Thank God for Justice!

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stevedouglas@clearchannel.com

Wait until you hear this story

It’s weeks like this that make it not worth being a cop. You go out everyday and put your life on the line, only to watch people get away with minimal consequences. Everyday people call you names, try to hurt you, swear at you, threaten revenge, and on and on, and it’s no wonder why this is commonplace. There are little or no consequences for these actions.

Let me tell you about a recent adjudicated court case where a Denver judge shows what is frankly a pathetic display of justice.

I pulled a woman over one day for having a temporary license plate that was folded over and couldn’t be read. This is common practice among people who have expired temp tags or are doing something else that’s not on the up and up. She also had a break light out. I was training a recruit at the time and he was driving.

The woman we pulled over was completely out of control. She got out of the car after we pulled her over, which isn’t allowed, but my recruit failed to order her back into her car. Instead, he let the woman come back to the window, poke her finger at him and begin asking why we pulled her over with questions punctuated by the “f” word.

I finally had to take over, since it was obvious my recruit wasn’t going to take charge, (and coincidentally, never learned how to take charge, quitting a month or so later).

I got out of the car and ordered her back into her car several times. Instead she yelled profanities as she refused my orders. She decided to get on her phone and began to place a call to God knows who. This is also a no-no since people routinely call friends and family to come assist them, which only complicates the situation when they show up and start interfering. When I told her repeatedly to put down the phone, she refused, and had to be forcibly handcuffed.

In her car were two puppies. I asked the woman, since she was going to jail if I could call someone to pick up the dogs and her truck so I didn’t have to put them all in the car impound. She told me, “F*ing take them.” She then called us “white bitches” and, while handcuffed in the back of the patrol car, threatened to kill me, my recruit, and my family.

Once at the station we tried to put her in the holding cell and, while taking her handcuffs off (she was facing away from us), she reared her leg back and kicked me in the shin.
The case went to court, and I testified, and the judge found the woman guilty of the following charges:

License plate violations
No Brake light
Disobedience to a police officer
Threats to injure a person
Assault

Want to know what her penalty was? Get ready…it’s a whopper. She got one year of unsupervised probation and a five hundred dollar fine, four hundred of which was suspended unless she gets in trouble within the next year.

Not to mention the insignificant traffic charges, this woman got a hundred dollar fine for threatening to kill two cops and my family and then assaulting a police officer. A speeding ticket can cost more money than that. Ah, American justice at its finest. I sure am proud to be a cop.