COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
APRIL 28, 2021
AT SOMETHING
THAT MOST OF US FIND PAINFUL AT BEST, THESE POLICE OFFICERS LAUGHED THEIR HEADS
OFF. THE DETAINED WOMAN IS SUING. HE WHO LAUGHS LAST LAUGHS BEST. WALMART
SHOULD BE EXPECTING SOME PUBLIC BACKLASH AS WELL. CALLING THE POLICE ON A 73
YEAR OLD WOMAN WITH DEMENTIA OVER FAILING TO PAY FOR A $14.00 PURCHASE IS NOT
GOOD BUSINESS, EVEN IF IT IS LEGAL. WHEN I HEAR POLICE OFFICERS SAY THAT THEY ACTED
WITHIN THE LETTER OF THE LAW OR DEPARTMENT PROCEDURE ON A VIOLENT OR ABUSIVE
ACTION IT MAKES ME SAD. WHAT WE HAVE LOST IS OUR GROUP SOUL, I AM AFRAID.
THE FOLLOWING VIDEO
AND TWO ARTICLES ARE SICKENING. ARE WE LOSING ALL BASIC MORALITY? ARE THE
POLICE ACTUALLY TRYING TO DIMINISH THE RESPECT THAT THE PUBLIC HAS FOR THEM?
MAYBE THEY JUST AREN’T USED TO THE PUBLIC FIGHTING BACK. THAT IS WHAT IS TRUE
OF MOST BULLIES.
Video shows officers laughing at footage of violent arrest of 73-year-old woman with dementia, 05:09 MIN.
Footage from a newly released video shows Colorado police officers laughing over bodycam video of the June 2020 arrest of Karen Garner in which they allegedly injured the 73-year-old woman with dementia. The video was released by Garner's attorney.
APR 27, 2021
Cop accused of hurting woman’s arm: ‘Ready for the pop?’
By COLLEEN SLEVIN
Yesterday [APRIL 27, 2021]
PHOTOGRAPH -- 2
of 3, In this undated photo provided by Allisa Swartz, is Karen Garner, who is
suing Loveland, Colorado and three of its police officers over her arrest in
June 2020. According to her federal lawsuit, she suffers from dementia and was
arrested after leaving a Walmart without paying for about $14 in items. Police
body camera video shows an officer reaching for one of her arms, putting her on
the ground and handcuffing her after she started to walk away from him. The
officer has been placed on leave pending an investigation. (Allisa Swartz via
AP)
DENVER (AP) — A
Colorado police officer accused of dislocating the shoulder of a 73-year-old
woman with dementia while arresting her seemed to be aware he had injured her.
He told fellow officers “ready for the pop?” as he showed them his body camera
footage, according to police station surveillance video with enhanced audio
that was made public Monday by the woman’s lawyer.
Officer Austin
Hopp made the comment while showing the other officers the part of the arrest
that shows Karen Garner being held against the hood of a patrol car in
Loveland, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Denver last year, her
handcuffed left arm bent up behind her head. The body camera footage, which can
be heard but not seen on the surveillance video, was also previously released
by Garner’s lawyer.
The videos plus
a lawsuit filed against Hopp, other officers and the city and investigations
into the arrest came this month amid a national reckoning over the use of force
by police against people — including those with mental and physical health
conditions.
The
surveillance video captured in the Loveland police station shows two other
officers, one male and female, watching the footage with Hopp as he makes the
“pop” comment. The female officer, who helped during the arrest and says “I
hate this.”
The video then
shows her pull her hat over her eyes while another male officer says, “I love
it.”
Earlier in the
surveillance video, before the officers watch the body camera footage, Hopp
says Garner is “flexible” and says something else that’s inaudible. He then makes
another reference to the popping sound, telling the female officer that “I was
pushing, pushing, pushing. I hear — pop. I was like ‘oh no,’” he said. The
female officer puts her head in her hands.
At the time,
Garner was in a holding cell a few feet away, handcuffed to a bench. The
federal lawsuit filed on her behalf earlier this month said she received no
medical care for about six hours after she was taken to jail.
Later in the
surveillance video, Hopp and the other male officer fist bump at the part of
the body camera footage where Hopp dismisses the concerns of a man passing by
the arrest scene who stops to object to how Hopp treated what the man thought
was a child.
After watching
that part of the body cam video a second time, the second officer who is
recorded on the surveillance video reacts to the man who stopped at the arrest
scene by saying: “What are you doing? Get out of here. This is none of your
business.”
Hopp arrested
Garner in June 2020 after she allegedly left a store without paying for about
$14 worth of items. His body camera footage shows Hopp catching up to her as
she walks through a field along a road. She shrugs and turns away from him
and he quickly grabs her arm and pushes her 80-pound (36-kilogram) body to the
ground. She looks confused and repeatedly says, “I am going home.”
On the police
station video, Hopp says he is a little worried that Garner is “like
senile and stuff.” Several times, he and the other officers say she
fought with police and Hopp says she got her handcuffs halfway off.
Police put Hopp
on leave after the lawsuit was filed and announced they would conduct an
internal investigation. Soon after that, the district attorney’s office
announced the arrest of Garner would be investigated by a team of outside
law enforcement agencies. The city of Loveland has also said it will conduct a
review.
Loveland police
declined to comment on the new video footage from the police station, citing the
criminal investigation being conducted at the district attorney’s request.
“Independent
comment from the Loveland Police Department would not be appropriate at this
time. LPD has faith in the due process that this investigation allows for,” it
said in a statement.
Hopp could not
be located for comment. The Loveland Fraternal Order of Police, the union
representing city police officers, did not return an email asking whether he
had a lawyer who could speak for him.
The lawyer representing Garner and her family, Sarah Schielke, said the latest video footage needed to be released to force the department to change..
VIDEO --
Associated Press, Colorado woman with dementia sues police over arrest, 01:53
MIN.
“If I didn’t
release this, the Loveland Police’s toxic culture of arrogance and entitlement,
along with their horrific abuse of the vulnerable and powerless, would carry
on, business as usual. I won’t be a part of that,” she said.
A sergeant who
signed off on the paperwork the officers were filling out while they watched
the body camera footage was also added as defendants in Garner’s lawsuit as
was the second male officer watching the footage.
Police laughed after violent arrest of 73-year-old with dementia: video
BY LEXI LONAS - 04/27/21 10:17 AM EDT
Colorado police
laughed and joked after violently arresting a 73-year-old woman with dementia,
according to a new video released Monday.
Police threw
the woman, identified as Karen Garner, who has dementia and weighs just 80
pounds, to the ground during her 2020 arrest in Colorado, resulting in the
dislocation of her shoulder.
Officers Daria
Jalali, Tyler Blackett and Austin Hopp, the one who put handcuffs on Garner,
can be heard in the video laughing and calling Garner “senile” and “ancient.”
Hopp was
“excited” he got to use hobble restraint for the first time during an arrest.
“Ready for the
pop? Here comes the pop,” Hopp said, indicating the officers knew that Garner
needed medical attention but didn't provide any until hours after the arrest.
“The Loveland
Police treated her like an animal. They laughed and fist-bumped while they were
doing it. They reveled in her pain and did nothing to address it. They relished
in stripping her of all dignity. We are physically sickened. We are angry. Our
hearts could not possibly ache anymore,” Garner’s family said in a statement
after seeing the video.
The video comes
after Garner filed a lawsuit against the city and the three officers two weeks
ago. An amended complaint was added to include more officers for failing to get
Garner medical attention.
“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," Sarah Schielke, Garner’s lawyer, said in a
statement. "But as it often goes with bad police departments, it seems
this is the only way to make them change.
It is important
to note that the laughing, jokes, and cavalier disregard of Ms. Garner’s mental
and physical health shown by the Loveland Police Officers in this booking area
video occurred at the height of the nationwide protests regarding police
brutality and lack of accountability. This makes the video’s content even more
damning," Schielke added in a statement to The Hill.
"It shows
that it was universally understood among the officers in Loveland that they
would not be subjected to any such scrutiny. That their ability to abuse their
power was, in their minds, untouchable."
“The statements
on the videos are very concerning,” 8th Judicial District Attorney Gordon
McLaughlin (D) said, according to The Washington Post. “I will consider those
statements along with all relevant evidence ... in making a charging decision.”
McLaughlin is
in charge of the criminal investigation into the officers' actions.
Garner was
arrested while she was picking wildflowers from the side of the road after Walmart
employees called the cops on her for allegedly trying to leave the store
without paying for her items, worth $13.88, and attempting to remove an
employee's mask.
“Our mother was
forever changed by this event. Once fiercely independent, happy, carefree and a
great lover of the outdoors, she is now fearful, distrusting, reclusive. Sad. Look at what they did to her.
It is no wonder why,” Garner’s family said.
*New Hampshire officer on leave after TikTok video labeled 'deeply...
*Three Georgia men charged with federal hate crimes over Ahmaud Arbery...
*“I can’t believe I threw a 73-year-old on the ground,” Hopp says in the video.
The Hill has
reached out to the police department for comment.
Updated at 4:00
p.m.
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