Police captain punished for ripping homeless man’s sign

Denver Police Department Captain was recently punished for violating a
homeless man’s rights only a few days after he was caught on camera violently
shoving a Colorado Rockies fan, at a Rockies game. According to The Denver Post, Captain Joe Black will
be disciplined by losing four days of paid time off for violating the man’s
First Amendment right to free speech. He destroyed the man’s handmade sign that
simply said, “Need Weed.” Thanks to an internal investigation, it was found
that Black had no grounds to destroy the sign, when dealing with this man, on
the 16th Street Mall, and had even changed his story about the incident during
interviews, according to a disciplinary letter obtained by The Denver Post.

The incident happened back on July 28, six days after Black shoved a
fan at Coors Field. A video in which Black shoves Alex Buck three times was
shared thousands of times on social media. In both instances, Black was working
off-duty security, but, the homeless man had every right to hold the “Need
Weed” sign; it is a protected form of free speech.

Black told internal investigators that the homeless man became
belligerent when another officer told him he could not sit or lie on the
ground. The homeless man told investigators that Black had said asking for cannabis
was “aggressive panhandling.” However, the story changes throughout the
recollections and interviews, and in a written statement Black said he took the
sign because the homeless man “might use the sign to swat at members of the
public.” But, in a pre-disciplinary meeting, Black said he only ripped up the
sign when the homeless man “swatted at me with the sign,” the letter said. The
change in story tipped off internal affairs investigators and forced them to
take action. “This self-serving claim made at this late stage of the
disciplinary process is not credible,” the disciplinary letter said. “Captain
Black refuses to take responsibility for his actions,” the letter said. Black’s
actions do not live up to the expectations of Chief Robert White, said Commodore
Matt Murray, the department’s chief of staff. “It’s not consistent with the
chief’s vision and the new mission of respecting people,” Murray said. “The
chief came here to change a culture.”

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Because he is a captain, Black is held to a higher standard, Murray
said. “The higher you go up in the ranks, that much more is expected of you,”
he said.