Officers ordered to stand down and allow vandalism and desecration of memorial

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Originally Posted by Doc45

Robert White "grew up" in the Washington D.C. pd. If I was a resident of Denver I'd be most concerned about what qualifications he brought in that made him the best candidate. It didn't take long for many of the street officers to become less than enthralled with him. Whether we agree with his decision on how to handle this appalling incident or not, it's just another step in widening the gap in what the officers think of him. Most of the guys I know on DPD were much more in favor of former chief Whitman (now Capt of the Metro unit until his upcoming retirement).

I strongly agree with both Dave_L's and Irving's last statements.

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That being said Doc, hardly anyone likes their boss. I know the Chiefs in my buisness are usually out to bust our balls. But then again, he may suck at his job for all I know. He wouldn't be the first. This was a disrespectful and crappy thing to do, but I think Irving as well as DaveL had some very good points. Watching the news in C Rock it looks as if the Police took the more difficult but high road and the people interviewed were outraged by the act. The only thing the local "news" offers is perception. I perceive that the situation didn't get out of control and the cops did a good job. Not allowing people to "peacefully" protest is a slippery slope as it is a protected right. If there are a few lawbreakers in the batch they should be held accountable and arrested. We don't want to be held accountable for gun crimes and have the 2nd amendment liberties given to us restricted......of course that doesn't seem to be stopping them.

All I'm saying is that when the dust settled, not intervening turned out to be a good decision. I don't know anything about the chief or his leadership skills or any other abilities. From the uproar, it seems that officers have issues with him, so perhaps he bumbles through his job and this was just another fumbled decision that happened to turn out with positive results. From a macro perspective, if you have a group of people declaring that your actions are too harsh, is that the time to crack skulls and show how tough you are? I don't think I'd be able to make that decision on the fly, but I can tell that protesters looking bad is a better outcome than having a larger protest in the days after because everyone cared more about being right than keeping the peace.

Dammit, Stu. How dare you bring an unpopular, reasonable viewpoint to an emotional powderkeg of a thread?!

;)

You have many good points, and I grudgingly (!) agree with them. And the officers weren't completely helpless; they arrested the two 23 year old idiots that took advantage of a situation to be utter and total douchebags.

I saw a brief blurb on the news that the police were putting together a plan to cover the whole memorial so nothing like that could happen again. I hope they also add some obvious video cameras and some covert cameras, because you know some of the scrofulous knuckle-draggers will look at that as a challenge.

It was horribly, horribly disrespectful. I'm glad there were no riots. I also hope fervently that the people involved in the desecration of the memorial are forced to endure the same type of hurt, shock and insult the officers had to witness, while being just as powerless. I'll stop there, because this is a family forum and I don't want to shock anyone.

Apparently they vandals belonged to some type of Anarchist gang. This wasn't their first time doing it. They just used that night as another opportunity to exploit their agenda.