August 21, 2010 09:28 PM UTC

The Denver Police Issue is a Poor Leadership Problem

• 9 Comments
• by: Whiskey Lima Juliet

I think it is time for city leaders to look at who is running these departments.  It would appear to me the police are reacting to poor leadership and lack of professional oversight.

The Denver coroner has ruled that the July 9 death of an inmate at the new jail was the result of homicide.

http://www.denverpost.com/news…

From the coroner’s report

“The booking deputy was joined by three other officers who forced the decedent first to a chair, and then face down on the floor. Two officers struggled to cuff his hands behind his back; another tried to control his legs; a fourth lay across his upper back and applied a carotid ‘sleeper’ hold around his neck.”

4 police officers, a taser, hand cuffs and a sleeper hold to subdue a 135 pound man.

The coroner said deputies had their body weight on Booker’s back continuously for four minutes while he was face down and put him in a “sleeper hold” for more than two minutes while shocking him with a Taser for eight seconds.

Innocent until proven guilty, in fairness…

The coroner’s finding means simply that another human being caused Booker’s death, rather than from natural causes, suicide or an accident. It is not the coroner’s role to determine who might have caused the death or whether the homicide was justifiable.

Second discipline case erupts for Denver safety manager, lying and cover up charges….

http://www.denverpost.com/news…

For the second time in less than three weeks, Perea clashed sharply with Independent Monitor Richard Rosenthal and the Citizen Oversight Board, this time over an officer found to have lied about the use of excessive force.

Office of the Mayor and former City Council member are using strong words…

Roxane White, chief of staff to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, said late Friday, “Ron is seriously reconsidering his decision.”

“His rationale made no sense to us at all,” oversight board member Cathy Reynolds, a former Denver councilwoman, said of the Sellers case. “There are several things we’re concerned about, like there just being a slap on the wrist for lying. It’s the coverup that gets us.“

The victim was a volunteer firefighter, not exactly a crip or blood, has even stronger words…

The push to fire Sellers was applauded by the man who filed the complaint in the case, Jared Lunn, 23, of Commerce City, a volunteer firefighter in Brighton.

“Denver police, to me, are basically criminals with badges,” Lunn said. “I have no respect for them. I somewhat fear them because it’s Wild West out there for them.”

Here is the sad part.  From the the Pueblo Police Vet, whose son was beaten in another case and video taped…

He can’t understand why it happened to his son, who grew up respecting law enforcement, who attended a 1990 ceremony as a toddler when his father received the medal of valor for saving a teenager who fell through the ice into the freezing water of a pond.

“It’s just ripping my guts out,” the father said.

Michael’s 4-year-old niece still doesn’t understand. Police officers are the good guys, she says, searching for an explanation from the grandfather.

“How do I tell her there are good police and bad police?” Anthony DeHerrera asks.