Morning Briefing April 27, 2021: Police seminar in Novi canceled over controversial ‘Killology’ speaker; shaken Walled Lake family says home invasion was hate crime
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A police seminar scheduled to take place in Novi next month has been canceled after people learned about one of the keynote speakers.
Retired Col. Dave Grossman has talked about taking a human life in several clips circulating the internet. But the executive director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police said the clips are taken out of context.
“He’s teaching the psychology of how to kill,” said Walter Crider, who has been retired for more than three years from the Michigan State Police. “When we talk about creating situations of killing, that’s just not appropriate. There’s other avenues in terms of being able to accomplish the objective, and the objective is public safety, protecting our public.”
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Facing an outcry, the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police has canceled an upcoming training session in metro Detroit of local police chiefs featuring a controversial speaker. Retired Army Lt. Col. Dave Grossman often talks about how law enforcement can reduce their inhibitions to kill if needed in the line of duty.
Robert Stevenson, executive director of the police chiefs association, told the Free Press they made the decision to cancel the event set for May 26-27 in a Novi evangelical church after their group and the church had received complaints.
Stevenson said the training session was meant to address PTSD issues that some officers may face after killing someone, such as in the recent case of a Dearborn police officer who took his own life last year after shooting dead a man in 2015.
Credit Michigan State Police
An event for local police chiefs featuring a controversial law enforcement trainer scheduled to take place in Novi next month has been canceled, following a series of complaints to the church where it was to be held, as well as the organization that planned it.
Dave Grossman is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who focused on what he has described as “killology,” or the causes, effects, and responses to the use of deadly force. He has been training law enforcement and military personnel across the country on the issue for nearly 20 years, according to his website, calling them to come to terms with killing.