Does militarized training of police officers lead to more problems with the community

Very interesting column by Radley Balko:

Here at The Watch, we’ve following the police problems and policing reform movement in Albuquerque pretty closely (see here, here and here.). Now, Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) wants to put an end to federal training that she says is contributing to the culture problem in city law enforcement.

From KRQE:

U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham is calling for an immediate halt to training for officers of the beleaguered Albuquerque Police Department at a secluded Department of Energy facility southeast of town, calling the military- and nuclear-security-based instruction “inappropriate … for community police departments.”

The Albuquerque-based Democratic congresswoman’s request, made in a letter sent to the Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Wednesday, would end a decades-long relationship between the federal department and local police. Scores of APD officers — and some from other state and local agencies — have received and, in…