A few weeks ago, North Miami Beach police department was caught using photos of exclusively African American males - many younger - as target practice in their facilities for shooting practice of police officers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The North Miami Beach police department was discovered last month to be using mug shots of African Americans for sniper practice at a firing range.
NBC News Channel 6 in Miami broke the story Thursday, after hearing from a member of the Florida Army National Guard who showed up with her unit for weapons qualification at the same commercial firing range used by the police and discovered the targets left behind, an array of six African Americans.
North Miami Police Chief J. Scott Dennis, while conceding that his department “could have used better judgment,” denied any racial profiling. He said the department uses pictures of people of all races for target practice.
The incident made waves with those who attended, including a national guard member who discovered her brother - arrested 15 years ago in a drag racing incident - was one of the young men pictured. After a lot of debate in private groups that began in a private facebook forum for Lutheran ministers that quickly expanded to other religious forums, over the last twenty four hours, the rise of the hashtag #usemeinstead has grown.
The pictures, which ask the officers to use them instead of exclusively young men as targets, puts a far different face on what was happening in the North Miami Beach Police Department.
Religious figures have kept the hashtag alive hoping to raise attention to a practice that one priest referred to as "dehumanizing".
2:54 PM PT: