A national police training association is facing backlash after distributing a research-style paper to its members that referred to Black Lives Matter as a “terrorist group,” and depicted protesters as wanting to “overthrow the U.S. government,” according to the Associated Press.
A member of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association gave the troubling document to the news outlet, noting that the 176-page paper was full of lies and misleading statements about Black people who protest.
The association, which goes by ILEETA, said it is “committed to the reduction of law enforcement risk through the enhancement of training for criminal justicepractitioners.” It holds an annual conference that the Associated Press said was the largest gathering of law enforcement trainers in the world, and also distributes guides as well as research papers among its thousands of members.
But in October, members were sent an email with a paper called “Understanding Antifa and Urban Guerrilla Warfare.” The Associated Press gave the paper to experts for review, including Sherice Nelson, assistant professor of political science at Southern University and A&M College, and Yale racial bias professor Phillip Atiba Goff.
“This document is below the belt because of how much misinformation there is, how many conspiracy theories there are, how much violence it promotes and how many reasons it gives to justify dehumanizing people,” Nelson said.
Goff told the news outlet that he and other police executives were horrified by the claims made in the paper and believe it should not have been sent out.
Both Nelson and Goff said the paper was dangerous, because it falsely conflated Black Lives Matter protesters and others with terrorist groups, while also making unfounded claims that the movements are funded by China and Russia.
The paper states that there are Black Lives Matter members working as “trained, dedicated snipers” in certain cities, and bashes the FBI as well as the media for focusing on white supremacist terrorism.
According to the ILEETA paper, protests over police shootings are simply cover for “hard-core, terrorist trained troops.”
