Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll issued a long statement today, decrying the recent apparent police brutality in Minneapolis, where a man died after having his neck sadistically crushed by an officer of the law. Police Chief Justin Doll issued this statement:
The events of this last week demonstrate there is still much to discuss about the relationships between communities and their police departments. I wanted to take this opportunity to reach out and connect with you about your police department.
First, I think it is important to state unequivocally that every law enforcement professional I know was left speechless by the event in Minneapolis. It is simply unfathomable conduct by a police officer.
There are very real and complicated issues in the relationship between many police departments and their communities. The unrest that many cities are experiencing stems from a lack of trust in their police force, as a result of current and historical injustices that have occurred in those communities. Trust is not something that can be established overnight, it must be earned.
Community trust is something we talk about frequently at APD, at every level, and take very seriously. The relationship we have built with the community we serve has taken decades to earn, and we believe very strongly that it is our duty to maintain and improve it every day, on every call for service. APD has a clear track record of holding our officers accountable for misconduct, and being transparent about it. We have experienced officer misconduct in the past, and I cannot promise that we will never have a problem here again. What I can absolutely guarantee is that if we do, the department leadership will react swiftly to take the appropriate criminal and administrative steps to hold the involved officer accountable for his or her actions. We also take preemptive action by thoroughly training our officers.
We know that we all come from different backgrounds, walks of life, experiences, and places. It’s our responsibility to ensure our officers have the tools to navigate these differences. From the very beginning as recruits, and throughout their careers, APD officers are given extensive training in areas like:
- Developing an awareness of personal bias and understanding hidden bias
- Understanding how culture impacts behavior
- How cultural awareness can actually help them do their jobs more effectively
- Discussing the diverse and unique cultures found in our community
- De-escalation techniques
These subjects and others are important tools for an officer to understand how to successfully interact with all members of our community. This personal interaction is the baseline of everything we do, so it is imperative that our officers become expert communicators in any situation.
APD conducts significant training in both de-escalation and cultural sensitivity. Even more importantly we train our people and have a fundamental expectation that every person we contact is treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their socioeconomic status, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any other group they may identify with. When you are committed to treating everyone with respect, you can overcome any implicit or unconscious bias you may have. It doesn’t matter if you are a victim, witness, or a suspect. You are all human beings and your lives matter to us. This is a cornerstone of our culture at APD – compassionate professionalism and respect in all that we do.
I hope that some of this information is useful and helps you understand how committed our police department is to serving every individual in our city while upholding the rule of law. Our relationship with you means everything to us, and we will continue to work hard to earn your trust every day. I am very thankful for the men and women serving at the Anchorage Police Department, and I hope you are as proud of them as I am. We are here for you, and we can accomplish anything when we work together.
With the deepest respect,
Justin
Police Chief Doll, how about the behavior of the looters and rioters! How do you “feel”about that? Is Anchorage going to be set on fire? Will you retreat and let them “blow off steam”?
You what the video of when they handcuff George Floyd, you can see the cuffs are hurting him. He still cooperated. But how can anyone cooperate when you are being hurt? Nobody is above the law, neither are the cops.
Thank you for this statement Police Chief Doll. I especially appreciated your comments about community trust. During these past few months our family has appreciated the APD even more. Reading about New York and how the NYPD was having officers going business to business to report on who was open/closed, etc. makes me shudder. I feel so grateful that we did not have the same situation in Anchorage. In all our years in Anchorage, every interaction we’ve had with APD has been professional and worthy of trust. We are grateful for the men and women of the APD!
What those officers did to that man was unreal. They not only murdered him, but did so in a slow, agonizing, brutal way. They tortured that man and for what reason? There is no reason that can be said justifying their actions. I would really hope that they are not acquitted as we have seen far too many times when it comes to situations like this.
Thank you to Chief Doll. I would hope that we would not ever see something like this in Anchorage. It sounds like our police officers are put through many hours of training in order to prevent this from happening.
Yeah.
Bob Musser would have taken umbrage w/ Doll’s ‘I love you, you love me’ purple dinosaur nonsense.
Then again, we have a giant for a mayor that would clearly not support any cop that demonstrated the masculine response such animalistic behavior merits. This was once again reinforced as I was driving down Benson tonight and two rural drunkards were throwing each other around on the sidewalk and tossing garbage into the street at passing vehicles. One of Anchorage’s blue line was casually observing from the safety of his cruiser directly across the street. It must be scary to sit in that car wondering what the repercussion might be for making Anchorage a better place.
Without consequences there’s no accountability and that’s the problem. Patrol from the rooftops if that bologna comes to our town. Ain’t nobody got time fo dat.
He pinned the guy down with knee to neck for over 8 minutes. That’s an incredibly dangerous move on a citizen’s life. All the cops need retraining. But what about the action preceding the take down?
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Cops were called to the scene after a report that Floyd was passing counterfeit bills. He was on drugs and irritable, and resisted arrest and fought with the cops. Why do these guys want to fist fight the cops during an arrest?
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The autopsy showed that his death was not by strangulation. Floyd had underlying medical conditions. It wasn’t the airway block that killed him. He was still talking to the officer’s while down.
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These are the kind of facts that the media never reports because they get more redmeat out of reporting a race riot.
Well said, Ted. The media needs a race war now, so that Trump has more on the plate to feed the hate of the Left. I certainly don’t agree with cop brutality against ANY citizen. But why is it that the media never states that most of these takedowns occur when the perps are committing crimes and disrespecting the law? How about all of the daily murders by guns that take place in Chicago? Does anyone know why Black Lives disrespect other Black Lives?
I do. Uneducated thugs wanting an easy life. Lazy.
Yep. Stop resisting, or better yet, don’t break the law. Why not try that?
Source please.
Forkner has it pretty much right. One incident to set off another uproar. Mostly thugs wanting to steal other’s property and flaunt the law. Predictable stuff. Cops can’t do their jobs anymore because we elect lazy liberal leaders who are deathly afraid of being called racist. And the appeasement goes on and on…….
Why are most police officers acquitted of these alleged crimes against Blacks? Because under our Constitution every person including Police Officers are required to be tried by a jury after investigation and presentation of credible evidence and with legal representation.
We have stopped lynching and executions based on hated, riots, organized hate groups (KKK) and media frenzies.
An indictment handed down in four days for political reasons (fake justice) is a poorly investigated indictment without a grand jury proceedings or facts.
Nothing would satisfy those with the loudest voices except an immediate public execution of all four officers involved. Even if they were executed in the public street just after the video surfaced it would not of stopped the criminal riots, burnings of public and private property, shootings and theft of property by criminals and yes “Thugs”.
How does anyone justify the harm and destruction to other innocent people of all races and call that justice!
Not a single protest or riot or the constant pandering by liberal politicians, groups, enraged members of the Black Community and the media will ever change this situation.
If the Black Community can’t recognize that they have advanced a great deal since their maybe ancestors were sold as slaves, hunted by dogs, bred for profit by their owners they are blind and have no hope and never will.
There are still things that are not perfect in our Country or the World. You have tried outrage, violent protests, killing of Police Officers and property destruction and it hasn’t improved the current injustices you feel.
So stop these failed actions and find another way to achieve your goals. Other minority groups in our history have experienced the same injustices that you that you have. The Irish, Catholics, Jews, Chinese, Mormons and other immigrants to this country. However they have managed to overcome the injustices and are now a peaceful accepted part of society.
If any group has been harmed and mistreated by our ancestors more than slaves it is the American Indians. They were killed, forced to relocate to unfamiliar areas, lost the land that belonged to them and forced to be wards of the government on reservations. If that is not mistreatment what is! Our Country fought a war by mostly white men to free the slaves. Yes many Blacks fought in the civil war that were mostly free men from the North or freed during the war. Blacks have come a long way. Compare your lives, education and benefits to today’s American Indian and ask who is better off.
Your current activities only breeds more hated, separation and violence and cause you to loose those that support your cause but will not accept violence by you or the police.
Judge the person not the group. Every policeman is not out the torture or kill every Black person they encounter.
You need more leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King and Ms. Rosa Parks not Jesse Jackson, Al Shapton and Louis Farrakhan.
Just what you want — a top cop who doesn’t wait till all the facts are in.
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