Posted on 08/20/2010 10:05:03 AM PDT by Keltik
What started as a walk to the park with his dogs ended with a trip to the hospital for a Denver dog owner. 32-year-old Mark Ashford says he was beaten black and blue by two Denver Police officers.
"They punched him and pinned him up against the fence and forced his head into the concrete." Ashford's attorney, Will Hart, said the beating that was caught on camera is a clear case of Excessive More..Force. "This happened when he was walking his dogs, he has a conversation with another citizen that the police officer doesn't like and as a result, he ends up in the hospital," said Hart.
Hart says Mark Ashford was walking his dogs near 20th and Little Raven in LoDo, when he saw police pull over a driver for failing to stop at a stop sign. Ashford told the driver he saw him stop and would be willing to testify in court. Hart says the officer overheard him and "wasn't very happy."
That's when Ashford says the Denver police officers demanded his I.D. and detained him. Ashford tried to take a picture of the officers to document the incident, and a few second later he was on the ground.
Police charged Ashford with interference and resisting arrest. Hart says, the charges were later dropped because the officers violated Ashford's 4th amendment rights, "they had no reason to stop him, take his ID or detain him.
An Excessive Force complaint was filed against both officers involved. A Denver police spokesperson says the internal affairs department has completed its investigation, but they are now turning the case over to the independent police monitor. Police won't say if the officers were disciplined in any way until the investigation is complete
There are two disciplinary procedures which should be used but will likely not be. These two thugs masquerading as police officers should be fired and then indicted for felonious assault. No city needs police officers who are criminals.
Whole heartedly agree. But, where are the protests? Where are the talking heads on tv saying this was “profiling” or “racism”? Why no moral outrage, is this a white guy or what?
Cops should be policing this activity themselves or citizens will be looking the other way when someone decides to even the score. Cops have special protections under the law, they should be held to a higher standard.
What, they didn’t shoot the guy’s dogs?
Union won’t be happy about that.
That dog is pretty useless. I think my dog would want to get into the fight. At least I would hope so.
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Must be a shortage of ammo, is the only reason I can think of for the police not shooting the dog.
Watched the video....Based on that, these cops are screwed, and very likely should be.
This guy tells a citizens he saw her make a stop and would testify to that effect, after a traffic stop, and it appears the cops proceeded to beat this guy into the ground....wow...
Looks like they didn’t like him taking their picture with his cell phone.
The version broadcast on the news report was edited quite a bit, though it does seem to be clearly a case of excessive force, it would be interesting to see how they went from talking to the guy to beating the guy up.
I just posted this story in a Flickr Group named Photography Is Not A Crime.
We document lots and lots of stories like this.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/photography_is_not_a_crime/discuss/72157624767793976/
As they approach this guy, he starts video taping them with his cell phone, and that caused him to get beat down and arrested.
I'm very much pro LE, but this is bullsh*t and I'm tired of seeing citizens being treated like some foreign enemy.
what happened to the motorist that the citizen was aiding?
Stepping into the middle of it and basically inferring that the cops were lying was not a good plan.
But even that in no way would justify the cops reaction.
Beatin’ on a white guy like that? Yeah, they’re screwed.
“Cops have special protections under the law, they should be held to a higher standard.”
No, no, no, cops have a tough job and risk their lives daily to protect us from these types of dangerous criminals! They should be given a pass on little slip ups like this. /s
In other words, the media is playing the beating first to get attention, then plays the initial contact last...Watch the video
In addition, this appears to be a fixed camera based on the movements of the camera, so I am confident they have the entire incident.
My gut feeling is they didn't like this guy supporting the person getting the ticket, and decided to pummel this guy when he started recording the incident.
That is what the man is claiming occurred.
Watch the video, the man was up on the sidewalk and the cops walked over to him.
Stepping into the middle of it and basically inferring that the cops were lying was not a good plan.
Where are you seeing that?
That is not what I saw. I saw the cops walk up to the citizen who was standing on the sidewalk.
By the way, why is this Denver front page news item in General/Chat?
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