A Georgia police department has been under fire after it posted photos showing officers leading a firearms training session with targets plastered with images of Black men.
The picture, posted in June, shows white civilians at a firearms training course in the west Georgia city of Villa Rica aiming weapons at a human-sized image of a menacing Black man holding a gun.
The public ire surprised the department, as the social media image was taken to promote the Villa Rica Police Department’s firearm safety course classes. But social media users quickly took up arms when they saw the photo.
The image went viral and led to a city investigation into discriminatory practices within the department. However, a thorough review found no racial bias was on display in the choice of target images.
Police Chief Michael Mansour explained in an interview with Atlanta Black Star that during these training sessions, there’s a very diverse amount of photo-realistic targets used for shooting practice.
Black, Hispanic, Asian-American, white, and many other types of photo-realistic targets are used at the range.
“The reason we use photo-realistic targets is because you can put a little bit of adhesive on the target,” he explained. “You can tape a picture of a cellphone or gun (on the target), so then it becomes a shoot/don’t shoot the target.”
