After getting controversy for uploading a now-deleted video depicting white participants in a pistol training session using a picture of a Black man as a target, on June 17, the Villa Rica Police Department in Georgia issued an apology.
Some people in the community, 30 miles west of Atlanta, are outraged by this clip.
According to a police department spokesman, the human photographs used as targets during civilian training will no longer feature images of people, but will continue to be utilized for law enforcement training as part of the regular practice.
Although the police said, the photo contained photographs of numerous ethnic groups, an ABC Atlanta obtained before the photo was removed only showed a Black man being used as a target by civilian class attendees.
The department apologized on Facebook on June 20, saying they seek “to be conscious of how our relationship with our community members has a direct impact on our effectiveness within the community we serve.” According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics from 2022, 42.6 percent of Villa Rica, a city of around 18,000 people, is Black.
Online users blasted the department’s apparent proneness for targeting photographs of Black males, including members of the Carroll County branch of the NAACP.
“These types of targets have been used by other police departments within the U.S. and have been deemed racially inappropriate and unacceptable,” NAACP Carroll County President Dominique Conteh said in an online statement.
“I don’t think you should have any human being as a target whether they are Black, white, Asian,” Conteh said told Fox Atlanta.
“The ‘apology’ statement from your department via Facebook displays a lack of sincerity, sensitivity toward minority residents and makes it abundantly clear that your department lacks the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion that all local officials should strive to participate in,” wrote Dominique Conteh, the president of the Carroll County branch, in a letter shared on Facebook. “We believe that DEI training would’ve given more insight as to the reasoning as to why those targets are ‘unacceptable and deemed racist.'”
Villa Rica Mayor Gil McDougal ordered the images to be removed from social media and for an independent firm to investigate the incident, according to WSB-TV.
