The St. Louis police union gave “basic training” this week to 18 public officials after widespread criticism of police following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. “We're not going to pretend like it has nothing to do with Ferguson and what happened in the (St. Louis) Shaw neighborhood,” union business manager Jeff Roorda said of the event. “There's another side to the story that hasn't been told, and some of our biggest detractors have been elected officials.
One state representative was “shot” in the exercise after he searched his suspect twice when he put him in the back of a police cruiser. “You sure you don't want to check him again?” officer Nick Manasco had asked. “No, I got him,” said the politician. “He's clean.” A few seconds later, he had a gunshot wound to the chest. “I can't believe I missed that gun,” he said, after he bent over and clutched his chest, visibly shaking. “Even though this is pretend, it was really scary and frightening, even though it was just staged.” The event began with officers giving the group a crash course in a classroom setting on basic police academy training and tactics. Then officers sent the officials out in pairs to respond to two scenes. One scenario featured a prostitute soliciting johns while her pimp was nearby. Another scenario included several men suspected of dealing drugs.