Kentucky Police training module quotes Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ urging ‘constant, regular employment of violence’
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: Kentucky State Police is under fire. It was revealed that they featured Adolf Hitler quotes in one of their training slideshows. On Friday, October 30, Governor Andy Beshear reacted to this, calling it "unacceptable."
"This is absolutely unacceptable," said Beshear in an emailed statement. "It is further unacceptable that I just learned about this through social media. We will collect all the facts and take immediate corrective action."
The slideshow, obtained by students in the journalism program at Louisville's DuPont Manual High School, was included in Kentucky State Police 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.
It was reportedly a presentation called “The Warrior Mindset” shown to new recruits prior to 2014. On the slide titled “Violence of Action”, in addition to reportedly telling police officers to be “ruthless killer[s]”, the presentation instructs cops to have “a mindset void of emotion” and to “meet violence with greater violence.”
A line from Hitler’s notorious manifesto, ‘Mein Kampf’, was featured in the slide: “The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.” The presentation was also reportedly linked to a Hitler page on Goodreads. Two other slides also quoted Hitler.
The closing slide of the presentation reportedly read: “Über Alles” in large text, meaning “above everything else”. A part of the German national anthem, ‘Deutschlandlied’, in the Nazi regime, this line, originally intended in 1848 as a call to place the concept of a unified nation above regional differences, came to serve as justification for German expansionism and German world hegemony.
Kentucky State Police spokesperson Lieutenant Joshua Lawson said, “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.” Lawson also stated that the presentation seemed to be seven years old and appeared to have been made by an instructor at the academy.
This reveal comes in the wake of anti-police brutality protests, demands of systemic change in policing in America, and even demands for defunding of police forces. Following the reveal, John Yarmuth, who represents Kentucky’s 3rd District in the U.S. Congress, said, “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.”
Later, Morgan Hall, the Communications Director for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, said in a 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.”