When I was a student at Fuller Seminary I was involved in a minor traffic accident in Pasadena CA due to the other driver running a red light. I ended up face down with several police officers on my back, resulting in permanent injury & pain. They over-reacted, bullied, used excessive force, failed to “de-escalate” , & made several significant errors of judgment & discretion. And yet despite being a college graduate with honors & having never been in “trouble” before, all the blame was aimed at me, without apology. This was at the time that a guy named Melenkian was chief. As a Christian I do believe in “turning the other cheek” but also in appropriately addressing wrongs so that they don’t happen again. I took action against them, & I am fairly certain those specific police officers will never do what they did to me to anybody else again. Nonetheless, the damage they caused to me was permanent (chronic pain for life, among other things).

ppd

KEEPING AN EYE ON PASADENA PD: WHAT THEY SAY VERSUS WHAT THEY DO

PASADENA PD COULD LEARN FROM THEM "Cops Around the U.S. Should Be More Like Salt Lake City Police. Here’s Why"

WHEN I SUED THE PASADENA PD, THEY HAD BARELY NO 
DE-ESCALATION TRAINING...REALLY A VERY AMATEUR PD AT THE TIME, PROBABLY STILL ARE DUE TO COCKINESS RAMPANT IN POLICE DEPARTMENTS 

"According to officials themselves, this change is due to the fact that officers are being trained differently. Instead of handling any potential threat as a call to kill, Salt Lake City cops are being taught de-escalation techniques, making them more likely to empathize and then communicate effectively with suspects as they learn to assess the situation more thoroughly before even considering using force..."