Friday, October 30, 2020

High school journalists at duPont Manual High School in Louisville revealed that the Kentucky State Police training materials repeatedly quoted Hitler

Manual Redeye:

A training slideshow used by the Kentucky State Police (KSP) — the second largest police force in the state — urges cadets to be “ruthless killer[s]” and quotes Adolf Hitler advocating violence.

The slideshow was included in KSP documents obtained via an open records request by [a] local attorney ... during the discovery phase of a lawsuit. [The attorney] requested KSP materials used to train a detective who shot and killed a man in Harlan County, and [the attorney] shared the presentation with Manual RedEye. 

A line from Adolf Hitler’s fascist and anti-Semitic manifesto, Mein Kampf, is featured in the slide: “the very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.”

The presentation also links to a Hitler page on Goodreads, a database of quotes and books. 

Two other slides quoting Hitler bring his total to three, making him the most quoted person in the presentation. 

There's other troubling content, but the police say it's not clear when the materials were last used. The reporters are related to a partner in the firm involved in the lawsuit.

USA Today:

Gov. Andy Beshear reacted to a report Friday showing a Kentucky State Police training slideshow quoting Adolf Hitler three times and advocating officers to use "ruthless" violence, calling it "unacceptable."

...

"This is absolutely unacceptable," said Beshear in an emailed statement. "It is further unacceptable that I just learned about this through social media. We will collect all the facts and take immediate corrective action."