Posted on 04/26/2021 1:08:27 PM PDT by Red Badger
“Ready for the pop? Here comes the pop.”
The quote above is from a Loveland Police officer – Austin Hopp – said in reference to the sound it made when he dislocated and fractured Karen Garner’s shoulder. Hopp made this comment to two fellow Loveland Police officers while they watched his body camera video together at the police station. They all laughed about it. The comment was made while Karen Garner, who has dementia, remained handcuffed to a bench in a cell just 10 feet away from them, alone, confused and crying in pain. She would ultimately go over six hours without any medical attention.
This horrific statement comes to light after Ms. Garner’s family hired a sound engineer to enhance the audio on Loveland Police station booking videos from the day of Karen’s arrest. The video reveals a grotesque culture of callous disregard for the health and safety of citizens. The officers fist-bump one another multiple times in self-congratulation for both the assault on Garner and the intimidation of the citizen who attempted to complain about it.
In an April 26, 2021 press release responding to the revelations seen in this video, Ms. Garner’s attorney, Sarah Schielke of The Life & Liberty Law Office states: “This is utterly disgusting. These videos cannot be unseen or unheard. I am sorry to have to share them with the public. This will be traumatic and deeply upsetting for everyone to see. But as it often goes with bad police departments, it seems this is the only way to make them change. They have to be exposed. If I didn’t release this, the Loveland Police’s toxic culture of arrogance and entitlement, along with their abuse of the vulnerable and powerless, would carry on, business as usual. I won’t be a part of that.”
“Loveland knew. They’ve known all along,” Schielke continues. “They failed Karen Garner. They failed the community. And they did it all on camera. Do you realize how horrifying that is? That means they were used to getting away with it. That the comfortable norm in Loveland is one of zero accountability. That this is not just some ‘isolated incident.’ It is not just one single ‘problem.’ It is widespread, sociopathic criminality. And to attempt to shift the burden to Karen, or a bystander, or her family, or counsel, to report this? Shame on you, Loveland. You took an oath to protect and serve. This is a disgrace.”
Since filing a federal lawsuit against the City of Loveland and three of its officers on April 14, 2021, the Loveland Police Department’s gruesome arrest and abuse of 73-year-old grandmother Karen Garner has horrified the country, making national headlines (New York Times, Washington Post, CBS News, NBC News, CNN, Newsweek, The Guardian, Vice). The 8th Judicial District Attorney’s office, in conjunction with the FBI and Fort Collins Police, has since opened a criminal investigation into the Loveland Police.
Meanwhile, the City of Loveland has vowed to protect the “due process” rights of its officers, with Chief Robert Ticer putting one officer on administrative leave (Hopp) and “reassigning” the other two officers (Sergeant Metzler and Officer Jalali) to “administrative duties” (desk duty) until the various investigations are completed. To date, the City has yet to extend any apology to Ms. Garner or her family for the various atrocities witnessed on these videos.
https://www.reporterherald.com/2021/04/26/new-information-released-on-karen-garner-incident-officers-seen-laughing-over-her-arrest-in-newly-released-video/
The date at the top of the video was June of 2020...
Does anyone know what if any action has been taken since then????
“How to keep the sadists out? Refuse to hire them.”
I had a close High School friend that did psych tests for the state prison and local police department. He told me horror stories about people he turned down for the police department but got hired anyway because of connections.
Disagree. Last thing he’d hear would be the splat of the 338 round hitting his center of mass. Up close and personal not the way to wage asymmetric war. Better still but I shouldn’t say - just look up what caused the most casualties in Afghanistan
What about a law that demands immediate summary judgement of any officer that abuses his authority.
s/ In the interest of public safety, the store employees refused to accept payment after they apprehended the grannybandit and called the police./s
The rest is history and probably a Xmillion$ settlement for the Garner family....and a possible prison sentence, hopefully in the general population, for officer Hopp.
And these 3 asshats exemplify the very reason some people think all cops are bad. So how long have they been engaged in this behavior? How many others knew and did nothing to rid the force of them? I usually support law enforcement except when they collectively, go about protecting clowns like these. Want to improve the image of cops? The good cops need to stop protecting asshats.
This is outrageous........as a mother and grandmother of LEO’s I’m sick to my stomach!!!
Justice for Grammy!
Seriously, these cops need some swift justice.
“My instincts are always to be on the side of law enforcement, to give them the benefit of the doubt.”
Before this BLM crap, I was actually pretty down on cops. My overwhelming experience is that far too many cops are bullies that let the authority go to their heads. I’m a 69 year old suburbanite and I have never gotten to experience the police “protect and serve” - it’s always been traffic cops hassling me over small things like an expired inspection sticker or something. I got a few speeding tickets when I was younger - I wasn’t hot rodding or drag racing - I thought I was going the right speed and failed to notice the reduced speed limit sign. Or a yellow light was shorter than I expected. Stuff like that. The cops are almost never act in a normal friendly manner - even though you go out of your way to act super submissive - it’s rarely enough - usually they act all cocky and unnecessarily mean.
Two of my brother’s kids are cops, so I’ve always have to be somewhat careful about making that generalization.
But since BLM I’ve taken Trump’s lead and dropped any criticism I had of LE. There is zero institutional racism that I can see. They certainly aren’t arresting or shooting people because they are black! They are getting a bum rap on the racism score.
So that’s where I stand. I have my criticisms of LE, but it has nothing to do with race.
I think it has more to do with personality types. Too many of the people who are attracted to that profession just seem to be control freaks that like to boss other people around. Becoming a cop gives them the chance to do just that and get paid to do it. Certainly not all - but far too many.
Perfect example of @$$hole cops. Roughing up a 73yr old dementia stricken lady. Then...bragging about it.
See post #46
It does make it impossible in this case. My point was that my instinct is to give cops the benefit of the doubt (until the facts come out) and stuff like this make me rethink that very hard. Cops are people, some are jerks. Some, like these ones, are beyond being jerks. Laughing at how they beat the snot out of an old lady with dementia makes me doubt their humanity. There is no circumstance under which I could find myself telling my friends 'check it out, here's where I hurt her the worst! hah hah hah!"
Honestly I feel like in this case I'd tell the guy to turn in his badge and gun, go home and call the union to file the lawsuit because he's fired and I'll just have to deal with the union BS. Because a man who could laugh about injuring a helpless old lady has no business policing the women and children of my community.
Yes watched the video. So so glad they got the video of the booking stAtion. It’s almost worse than the actual arrest. Laughing boasting bragging. The victim looks young for her age and thin. Body girl a 12 yr old no excuse. Heat him say she was ancient. Can’t believe I threw 73 senile to geoubd.
Company policy.
The problem with huge mega corporations is that the local people have no control.
A small mom and pop store would know this old woman on a personal level and would have served her for years. They would have known her family. They would not have called the police they simply would have followed her out of the store and asked her to come back inside to work it out.
My instincts are always to be on the side of law enforcement, to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Why? What other government entities do you treat this way?
Honestly, that's the easy way out.
My instinct is to be on the side of my fellow citizens and the law.
No settlement likely. Here in.GA a dickless Tracy threw a flash bang into a toddlers playpen - wrong address kid was badly hurt. The Tracy got off Scott free (qualified immunity) and the county didn’t pay a penny of the kids $125,000 medical bills
Lying she was unhurt
Leaving her in agony. Shoulder dislocated is excruciating pain. Longer it’s out it freezes and nerve damage. They give you morphine or fentanyl to put back in
Then reoccurs when even putting on sweater. I’ve seen lived with this.
5 feet, 80 pounds-- according to one report...
Horrible...
Yes I read that. I don’t think these animals knew she was an old lady. No excuse.
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