Editorial: Denver's safety manager is doing his job - The Denver Post
Editorial: Denver's safety manager is doing his job - The Denver Post Denver police Sgt. Ricki Stern may have voiced the opinion of many officers when he denounced Manager of Safety Charles Garcia's disciplinary actions as "an insult to everyone who puts on a uniform," but we hope not. For the most part, Garcia has done exactly what the public should expect from anyone in his position since his appointment in March. "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 wrote, while sneering at Garcia's former occupation of public defender. But Garcia does not pass judgment based upon what he "would have done." He acts based upon what the officers should have done — and what everyone in uniform concedes the officers should have done. For example, Officer Devin Sparks and Cpl. Randy Murr should have told the truth in their reports about a 2009 beating of Michael DeHerrera in LoDo. If they had, Garcia would not have fired them earlier this year. No one disputes that fact. The only dispute is whether the discipline was too harsh. Stern represents a point of view advanced most forcefully by the Denver Police Protective Association, which has been reluctant to accept the fact that Denver is committed to firing police who are guilty of premeditated lies regarding an investigation or an administrative or judicial proceeding. Just last month, the police union called for the firing of independent monitor Richard Rosenthal because of his consistent support for the new disciplinary standard. Just because Denver went more than 100 years without firing premeditated liars in its police force doesn't mean the policy is sacrosanct. Times have changed, and public expectations regarding officer behavior have changed as well.
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