Posted on 08/18/2010 10:10:45 AM PDT by Fundamentally Fair
For 22 years, Anthony DeHerrera wore his law-enforcement uniform with pride.
The last thing the Pueblo sheriff's deputy ever thought he would have to do is spend a year and a half seeking justice on behalf of his son who was beaten by Denver Police officers.
He wants them to pay for what the videotape of their actions shows.
"If they were Joe Q citizens, they would be in jail," he says.
He says that what drives him are the memories of the sounds that came over the cell phone his son held that night
SNIP
A video was taken on the police department's own High Activity Location Observation surveillance system, released publicly last week, captures Michael as he made a telephone call to his father at 12:14 a.m. that night.
Then the video shows Sparks approaching Michael, tackling him to the ground and then repeatedly beating him with a department-issued sap, a piece of metal wrapped in leather. The officer then roughly picks him up and puts him in the back of a squad car, slamming the door on his shin.
But the night of the telephone call, the father knew none of this. He didn't even know where to go to check on his son. He only had his law-enforcement instincts and the knowledge that his son was in deep trouble.
(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...
Tax paying citizens are beaten in the streets.But Chickenlooper runs a sanctuary city where
Illegal Aliens murder Denver cops.OBTW Chickenlooper wants to be our Governor.
He sounds chickenlooped to me.
The officers feelings/needs are not germane to doing their jobs nor is sending a message their job. We have an entire court system set up to decide if a message should be sent, what the message should be and another entire probation/penal system to send that message.
Cops that try to be judge and jury should be fired. Law enforcement all over the US are out of control and a correction is needed.
I would agree, except that something justified this in their minds. What would it be if not for, “Did the officers feel the need to send a message?”
Do I agree with them? Do I think anything justified what they did? No. That doesn’t cause me not to ask some questions.
As for the rest, I agree that some officers try to be judge and jury when they shouldn’t.
Some people in every profession do the wrong thing. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that some officers do too.
I agree that it is important to drum out the bad eggs, and include jail time where appropriate.
I think they saw him with the phone and assumed he was videotaping their beating of his friend and went after him to get the phone and erase the video.
The message they felt called to send was CYA lawlessness. It was unfortunate for them that he was not videoing, but calling his LEO father for help, who not only heard the beating of his son, but the comment regarding getting the phone because they’re being taped by it.
It’s time for the voters to step up to their responsibility to unemploy the elected officials responsible for allowing this to continue, largely because they are owned by the public employee unions.
Yes, I agree. Thanks for the recitation, but I was on the thread yesterday.
Drunk or not - I just can’t see any reason for the over-the-top aggression by the cops. The Denver force is way out of control. The Justice Dept. needs to take a good long look.
And why are those cops still on the payroll? Oh - another “victory” for unions...
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