The National Institutes of Health is spending nearly $400,000 on a mindfulness meditation program for police officers.
The New Age meditation technique could be used to prevent cops from shooting unarmed black men, according to the grant for the project.
"Successful policing requires rapid and unbiased decision-making, well-developed emotion regulation skills, and psychological resilience," the grant, awarded to Pacific University in Oregon, states. "However, law enforcement officers (LEOs) are frequently exposed to intensive work-related stress and trauma, and consequently, are at elevated risk of adverse mental health outcomes. These mental health issues in turn are some of the primary mechanisms underlying other- and self-directed violence among [law enforcement officers]."
Researchers inserted the national debate over police tactics into their project, arguing that incidents of cops shooting unarmed suspects could be prevented by meditation. The grant suggests that "unconscious" racism may be the reason some cops pull the trigger.
"The excessive use of force by [law enforcement officers], including unjustified shootings, frequently captures national headlines and is considered by many to be one of the most serious and divisive human rights issues in the United States," the grant states. "Previous research suggests that [law enforcement officers] can be impacted by various factors when making rapid decisions while using firearms, including a lack of careful consideration of contextual factors and unconscious racial stereotypes. This is especially true when their cognitive and emotional resources are compromised due to factors such as stress."
The researchers said there is a "clear need" for a new intervention to try to prevent unjustified shootings, and suggest that mindfulness, which traces its origins to Buddhism and Eastern religions, is the answer.
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$400,000 is a drop in the federal budget bucket, but this program represents only one of thousands of wasteful federal programs. It's time to end the waste, and a Convention of States can make that happen.
