Your cops brutalized Karen Garner, laughed, and fist-bumped about it. So why are you still the Police Chief?
“What you saw in the video, not the Loveland Police Department,” Ticer said Friday in reaction to the surveillance video.
Loveland Police Chief Robert Ticer, quoted by CBS News, April 30, 2021.
Oh really? Then explain this one, Chief:
As the officers watched the bodycam footage that showed Hopp holding Garner against a patrol car, Hopp said, “Ready for the pop?” suggesting he was aware that he had injured her.
CBS News, April 30, 2021.
And why did you admit to CBS Denver reporters that the video from inside your jail’s holding center was “even worse” than the body cam video of Karen Garner’s arrest?
Yes, it is the Loveland Police Department, Chief Ticer. It’s every one of your officers.
It’s you, too. You, personally, are responsible for this. You’re the Chief. Every bit of cop fuckery in your department is always your fault. That’s what you get paid to prevent. And it’s what you should be fired for.
Because, like every cops who claims, “that’s not us,” you just don’t get it: You are all defined by the conduct of each one of you individually. Every. Day.
You are defined by the worst among you.
That’s what it means to be a pig: a cop who shames his entire profession by betraying the public trust.
From National Public Radio:
3 Colorado Officers Involved In Forceful Arrest Of Woman With Dementia Resign
May 1, 202110:30 AM ET
CLAIRE CLEVELAND
A screenshot from former Loveland police officer Austin Hopp’s body camera moments before he forcefully arrested 73-year-old Karen Garner on June 26, 2020.Screengrab courtesy of attorney Sarah Shielke, Life and Liberty Law Office
Three Loveland, Colo., police officers involved in the forceful arrest and detention of Karen Garner, a 73-year-old woman with dementia, have resigned from the department.
“I share the community’s concerns on this. It hurt to see that,” Loveland Police Chief Robert Ticer said of the body camera footage of the arrest during the conference. “I’ve been in law enforcement 32 years, and what I saw in there hurt me, personally.”
Ticer made the announcement Friday during a press conference, which came more than a week after a federal civil rights lawsuit against multiple officers and the Loveland Police Department was filed by Sarah Schielke from The Life and Liberty Law Office on behalf of Garner. Officers Austin Hopp, Daria Jalali and community service officer Tyler Blackett, who assisted in booking Garner, all resigned.
“Today we listened to Chief Ticer give a speech singularly endeavoring to protect only himself and the reputation of the LPD. He repeatedly dodged questions regarding our family. He made no reference to Karen personally,” said a statement from Garner’s family. “And just like on June 26, 2020, the inhumane treatment of our mother was ignored and his continued support of the department was the focus. He said that our mother’s case has ‘hurt him personally.’ It is clear that the only thing that has ‘hurt him personally’ has been the attention this case has brought to his department. Not what happened to our mother. We are disappointed.”
Two other officers named in the lawsuit have retained their jobs with the Loveland department. Sgt. Phil Metzler, who responded to the scene of Garner’s arrest, was placed on administrative leave; meanwhile, Sgt. Antolina Hill, who was involved in booking Garner, still works her regular duty assignment.
The statement from Garner’s family calls for Metzler and Hill to be removed from the force. It also calls for Ticer himself to step down or be removed.
“His decision to not resign, and the City of Loveland’s City Manager (Steve Adams) decision to not remove him from that position proves that LPD’s leadership and toxic culture problems are just as bad as we suspected when we saw the very first video, if not worse,” the statement reads. “And they go all the way through Ticer, to the very top. Because while the world looks on, aghast, and waiting — the City leaves the old guard in place. And it does nothing.”
On June 26, 2020, Garner was forcefully arrested by Loveland Police officers after she left a Walmart with $14 of unpaid merchandise. Garner suffered a fractured arm and dislocated shoulder during the arrest, according to the lawsuit. In photos from a press release, the back of Garner’s arms and her wrists were badly bruised.
“Our goal at the Loveland Police Department has always been to make our community proud,” Ticer said. “We failed, and we are very sorry for that.”
An investigation has also been launched by the office of the Eighth Judicial District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin. The district’s Critical Incident Response Team, composed of investigators from 10 area agencies in Larimer and Jackson counties, will investigate the incident.
From The Tumalo Lookout:
Cops are forever making excuses for their poor decisions and their brutality, by claiming that they just follow their training and their departmental policies. Those claims point directly at the heart of the problems in cop culture: poor training, poor departmental policies, poor leadership, poor integrity — and below-average compassion.
We need good cops. Cops who are intelligent enough and compassionate enough to think outside of the box. Cops who can stop behaving like robotic warriors and demonstrate good judgment on the job. Cops with the integrity to uphold their oaths and their code of ethics.
Those cops are in too-short supply in this country.
Law enforcement needs our help. The profession refuses to adjust its practices for responding to mental illness in our communities.
Hell, law enforcement refuses to adjust its practices for anything.
Voters need to force change on law enforcement from the outside. We need to break cop culture before it can begin healing.
So did you hear the one about three little pigs? They resigned when they got caught abusing an elderly woman with dementia.
Not funny, is it.
The Tumalo Lookout 