recommending the state’s Police Officer Standards and Training Board be named after Castile.
The $12 million fund, which was approved by the legislature earlier this year, will help provide training opportunities for law enforcement officials working in diverse communities, MPR News reports. The governor noted in a letter making the request that he was following the recommendation of the Governor’s Council on Law Enforcement and Community Relations.
Gov. Dayton also named Clarence Castile, Philando’s uncle, as one of three appointments to the POST board, effective next week. Clarence Castile, a public member, will join 14 others, most of whom are are law enforcement officers, on the board that regulates police training programs and licensing police officers.
Valerie Castile, Philando Castile’s mother, told MPR News, “We need this extra training for our police officers. Because at the end of the day, everyone wants to go home. The police want to go home and the civilian wants to go home. And if we can combine our minds and work together as human beings, then that will happen.”
Gov. Dayton said that citizens also need to work to ease tensions with law enforcement.
“I’ve been on police ride alongs and the way some people treat police who are there for their safety and protection is just really appalling,” he told reporters. “We all need to broaden our understanding that we’re all human beings and we’re not de-marked by our race or the color of our uniform.”
The governor also said that Castile’s July 6, 2016, shooting during a Falcon Heights traffic stop is “one of the very most traumatic events that has occurred in my six and a half years as governor of Minnesota, it’s had long-lasting traumatic effects on so many people.”
Yanez was charged with manslaughter in Castile’s death, and a jury found him not guilty of all charges June 16.
I am not sure how to feel about naming a police training fund after a man who was unnecessarily killed by a police officer. Philando Castile is dead because Jeronimo Yanez was ill-equipped to do his job properly, yet Yanez is still alive and will never serve a day in jail for his death.
Naming a police training fund after Castile seems almost insulting at this point.
And then there’s this:
“I’ve been on police ride alongs and the way some people treat police who are there for their safety and protection is just really appalling,” he told reporters.
Is it more appalling than unarmed people dying at the hands of police, and do you think there is any correlation between these deaths and the general attitudes of distrust and suspicion most people have toward police today?
Furthermore:
The governor also said that Castile’s July 6, 2016, shooting during a Falcon Heights traffic stop is “one of the very most traumatic events that has occurred in my six and a half years as governor of Minnesota, it’s had long-lasting traumatic effects on so many people.”
Be specific. It has had long-lasting traumatic effects on black people.
There. Fixed that for you.
Read more at MPR News.
