KSP training slideshow quotes Hitler, advocates ‘ruthless’ violence
UPDATE, 4:15 PM: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear responded to this story with the following statement: “This is absolutely unacceptable. It is further unacceptable that I just learned about this through social media. We will collect all the facts and take immediate corrective action.”
UPDATE, 5:15 PM: Morgan Hall, the Communications Director for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, sent RedEye this statement: “It is unacceptable that this material was ever included in the training of law enforcement. Our administration does not condone the use of this material. The material is not currently a part of any training materials and was removed in 2013.”
UPDATE, 8:30 PM: Rep. John Yarmuth, who represents Kentucky’s 3rd District in the US Congress, tweeted this in response to the story: “I am angry. As a Kentuckian, I am angry and embarrassed. And as a Jewish American, I am genuinely disturbed that there are people like this who not only walk among us, but who have been entrusted to keep us safe. There needs to be consequences.”
A training slideshow used by the Kentucky State Police (KSP) — the second largest police force in the state — urges cadets to be “ruthless killer[s]” and quotes Adolf Hitler advocating violence.
The slideshow was included in KSP documents obtained via an open records request by local attorney David Ward of Adams Landenwich Walton during the discovery phase of a lawsuit. Ward requested KSP materials used to train a detective who shot and killed a man in Harlan County, and Ward shared the presentation with Manual RedEye.
Click the image to view the entire slideshow.
One slide, titled “Violence of Action,” in addition to imploring officers to be “ruthless killer[s],” instructs troopers to have “a mindset void of emotion” and to “meet violence with greater violence.”
A line from Adolf Hitler’s fascist and anti-Semitic manifesto, Mein Kampf, is featured in the slide: “the very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.”
The presentation also links to a Hitler page on Goodreads, a database of quotes and books.
Two other slides quoting Hitler bring his total to three, making him the most quoted person in the presentation.
This video demonstrates that clicking Hitler’s name in the presentation leads to a Goodreads page.
In a statement emailed to RedEye reporters, KSP spokesperson Lieutenant Joshua Lawson wrote, “The quotes are used for their content and relevance to the topic addressed in the presentation. The presentation touches on several aspects of service, selflessness, and moral guidance. All of these topics go to the fundamentals of law enforcement such as treating everyone equally, service to the public, and being guided by the law.”
In a separate email, Lawson also stated that the presentation seems to be seven years old and appears to have been made by an instructor at the academy. It is not clear how long the presentation was used, or if it is still used. (Editor’s note: According to a statement received after publication from Morgan Hall, the Communications Director for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, the presentation was not used after 2013.)
Although the presentation also features quotes from a variety of other sources including Sun Tzu and Albert Einstein, Dr. Jack Glaser —a professor at the University of California Berkeley who studies police practices — found the Hitler quotes inexcusable.
“Hitler is, justifiably, the archetype of a bad person with the worst, inhumane morals. It’s controversial enough to quote him when trying to illustrate a point about genocidal despots. Quoting him in the manner that these trainings do —prescriptively —is unfathomable,” Glaser wrote in an email to RedEye reporters.
[The presentation] is a recipe for excessive force.”
— Dr. Jack Glaser, UC Berkeley professor
The training materials are coming to light during a national discussion about systemic racism and the role of police in communities, a debate centered on Kentucky after Louisville Metro Police Department officers shot Breonna Taylor in March.
Since 2018, KSP troopers have committed at least 16 fatal shootings according to a Washington Post database of police shootings, the most of any police force in the state. Troopers were not wearing body cameras during any of the shootings.
During the same timeframe, the Louisville Metro Police Department, the largest police force in the state, killed 15 people, including Taylor.
Greg Belzley, a Louisville area criminal rights and police misconduct lawyer, said he was “shocked and dismayed” by the presentation.
“This basically says, when you come into work, you need to have the mindset of getting ready to go out there and kick some ass,” Belzley said.
Belzley described the presentation as “something out of Borat,” referencing the satirical anti-Semitic reporter portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen.
Glaser worries that the presentation “is a recipe for excessive force.”
“The tenor and substance of this training is very much at odds with contemporary police efforts to improve community relations and minimize excessive use of force,” Glaser stated.
One slide titled “The Thin Gray Line” uses a quote from Robert E. Lee and two photos of seemingly all-white groups of KSP officers in their traditional gray uniforms.
“It’s concerning that the Thin Gray Line slide has a quote from Robert E. Lee, given that Lee was the Confederate commander and Confederate uniforms were famously gray,” Glaser said.
A closing slide of the Powerpoint simply states “Über Alles” in large text. The phrase, which was previously part of the German national anthem, translates to “above all” or “above everything else,” commonly used to signify national superiority. Modern Germans heavily associate the phrase with the Nazis.
Sadiqa N. Reynolds, President and CEO of the Louisville Urban League said the presentation was “unbelievable” and “disgusting.”
“The tone and tenor are overtly white, Christian, male, warlike and adversarial,” Reynolds said in a text message.
KSP did not respond to an open records request sent October 14 seeking additional records, which sought to find out how long the presentations were used in trainings and if any complaints had been lodged by cadets or other KSP personnel.
State and local governments and agencies are required to respond to open records requests within ten days during a state of emergency, and Kentucky has been under a state of emergency since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a deposition on October 14, KSP Captain James Goble said that Lieutenant Curt Hall, whose name is on the slideshow, taught “warrior mentality” trainings at the KSP Academy.
Hall was the Assistant Commander at the KSP Academy from 2005 to 2015, and later became Commander of Internal Affairs at KSP before recently retiring. The internal affairs unit is typically tasked with investigating police misconduct.
This training is emblematic of the root problems in policing and we should not be surprised with the resulting fruits.”
— Sadiqa Reynolds, President and CEO of the Louisville Urban League
The KSP presentation appears to draw heavily from nationally-known police trainer Dave Grossman, who delivers lectures to police forces nation-wide on his theory of “killology” teaching police officers to embrace “the responsibility to kill” and “making it possible for people to kill without conscious thought,” as he said during an interview with PBS’s Frontline.
“The focus on warriors and combat is deeply problematic. It is exceedingly rare that police officers have to fight for their lives,” Glaser wrote in his email. “Even if it is sometimes necessary to use serious physical force, starting with a warrior mindset is not necessary and can make violent conflict more likely.”
A 2019 Florida State University Study found that officers who had a “warrior mentality” were more supportive of excessive use of force than those who believed in a “guardian mentality.”
“The guardian mindset emphasizes communication over commands, cooperation over compliance, and legitimacy over authority. And in the use-of-force context, the Guardian emphasizes patience and restraint over control, stability over action” explained former police officer and current law professor Seth Stoughton in a 2015 Harvard Law Review article.
“The language used places officers in direct opposition to the communities they serve — dehumanizing civilians while propping up law enforcement,” Reynolds stated. “This training is emblematic of the root problems in policing and we should not be surprised with the resulting fruits.”
The reporters of this article are related to a partner at the firm Adam Landenwich Walton.
Trainings like this would be allowed only in a culture that turns otherwise good cops into chauvinist thugs. This is how the bad apples are nourished. Thank you and great work to the Waltons for reporting on this.
Great job Manual Redeye. Keep it up.
As a Manual grad (class of ‘06), seeing this level of in-depth, informative, well-researched journalism from my alma mater makes me so proud to have graduated from Manual. Please keep digging for uncomfortable truths and inconvenient realities. We need that more than ever in our current environment.
Excellent work.
The consistent high quality of reporting by Red Eye ensures a functioning free press for the future. Local ‘pros’ take note, your scooped again!
This is excellent journalism. Kudos to the Redeye reporters for clear, concise reporting of the facts.
I’m sooooo proud of the work you have all done to expose this shocking fact! Keep it up! Justice now! Love in action dismantles oppression!
Excellent journalism, thank you for Satchel and Cooper exposing these horrible people. Dismantling systemic racism will be a long road, but steps like this are exactly what this country and the world needs. Bravo.
A deeply disturbing and highly newsworthy scoop.
This is quality journalism. But from a high school paper? So impressive. Don’t stop.
The reporters, editors and everyone else involved in the production of this professional-quality story rate the greatest praise available to student journalists and publications. I’m a retired small-town newspaper editor, and if I were still in that capacity, I’d offer reporting positions to Messrs. Walton right now.
I trust several awards are coming your way from the various student press organizations, and a bright future in journalism lies ahead for these talented reporters. I extend congratulations and admiration to them and to the Redeye. Well done!
Christ. They didn’t even feed us this kind of garbage in the Army when we were actually going to war. It’s definitely not suitable for going and writing speeding tickets. Even without the tinge of Hitler and nazism this whole thing is just reprehensible.
This is the journalism we all long for. I have long been concerned with a quiet sort of infliltration of this style tactic into our Law Enforcement. Particularly at a local level. d The respect we have all been raised to have for Law Enforcement makes these issues be hidden, and they need to be exposed. Thank you again
This older white male finds the constant reference to the term “warrior” in the training materials to be extremely troubling.
And here I was, thinking they were public servants.
Nice work job guys. This is definitely something that disturbs me. I never thought of police as warriors.
Good gosh… I could see these slides being used for military but for police? Police should not be trained as warriors. Most of the slides even use photos from the military.
“Democracy dies in darkness.”
Many thanks to these two reporters who worked to keep light shining in increasingly dark days.
Awesome work! Uncovering the systemic racist roots in our institutions is critical and this is excellent journalism. Well done! Thank you for being part of the transformative solution!
Great job boys ! Way to go ! I know your mom is super proud !
You all do the institution of journalism proud! Keep up this important work. And, I would love to have you as Journalism majors at University of Cincinnati.
Outstanding journalism! Keep up the good fight and diligence.
Excellent journalism here. Do not be cowered by any commentary, posted anywhere else, to the contrary. Be proud. Press on.
It says a lot that it took HIGH SCHOOL reporters to bust this open. Anyone older and more experienced would have been under too much scrutiny and if professional, would have their careers threatened.
I have much praise for journalistic research. It seems to be absent in mainstream news organizations. Since the 2016 presidential campaigns I’ve been doing research whenever I see a news item that doesn’t give all the facts. In this manner I discovered by finding online a September, 1996, Vanity Fair article about Donald and Ivana Trump entitled “After the Gold Rush”. After their divorce, Ivana mentioned to the authors of the article that Donald slept with a book of Hitler’s speeches in his nightstand.
Considering his instructions to police, telling them to get tough and take action, I began to believe that trouble would ensue with many of the things he said. Now, during the 2020 campaigns, he seems to be rallying the white supremacists to take action. The majority of people are frightened as to what will happen in this country if Trump loses the election, or even if he wins.
Thanks you so much to Satchel and Cooper Walton for this excellent expose. I remember when Congress armed the police forces of each state with vehicles and ammunition for fighting crimes. It’s something you guys need to look into. Even though President Obama’s Congress ended that, the facts are still evident.
First-rate reporting! Bright future ahead of these two… watch out, world! Great job!
Amazing work.
When I went through military basic training, there was an unofficial motto:
“You have to go out, you don’t have to come back.” The idea is preparing you for the risk of death in the service of others in distress.
The last slide attributes the ‘man in the arena’ speech to FDR. Wrong Roosevelt! It was Teddy. So in addition to the appalling Hitler quote, the lousy grammar and the misspellings, the writer of this presentation is an idiot. Did we, the taxpayers of KY, pay for this thing? Can we get our money back?
Great work. I saw this story because it was picked up by a national outlet. I am very impressed by the reporting in this high school newspaper. Thank you for your hard work and courage. It takes a lot of guts to oppose those in power. Stay strong, and be careful.
Congratulations to the Manual Redeye for an outstanding piece of journalism! You give us oldsters genuine hope for the future of the country.
Patrick G. Grasso
Alexandria, VA
This is world class journalism on par with any premier outlet. Our national struggle with policing will be shaped by the focus, clarity, detailed evidence and analysis you have contributed on this issue. Thank you!
Exceptional scoop, journalists! You do the profession justice — please consider careers in this field, the noble field of investigative journalism deserves you. Thank you for bringing this story to the world.
Well done. This x – generation is really impressive!
They will try to walk this back, but note the title. ‘The Warrior Mindset’. That should be familiar if you’ve read anything about the wildly successful ideology of Dave Grossman. He runs the far-and-away most popular training programs for cops, called “Warrior Cop”. He claims to have personally created a science called ‘killology’ which can highly optimize the ability to get people who would normally be reluctant to kill to become ruthless killers. He, of course, claims this is done in service of protection. He is wrong. He has trained hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of cops to be unthinking and unfeeling murderbots. He is the single person who bears the greatest responsibility for the rabid devolution of police into roving gangs of armed thugs. Minneapolis banned his training. And the head of the police union openly said they will defy that ban. It will be very difficult to undo the damage he has caused to our society short of replacing the vast majority of police with new recruits who were never subjected to his killing-centered policing model.
Absolutely frightening that any police force would use such a manual as this to train their police. This aggressive and racist training will make officers dangerous public servants and put the community residents at risk. Great reporting, you should be very proud of the work you have done to expose this truthful, troubling information.
Great journalism. Really disturbing but enlightening content you’ve uncovered. Helps us understand how sickness has been instilled in police forces, and what must start to be done to reform the system.
Good work.
HST must certainly be grinning widely, where ever he is.
oh, and the Bruce Wayne/Batman quote?
SMH
Excellent work! Its so satisfying that journalism is still respected and taught. Look at the resurgence of newspapers in the time of Trump. You have important work to do in your future. Heck. You already have done important work.
That’s a great piece of investigative journalism, and to be made by high schoolers is an incredible fact!
Yours, all the way from Palestine
I am sure you are being told over and over again that a career in journalism is a thing of the past. But this article shows that we will have no future if we don’t have brave reporters letting us all in on the secrets that the rich and powerful are hiding.
Hugh
Fantastic job of research and writing. This will make a great college essay–but you undoubtedly already know that. Go out and take on the world.
As a high school teacher in AZ, I know your teachers and parents must be ridiculously proud as I am. This is an excellent piece of writing and shows the whole nation what Kentuckians are really like! Thanks for showcasing that the citizens of your state will not sit quietly by while others citizens are murdered. Be the Change!!!
Outstanding work! Thanks for bringing these disturbing ‘neo-Nazi’ officers to the public’s attention.
Beau of the Fifth Column highlighted this article … you’re about to get a whole lot more press coverage now.
Just some good ol’ boys, never meanin’ no harm…
Greetings from Germany. Maybe you find interesting that your good work is recognized on an international level. Nice peace of research and writing.
And to ALL Hitler quoters: We were wrong at the time. There’s no excuse for racism. And no reason to import this words of a maniac.
The “man in the arena” quote is by President THEODORE ROOSEVELT, not FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT.
And they would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids…Scooby Doo
This kind of reporting gives me hope for mankind and proves that the primary purpose of a free press is to speak truth to power. Democracy dies in the darkness.
I’m 60, was born in 1960. When I was a kid (mid-70’s), the police would catch kids drinking and make them empty their beer out right there; an officer could talk down a husband threatening violence with his wife; a policeman could disarm a person holding a knife without drawing his sidearm. How in the HELL did we get here?
Congratulations on a very interesting, though frightful, report. What an important story, thank you the high school reporters for bringing to attention stories of such importance that the mainstream media has often failed to do!
Great article, it’s time police forces were de-militarised and they become Peace Officers. I also heard about it from Beau the Fifth and I’m from 🇬🇧
Wow. So impressed by this story.
This gives me hope that your generation may improve what the recently preceding generations have neglected.
Fantastic work uncovering a deeply disturbing document. This would have been unacceptable even without the Hitler quotes. I hope this will lead to a stampede of journalists FOIAing police training materials.
My family moved to Kentucky 242 years ago. Your efforts to uncover this, to expose this to the light of day and to stand by this make me proud. The next step is meaningful change.
Crucial work by RedEye.
Young people around the world are not bowed by intimidation, threats and violence of fascists.
But in every country we all face the same world of confusion caused by liberals, pseudo-lefts, and the unions.
Who all say the threat of dictatorship and fascism is no big deal.
My young years, in the 60s and 70s, saw mass violence by the state at home and the slaughter of war.
My generation, all over the world, heard the very same arguments you hear now:
“Don’t worry”. “Vote for the Democrats/Labour/Liberals (pick the country) and that will sort things out”
With the ‘lefts’ and the unions cheering for these parties. Saying they were the “lesser evil”.
Meanwhile the Democrats/Labour/Liberals unleash even more violence and war.
And where are we now? On the edge of dictatorship and world war.
I know about your paper because it your article was linked and commented on by wsws.org today:
Kentucky State Police training documents approvingly cited Adolf Hitler
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/11/02/ksph-n02.html
Congratulations on this fine job of reporting. From a retired newspaper journalist and journalism teacher.
Thank you for the excellent work. I just read about this in The Guardian and am waiting to see American media pick the story up.
The story reveals a phenomenon that is both appalling and, sadly, not unexpected. I am, however, moved and impressed to encounter such first-rate reportage from Manuel Redeye!
Truth cannot be permanently be hidden. It will always bubble up. This was needed badly. Thank you!
Well Done!! Teacher here-44 years. I am so proud of your efforts and accomplishments on this article. We are studying police justice in our League of Women Voters group in Illinois. Your work was forwarded to us. We are mostly retirees studying systemic racism and the resulting policing/incarceration injustices and this article fits in so well with our efforts to make recommendations to our LWV state board on policing/incarceration issues. To know that our high school students have such a high degree of understanding of these complex issues is comforting. We have so many issues facing our country, and your work is yet one more indication that our youth know a whole lot about how to create a better tomorrow!!
This article is far better, better researched, better reported and even better written, than the articles in the Guardian, New York Times and Washington Post. I don’t know how or why they missed some of the stuff that is reported here.
YEah ok I get why they put the Hitler quote in there, it’s not a quote they want you to abide by but still. That’s not even the worst of it. And how many cops do you see jumping out of planes with parachutes, in desert warfare situations, landing on a beach, or peaking out of the water with a 50cal sniper rifle? Just ridiculous.
Congrats to the young journalists for breaking this timely story. I have hope for the future!
Thank you for taking a stand against Nazism. Trust and believe you’re not alone in this fight for Good. You’ve done well.
Kayla Rigney
Writing from Massachusetts to thank you for this excellent and brave piece of journalism.
Great job! In reading these slides I was struck not only by the Warrior mentality being taught, the quotes from Hilter and others, but the relgious qutoes and content in a State agency. Where is the separation between church and state? Our founders fled relgious persecution in fear for their lives. This concerns me as I would hate for history to repeate its self.
Fantastic bringing this to the public’s attention and the washington post should be ashamed of burying the fact that you guys broke this in the fourth friggin paragraph. You have to go to high school newspapers now to see real investigative journalism. Keep up the good work.
And they wonder why there are protests. Typing this from Southern California to say this is excellent journalism, thank you for this report. Spread it far and wide!
Excellent article on such a disturbing story.
It’s unfair and cruel that your generation must deal with the oppression and injustices mine and older generations refused to face and dismantle. While I and many of my contemporaries are belatedly learning, listening, and resisting, it’s heartening to see that you have more than heart, courage, determination, and diligence than we ever did.
“One slide, titled ‘Violence of Action,’ in addition to imploring officers to be ‘ruthless killer[s],’ instructs troopers to have ‘a mindset void of emotion’ and to ‘meet violence with greater violence.'”
Which the Nazis did as retaliation against civilian populations when one of their soldiers was killed by partisans.
It was thinking and action like that which caused Winston Churchill to declare that a useful de-Nazification effort after the war would be to take every German officer on the Eastern Front above the rank of lieutenant out and shoot him.
Here, however, we see a Kentucky State Trooper instruction advocating similar thinking and action. Be “ruthless killers” and “meet violence with greater violence.”
This is what is called a “police force”? Or better still, “law enforcement agency”?
Read the Lee quote again. He is saying you should not allow “policy” to become an excuse to do wrong. Robert E Lee is probably the greatest man this nation has ever produced. Would that more of today’s citizens had his virtue and honor.
We’re inspired by your journalism! I am a teacher and a co-sponsor of our school’s journalism club for 2nd-4th graders. This will be an important story for them to read, particularly knowing that students had such a profound impact through their writing.
Congratulations young journalists! We have a podcast where we cover news stories for young people. If you would be willing to let us interview you and learn more about your commitment to journalism and the impact you are seeing as a result, we’d love to talk to you.
-Sarah, Anna, Sarah N, and Savannah
Have advised the school paper and taught journalism as an extra-curricular since 1989-90. Proud of your paper and your reporting–you are models for us all! Am sharing this with fellow advisers, student journalists, and alums. Thanks to the Columbia Journalism Review for bringing it to my attention. Make sure to subscribe to their daily newsletter!
As if anyone who knows how to think didn’t already know the morality of those who want to rule others.
If I did business in the same manner as government does, and forced strangers to give me money, would you consider me a criminal?
Excellent investigative journalism! You give me hope for the future. I encourage you to keep up the fantastic work. I learned of this from Beau of the Fifth Column’s channel on You Tube. Standing ovation from here in Maryland!
Thanks to the young reporters, truth is once again shown to be stranger than fiction. Would not have imagined police are brainwashed into becoming murderbots. Though this does go along way to explain the actions of Killer Cops. Their union does not see a problem with 14 shots fired at 1 man with 1 knife. Apparently 7 rounds into a person per cop gets everyone to a safer situation.
Before Hitler had Death Camps, he had the local police that shot citizens after they were marched into trenches (mass graves). The current police in this nation have shown themselves to be devotees of Heir Hitler. Police would have broken up “The Boston Tea Party”. (No prudent patriot would have dared to dress as an “Indian” with local police in the city anyway).
SNO brought me here! As a journalism teacher, I have used this article as an exemplar for my own class this week. Powerful work, well edited too, and just a prime example of what young people can accomplish. You are inspiring others!
I’m writing to congratulate the authors and the paper for their terrific work. I’m an English and Journalism professor in Los Angeles, and I cheered out loud when I read what the two journalists have been doing.
More, please!
Tommy Amano-Tompkins
Professor of English
Harbor College