Police Brutality Protester Attends Use-Of-Force Training With Officers, Sees Other Side Of Badge
PHOENIX (CBS SF) -- An activist who has been critical of the use of force by police saw the other side of the shield when he joined deputies for a use-of-force training scenarios.
Phoenix activist Jarrett Maupin, who has been active in protests that spread from the Bay Area to New York following the shooting deaths of unarmed men by police, was joined by a Fox10 reporter to be put in potential life-or-death scenarios with officers of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
The men faced three scenarios, including one where an officer responded to a call of two men fighting.
Maupin shot one of the suspects in that scenario, "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."
Maupin saw how difficult the split-second decision to use force can be.
"It's hard to make that call. It shakes you up," Maupin told Fox10.
The California Highway Patrol shared the story on their Facebook page to help raise awareness of the issues they face while on duty.
Maupin was shot by a suspect in another one of the drills, in which a suspicious person appeared to be casing cars in a parking lot. The suspect shot him after Maupin began asking him questions.
Scenario three was a call about a possible burglar walking down the street and no shots were fired in that drill.
Both Maupin and the reporter said their biggest takeaway was how quickly a situation changes and the split-second nature of the officers' decision-making.