The murder of Justine Damond by MPD officer Mohamed Noor will soon be a classic case to learn from. A case that will define another failure of our nation’s policing…police diversification.
Welcome to the second part of our series on the lessons to be learned from the murder of the Australian bride-to-be Justine Damond, shot by Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor. Here is one real live example as to why the push for police diversification will have no meaningful effect on police brutality.
BACK STORY HIDDEN FROM THE PUBLIC
According to www.kstp.com, “Noor joined the department in March 2015 and is currently assigned to the 5th Precinct in the southwest part of [Minneapolis].” Around the time when Noor was hired, the city of Minneapolis was (and may still be) going through a period of “diversification” of their police force. We talked to one applicant for employment with the Minneapolis police department (a white male) from that time period. He informed us that he saw perfectly qualified white applicants being passed over to further the agenda of “diversifying” the Minneapolis police department. He went on to say that it was at this same time that the application process was “dumbed down” in order to open the door to as many people as possible.
Instead of each candidate being ranked according to performance on the physical portion of the tests, this process had been modified to a pass/fail method of ranking applicants. In other words, those who were in the best physical shape for the job scored no higher in the physical tests than those barely meeting the minimum requirements. The person who had the highest vertical jump, able to hit the top mark, scored no higher overall than the person who could hit only the bottom mark. Someone capable of doing 100 sit-ups scored no higher than the person performing only 25. Most prudent individuals would question this short-sightedness in a job requiring the physical apprehension of criminals.
POLICE DIVERSIFICATION IS NOT THE ANSWER
The goal here was to open the door to as many people as possible. This in turn provides the greatest number of “qualified” minorities. Being able to choose “qualified” minorities in this manner allows departments to pacify the public and the minority community. In reality, any department employing these methods will end up with candidates who are actually less qualified for the job of policing.
WHEN “QUALIFIED” ISN’T REALLY QUALIFIED
According to a Good Morning America report, Noor, a Somali, already has a history of complaints in his short time (approximately two years) on the Minneapolis police force. He also has a law suit against him. The dangerous manner in which Noor reportedly “shot across” his partner sitting in the driver’s seat of the car as Noor sat in the passenger seat, is also disturbing. After knowing the reckless way in which this Minneapolis cop has been reported to handle a deadly weapon, the resulting death of Justine Damond should not come as a surprise.
This early information clearly calls into question whether Noor is even qualified to be a cop. It also questions whether the Minneapolis police department is much too lax in their selection and training. Is this push for diversification partly to blame? Did this contribute to the shooting of an unarmed woman who simply called the police to report an assault? This should make everyone wonder how many unqualified police officers there are on the streets due to the increased focus on “diversification” instead of qualification. How much of this will we see in the forthcoming years in the city of Minneapolis and across the country? Is MPD officer Mohamed Noor just the beginning of what will be a ticking time bomb in the next phase of police brutality?
Next in this series…why body cams will have no impact on the way police perform.
Good luck and stay safe!