Police Defend Using Real Black Men For Target Practice In Miami Florida

Woody Deant, pictured above, and a few other real black men are speaking out to an NBC News reporter who is investigating the use of the men's photos for police training target practice. Unbelievably, the police are defending their actions. There was an uproar on Twitter after the report aired.

Woody Deant's photo was discovered by his sister, an army player, as she was about to use the police shooting range with her team for their annual training. To her shock, one of the images was her brother from his mug shot taken 15 years ago, and it was riddled by bullets.

“I was like 'why is my brother being used for target practice?' There were like gunshots there, and I cried a couple of times.”

She immediately called her brother, Woody Deant, who was 18 years old when the picture was taken after he was arrested in connection to a drag race in 2000 that left two people dead. Woody Deant said to the reporter;

“The picture actually has like bullet holes. One in my forehead and one in my eye. …I was speechless."

Post by Woody Deant.

North Miami Beach Police Chief J. Scott Dennis admitted that his officers could have used better judgment, but denies any racial profiling. He noted that the sniper team includes minority officers. Dennis defended the department’s use of actual photographs and says the technique is widely used and the pictures are vital for facial recognition drills.

“Our policies were not violated. There is no discipline forthcoming from the individuals who were involved with this.”

But the Deant family, and many on Twitter wonder why officers were firing targets with images of real people, in this case African-Americans. I believe they have a point.