Rev. Jarrett Maupin is a former Democratic congressional candidate who describes himself as a “Progressive Baptist Preacher,” a “Civil Rights Campaigner,” and a “Radical Political Activist” on his Twitter profile. He led a demonstration last month against the Phoenix Police Department after one of their officers shot an unarmed man.
But earlier this week, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office extended an invitation to Maupin to participate in an exercise where he would find himself in three simulated life threatening scenarios police officers could experience while on the job, KSAZ reported.
The first scenario featured a suspect by a vehicle in a parking lot. Maupin permitted the suspect to go behind the vehicle before he reemerged. The suspect discharged his firearm at Maupin, resulting in the civil right’s leader’s ‘death.’ He responded to a verbal disturbance between two males for his next scenario. “What’s going on today gentlemen? What are you doing?,” he asked both men. One of the suspects rushed Maupin, causing him to discharge his firearm at the suspect’s center mass. When KSAZ asked why he did that, he replied, “Hey, he rushed me.” I shot because he was in that zone, I didn’t see him armed, he came clearly to do some harm to my person. It’s hard to make that call; it shakes you up.
The final scenario involved a suspect walking down the street, as KSAZ explains. Maupin is able to get the suspect on the ground, though he is not complying. “I need you to keep your hands up sir, I need you to keep your hands up sir, I need to check that’s in the waistband,” he said. No shots were discharged, though the suspect did have a knife in his waistband. KSAZ’s Troy Hayden performed the scenarios after Maupin without seeing what he did, and the results were the same.
After going through the scenarios, the activist pastor conceded the merits to how officers do their job. “I didn’t understand how important compliance was, but after going through this, yes my attitude has changed – this happens in 10-15 seconds. People need to comply for their own sake,” he said. Maupin thanked the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office on Twitter:
In an interview with The Free Thought Project, whistleblower cop Alex Salazar gives important insight into this video when he explains,
“These scenarios are designed to make any person fail and to cause them to believe there are no other options. He had no taser, baton or other less than lethal weapons. What about kicking the big guy in the nuts, waiting for backup, or tasering him.
The profession of law enforcement is difficult at times, but the excessive brainwashing on a daily basis taking place, that you may die, is too extreme and gives many the belief it is OK to use deadly force. In many of these situations, Tamir Rice or Andy Lopez comes to mind, these officer’s just wanted to plain shoot and kill.”
Salazar went on to say,
“It’s a brainwashing mechanism to get you over to their side, to start thinking about killing. In what they call the ‘FATS simulator’ (firearms and training simulator), you are automatically designed to DIE… Yes it’s a game and useful for training. But here they put a citizen off the street with no training and a newscaster in pre-designed scenarios, which are psychologically made to make you think and perceive things differently. It has nothing to do with training. Every recruit, I don’t care if they’re an ex-badass Navy Seal… everyone dies.
Think about that for a moment. There is no way to “win,” either you die or you kill. The outcome in these training exercises is always death.
Salazar made clear that the manner in which the entire training session and video was done, shows that it was simply pro-police propaganda and conditioning meant for public consumption.
“YouTube FATS training presented by the Pasadena PD, the officer’s have less than lethal weapons at their disposal. They don’t have to kill the people like the Phoenix channel led people to believe. There are viable alternatives. Numerous years of working undercover in South Central Los Angeles and I only had to use my 9mm once.
Most of the time I would kick the person strategically or pepper spray. There is very rarely a reason to kill, and many police officers go their entire lifetime without having to draw their weapons,” said Salazar.
This entire activity is an exercise in psychological warfare as there are only two possible outcomes in these training activities given the aforementioned factors.
Outcome 1: You shoot and kill the suspect, which then shows how police violence is necessary.
Outcome 2: The suspect ends up killing you, which shows how dangerous the job of law enforcement is.
In either case it is a false dichotomy, meant to facilitate a false sympathy towards law enforcement by showing the job they do in a very misleading light given the major advantages an officer on the beat has vs. a citizen off the street participating in this exercise.
Alex Salazar is of course entitled to his opinion.
That has not stopped the story and video that is spreading Maupin's message far and wide.
Maupin's message and the video are receiving a great of attention on the internet with the reposting of his dramatic attuitude adjustment.
Just a few of the many times the story has been reprinted are shown here
I take my hat off to the civil rights activist Reverend Jarrett Maupin for accepting the Sheriff’s office invitation to participate in the shoot/don’t shoot simulation.
After completing the program, he said: “I didn’t understand how important compliance was… people need to comply with the orders of law enforcement officers, for their own safety.”
You can bet the Reverend will now spread the word to his flock.
I think De Blasio and Sharpton should take the course as well.
