Pubdate: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 Source: Denver Post (CO) Copyright: 1999-2000 The Denver Post Contact: 1560 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202 Fax: (303) 820.1502 Website: http://www.denverpost.com/ Forum: http://www.denverpost.com/voice/voice.htm Author: Diane Carman, Denver Post Columnist NOW TRY RECALLING THE FACTS In The Past Year: The NAACP accused the Denver Police Department of fostering a "culture of violence and lawlessness'' that allows officers to commit brutality against citizens of all races without fear of reprimand. A group of Hispanic police officers accused the department of nepotism, inadequate efforts to recruit minorities and "an oppressive management style'' that has destroyed morale. A federal court jury determined that in the 1996 shooting death of Jeffrey Truax, Denver police officers had violated the victim's civil rights. The courts also criticized the department for its "deliberate indifference with respect to the training of its police officers as to the use of deadly force.'' Soon after, a 21-year veteran of the department filed suit, claiming that after he gave his critical court testimony in the Truax case he was dumped from the SWAT team and exiled to a less important position in the police academy. A female police officer filed a lawsuit in July against the department on the grounds that the environment was so hostile to women that an officer was not reprimanded for slapping her buttocks and that phrases that describe sexual acts were used to identify female officers over the police radio. In September, officers tear-gassed a crowd of college football fans, including band members, parents and small children, because they worried the crowd might riot after the University of Colorado-Colorado State University football game. Then, officers only made a handful of arrests at the Denver Broncos-Oakland Raiders game in November when hard-drinking fans were openly firing snowballs, iceballs, batteries and other projectiles at the players on the field during the game and engaged in a fistfight in the stands when it was over. In August, a group of Denver police officers riddled the body of a stoned Steven Evilsizer with 14 bullets after he came after them with a steak knife. The week before that, a TV news crew videotaped two Denver officers brutally beating, berating and pistolwhipping two suspects during an arrest. In September, officers entered the wrong house in a no-knock drug raid in the middle of the night, killing Ismael Mena, father of nine. No drugs were found anywhere. Just this month, the Denver Post reported that the Denver Police Department has some of the least stringent qualifications for recruits in the country, that two-thirds of those attending the police academy have used illegal drugs and that a guy who admits to long-term illegal drug use, theft and violence against his ex-wife and a girlfriend was accepted into the academy despite the fact that he was rejected by 19 other police agencies. In the face of all this internal turmoil, controversy, allegations of harassment and police brutality, and even careless loss of life, public pressure has been whipped into a frenzy demanding the recall of John Stone? The indictment against the Jefferson County Sheriff is that he flagrantly released public information to the press. Go figure. Diane Carman's commentaries appear here Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail: - --- MAP posted-by: allan wilkinson