October 30, 2011 11:20 PM UTC

Denver Post Whitewashes Police Brutality

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• by: wade norris

So after writing a diary on the Denver Police crackdown on the Occupy rally at the Capitol, I went to bed feeling self assured that I had written and done enough to cover the issue.

Feeling assured, I sat down for my Sunday Morning routine of breakfast and reading the Denver Post  (ironically my wife and I were having ‘V’ Breakfast – the breakfast that V made Natalie Portman in the movie V)

That’s when I had to stop chewing my food as I tried to digest what the Denver Post was trying to pass off as objective journalism.

Take a look at the Front Page picture:

(You’ll have to see it on the link yourself as CoPols will not allow a front page with the pictures.)



The caption under the picture online reads:

Police raise weapons while making an arrest during the Occupy Denver protest in Denver on Saturday.

But the paper I am holding in my own two hands reads quote:

Police hold their ground while an arrest is made during Occupy Denver Protest Saturday.

The Police are HOLDING THEIR GROUND??!!?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

For those of you not familiar with the Capitol of Denver, these Police officers in the picture are at the bottom of Civic Center park, about 100 yards down the hill from the Capitol Steps.

These officers were forcing the protesters back down the hill, away from the Capitol Steps, with Batons to the head, pepper spray and mace:

I’ll give the Post it’s due, they did a great job of cherry picking a picture that makes it look like these Police are ‘surrounded’ by angry protesters and are ‘Holding their ground’ as they are encircled by them.

Look again:

(You’ll have to see it on the link yourself as CoPols will not allow a front page with the pictures.)

This video shows the protesters being forced back by Police with clubs.

The video tells the story that the Post’s picture and description try to hide:

The people were fleeing from the Police, certainly not trying to stop the Police from ‘Holding their ground’

Oh, and why were the people at the rally in the wrong?

the first midafternoon confrontation had police and state troopers shoulder to shoulder pushing a group of marchers off the state Capitol Steps, which is out of bounds to protesters without a permit.

who is this guy at the Capitol Steps and what is he holding? Could it be a permit?

And if there was no permit, how could the Police know to block off 17th street, where the march was scheduled to proceed through, where it would be impossible for me to take this picture without getting plowed down in the intersection, unless I was protected on both sides by Police blocking traffic for the permitted march? (those Police were very cooperative by the way)

So, now, breakfast is cold as I read this:

While the crowd surged around the officers, a Hare Krishna group chanted and danced just behind them.

Did you get that? Those dirty f@#king hippies were ‘surging around the officers‘ – and to prove they were dirty f@#king hippies, there were some of those  dancing Hare Krishnas there too!!!!

Toast drops from the corner of my mouth….

It’s like for a second I can see into the Denver Post’s Editor’s office as he is on the phone with the Mayor or Governor or whomever, and the conversation is something to the effect of:

“This could be a problem, we don’t want to start recall talks like in Oakland. Can you discredit them somehow?”

“No problem.”

Cue to the Editor snapping his fingers as his mind recalls the movie ‘Airplane’ and VOILA!

Hare Krishnas! Everyone knows the Hare Krishnas are the face of the crazy hippie movement!

Laughable… and totally untrue. I’ve got hours, hours, of tape of the peaceful march and rally, and I covered the front, back and middle of the march, and being a Divinity School graduate who studied comparative religions and more importantly, saw Airplane numerous times, I can attest that there was no dancing ‘Hare Krishna’ group.

There was a dancing group of young people with a boom box that is at the end of this video:

And if jamming to LMFAO’s ‘Shufflin‘ is an indicator of being a Hare Krishna, well I must be a convert without knowing it.

The Post does include details that a college student “took a blow to the temple”

another person got pepper sprayed while he was “standing there with (his) hands behind (his) back”

So at least they confirmed the brutality by the Police. Too bad most people reading this article will come to the conclusion that these ‘surging’  ‘Hare Krishna’ people without a permit all had it coming to them….



One young woman at the protest asked me if I was with the press.

I said ‘no just an independent blogger’



She’s the one clapping in that picture marching with a grandma, a lady with a healthcare sign and a United States Veteran, a.k.a NORMAL PEOPLE.

She asked me,

“You’re not going to write about this like it’s a bunch of hippies are you?”

“I promise you I won’t”

I was thinking about her question as I finished the article.

My wife was noticing my anger in my eyes and the cold unfinished breakfast.

“complete bullshit” I said.

“maybe you could write the Denver Post an Editorial?” she said.

To which I replied:

Screw the Post and their Editors…

I am taking this to the Kossacks and the 99%!