The Denver Post
d.note
Killing culture
Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - It’s pathetic that Denver cop James Turney might walk away with a 20-day suspension for killing a 15-year-old teenager with a serious developmental disability. But what’s actually pathetic about the recommendation made by Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman depends on your interest in the issue.
For Paul Child’s family, the shame must lie in the fact that although the Chief believes that Turney somehow “erred” in shooting/killing the teenager, the sanction for taking Child’s life is about four weeks of pay. Life is cheap on the Denver P.D.
According to a story in The Denver Post, the Police Discipline Review panel (four cops and two civilians) determined that in killing Childs, Turney used an “improper level of force,” but didn’t think he should miss one day of work for it. The Firearm Discharge Review Board (division chiefs and the officer’s commander) sees it slightly differently. In February the board recommended that Turney receive a 30-day suspension. Looks like Chief Whitman, who I like by the way, is splitting the difference.
For residents of Denver, the shame is that James Turney has no business ever carrying a gun and wearing a badge in this city. The man’s a thug.
On the day before he killed Paul Childs -- who had an 8-inch knife in his hands with the blade pointed skyward -- Turney threatened to shoot his ex-mother-in-law in Iowa. (Chief Whitman is recommending a five-day suspension for that “error.”) The next day, Turney worked out his kinks by putting multiple bullets into Paul Childs, including one that entered Child’s body from the back. In 2002 Turney and another cop fired six bullets into another disabled young man with a knife. Gregory Smith, 19, was deaf.
In fact, the only reason Turney still carries the police officer certification issued by the Colorado Police Office Standards and Training division is the deal he worked out with the Page County (Iowa) prosecutor.
So right now the LAW allows him to carry a gun, but basic decency (and a regard for the city’s bottom line – how many more lawsuits does Turney get to rain down on Denver?) demands that the man never be allowed within 100 yards of a police station – unless he’s behind bars.
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Of course, Denver’s Police Protective Association thinks Turney shouldn’t lose a day of work or a penny of pay. And that attitude is what Whitman, his boss - Safety Manager Al LaCabe, who, along with Mayor Hickenlooper, actually has to decide what to do with Turney - have to deal with. After all, this IS the same police union that tried to extort then-new Mayor Hickenlooper into dumping Chief Whitman back in August, 2003 by threatening to stop writing tickets if Hickenlooper reappointed Whitman as Denver’s police chief.
In a letter to Hickenlooper’s transition committee, the union declared that the department “needs a breath of fresh air” and then tried to blame Whitman for various departmental misdeeds.
The union vice president shrugged off the hammer the cops tried to bring down on the mayor, “Let’s face it, the police department is one of the few agencies in the city and county that generates revenue. How much revenue is generated – basically, the more you like your job, and the happier you are, the more productive you are…I don’t see it as a threat. I see it as right now, we have a police department that isn’t very happy.”
The union’s right. The Denver PD does need a breath of fresh air.
Like getting rid of lousy cops with foul attitudes who, in this town at least, kill with impunity. And getting rid of the cheerleaders-in-blue who cheer them on.
And putting real meaning into the Denver police slogan “to serve and protect,” like taking a couple of steps backwards from a disabled kid with a knife who clearly wasn’t threatening the cops anyway. Or getting out of the way so that police with tasers – who know how to use them - can establish clean, non-lethal shots. And instituting a policy and an expectation that in Denver, police will shoot if they must, but never just because they can.
Dani Newsum, a former civil rights attorney in the Colorado Attorney General's office, appears weekly on KBDI Channel 12's "Colorado Inside Out" (8 p.m. Fridays).
