KC police planned to host training on ‘Gypsies.’ Here’s why experts say that’s a problem
When Kansas City police announced a training on identifying “Gypsies” and other Eastern European groups on Thursday, many in the community and beyond were outraged, but not surprised.
Activists and experts have seen law enforcement agencies hold sessions on identifying Roma people and crime purported to be associated with the group for decades.
The police department’s announcement said the two-day workshop would focus on ethnic groups including the Roma, Polish, Yugoslavians and a group known as “The Romanian Nationals.”
By late Thursday afternoon, the Kansas City Police Department said it had canceled the workshop following public outcry.
“The Training Division Commander will ensure proper procedures are in place to avoid future occurrences such as this,” said Sgt. Jake Becchina, a spokesman with the department.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said the “department made the correct decision” in calling off the event which “unfairly targeted and ostracized an ethnic group.”
Fen Kovach, 33, and Cristina Panagi, 22, run a podcast about Romani issues called Roma Unraveled. They said they heard about the police department’s post over social media and that it provoked a sense of fear.
“When you see the police, a force that is supposed to protect the people, when you see them profiling your people to the point where they dehumanize you, that you’re not Roma or a Romani person, you’re a Gypsy criminal ... That’s terrifying,” said Kovach, who lives in Virginia.
Panagi said trainings such as these are “vile and dehumanizing.”
“We’ve seen that the training group behind it is heavily responsible for reaching out to police departments to employ this racial profiling training,” said Panagi, who lives in New York. “I’ve seen so many posters for it through the years.”
The Gryphon Training Group, which runs the program, was not available to comment.
In their training brochure, the group said it will train law enforcement officers to identify Romani people. According to Marian Mandache, a Romani human rights attorney and activist, the Nazis employed similar methods by targeting the Roma based on their physical characteristics.
During the Holocaust an estimated 500,000 Romani people were exterminated by the Nazis.
A flier advertising the training in a different Midwest city says the company has compiled a database with about 4,000 “suspects.”
That is chilling and extremely dangerous, Mandache said.
In a case he helped litigate, the European Court of Human Rights decided that it was illegal for police to profile Romani people based on their facial features and other physical characteristics.
Carol Silverman, who researches Roma history and human rights at the University of Oregon, said she has protested against the Gryphon Training Group in Bellevue, Washington.
“If they had a training about Korean crime or Mexican crime that would be totally unacceptable,” Silverman said. “Roma have no political representation and they are a minority everywhere.”
She added that the term “Gypsy” is an ethnic slur because it means to “gyp” or “swindle” someone.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri said despite police canceling the event, they remain concerned that the department would consider offering training on racial profiling.
“The specific reference to national origin and the use of a derogatory term for Roma people reinforces stereotypes and heightens any preexisting biases that community members may already have against ethnic groups,” said Tony Rothert, legal director of the organization.
“To avoid racial profiling, law enforcement must discard ethnic stereotypes and focus on specific evidence about specific individuals.”
