More Denver Cops Support the Status Quo of Police Brutality and Deception

It has been less than a week since Denver police officer Shane Boor lashed out publicly at the disciplinary sanctions implemented by Manager of Safety Charles Garcia against several Denver cops found guilty of brutalizing citizens and lying to cover their actions. Now Sgt. Ricki Stern of the Denver Street Crime Attack Team adds his voice to those who want to justify police violence and deception.

According to The Denver Post, Stern sent an e-mail to Garcia on May 7 after Garcia attended a police District 2 roll call. In the e-mail Stern wrote, "We have no use for people who sit in the comfort of their air conditioned box seats and watch those of us that get our faces bloodied in the arena and then pass judgment on us based (on) what they would have done."

Stern later writes, "what we do is real and the consequences for not doing what needs to be done in the heat of battle can and has been fatal."

Next, Stern seems to threaten Garcia when he writes, "I would recommend that you not come back to roll call because it will not change what we think of people that have chosen your profession.

We have an overriding sense of justice and we know who needs to be fired...we are not stupid, we know when it's raining and when we are being urinated on."

Sgt. John Bronson an executive board member of the Denver Police Protective Association agreed with Stern saying, "That is a legitimate e-mail, and that is pretty much the sentiment of everybody that listened to Garcia because he doesn't have the background of understanding police work."

One of the chief complaints of the officers seems to be that prior to his hiring as Manager of Safety, Garcia was a public defender representing victims of police brutality and the regular lies told by police officers to protect each other and while on the stand during trial. Garcia knows that police brutalize and police lie, that's what many of them do. They have been doing it so long; it probably does not even seem wrong anymore or counter to everything this country use to stand for. It is this entitled "overriding sense of justice" culture that Garcia is trying to change for the benefit and safety of the public.

Stern and Bronson seem to echo the same distortions voiced by Boor, that they are misunderstood gladiators in the arena or soldiers on the battlefield doing "what needs to be done in the heat of battle." In reality they are neither, they are mid-level public servants with when done correctly, mundane even boring jobs. The problem is their culture and egos can't   come to grips with this reality.

I wonder if they have considered that maybe if they didn't have a "Crime Attack Team" they wouldn't need a "Police Protective Association”?