Dear Mr. or Madam President,

Should our current police force be introduced to better hand to hand combat and weapon disarming techniques? It seems to me that our police around our nation are starting to use deadly force quicker to protect themselves and citizens. To me there seems to be a wall of distrust between the police force and the civilians, leading to a increase of mistrust between the two people. How are our policemen supposed to do their duty of protecting us if we can't trust them? I believe that better training of our officers in hand to hand combat is a much safer option than them resorting to use their handguns which can lead to the death of the one being shot.

There has been a dramatic increase in violence against law enforcement officers as of late, but there have also been an increase of deaths in cop related arrests. Many cops have been targeted because of their line of work and some have been killed by the citizens that they protect because of the hate against cops. Steve Visser, a reporter on CNN.com, posted an article of the tragic killing of three policemen, officers Montrell Jackson, Brad Garafola, and Mathew Gerald where shot down and three others were wounded by a Missouri gunman. They were killed without any reason aside from the very fact that they were policemen. There was nothing right or good about what the murderer did, and his reason for "fighting back" against cops was unfounded. Yet, there have also been some cases where the cops where in the wrong and the deaths were unjust.

In 2015, an article on huffingtonpost.com written by reporter Julia Craven stated that there was a rounded value of 1,200 people killed by the police. I have no right to say how many of them where just or unjust, all I can put forth is that some of those deaths may have been preventable if the officers had been given better training in hand to hand combat and disarming tactics. Reporter Steve Visser also wrote an article of a case that should have been easily handled with hand to hand combat. He wrote of the controversial death of Alton Sterling. Mr. Alton Sterling was said to have been reaching for his pockets when he was shot three times by the police, though there has been a video showing that his hands where not reaching for his pockets (CNN.com). Instead of the tragedy that happened what should have happened is that the cops should have held him down in a position where both of his hands would be unable to reach for anything on his body, leading to an easier and safer arrest. Doing things like giving better police training would help both the image of the police force as well as the safety of the person being detained.

Most of the police violence seems to happen in close quarter situations. If so, policemen that have an expertise with hand to hand combat would have the best reactions to violence that may happen if someone is resisting arrest. Being able to detain someone who is trying to resist becomes much easier and safer if they are unable to reach for anything on their body. Some police departments are already starting to fix their training regiments for close quarters defense. The Tennessee news station wreg.com has already taken notice of the Memphis Police Department. Finding a better solution for unnecessary violence, reporter Sabrina Hall has written an article detailing the measures that the Memphis Police Department are using to give their police force better self defense techniques to ensure the safety of their policemen and the safety of the law-breakers. Mike William the president of the Memphis Police Department quoted that "they are trying to teach them (policemen) techniques on how to subdue the individuals and not necessarily elevate the level of violence."

With the increase of violence and civil mistrust that is happening within our country, the last thing we need is for a civil war to break out because of problems where policemen fire at people who are resisting arrest. If we can change the way that the peacekeeping officers are trained in detaining someone so that everything works out smoothly, then it would help both the public image of the police as well as relieve the tension that is breaking out in our country. So Mr. or Madam President I encourage you to give our officers better training to help end this civil unrest and create a better tomorrow.