Wednesday, October 26, 2011

#OccupyMyStreet

Sitting in my office going "doy" over the Broncos' win Sunday when I hear screaming outside. Look out the window and this:


Apparently some kids were squatting in the abandoned house across the street (a place I've had occasion to write about before, when Crazy John lived there).

The woman with the bad case of knee-head was one of the squatters, and she would not settle down. Even with a face full of asphalt she kept trying to kick or otherwise bowdlerize the cops. She also had a very foul, if unoriginal, mouth--"fascists," "pigs," "nazis" (place "fuckin''" before each noun, of course). They had to hold her like that for at least 15 minutes while they waited for an ambulance. No, I don't know why they needed an ambulance. She was definitely fully conscious and appeared unharmed. Probably a mental health hold.



Naturally a crowd gathered. But it was very odd. So many white people:


Several of whom were shouting abuse at the cops.



Center guy was apparently one of the squatters. A cop yelled, "Hey, get over here!" but he melted around the corner of my house and down 27th. The cops didn't even bother to chase him (though they may have caught up with him later).



The big green-haired kid being escorted by the mini-cop (h/t Joseph Wambaugh) offered no resistance.

There were a lot of cops.





The guy on the left viddying the whole thing told me he was from West Denver Copwatch.


Guess they have a police scanner, because he was there filming before I heard a thing. Here's WDCW's account of the incident:

Please Post and Forward Widely

Background

Sunday afternoon a squat in the Jefferson Park Neighborhood of Northwest Denver was raided by over a dozen officers from District 1 of the Denver Police Department.
Witnesses report that the raid was very violent, with at least 8 officers repeatedly beating one of the arrestees, and eventually using paramedics to sedate them while they laid face down, bleeding, in the street.

Four people were arrested, one being sent to a hospital in an ambulance to receive medical care. As of Sunday night, three of the arrestees are facing 2nd degree Burglary (a class 3 felony) and $10,000 bonds. The fourth arrestee’s charges remain unknown because she is still hospitalized. All four have been active participants of Occupy Denver.
Of course. What's funny about this posting is that even though the copwatch guy filmed the incident, no video accompanies the post. Easy to figure out why: because then they couldn't lie about what happened. There was no beating, there was no blood, there was only one person lying in the street (the kicky chick), and if she was sedated, she was the only one who was.

In principle I have no problem with groups like Denver Copwatch. Cops can get out of hand, and Denver cops in particular have had more "incidents" than they should over the years. The problem is that Denver Copwatch is made up of rad-left liars and grievance-mongers who at the very least exaggerate any incident. Think Larry Hales.

Anyway, the place is boarded up now.

But wait! There's more! The next day I was doing chores out back when I noticed there was a cop car blocking the alley and police tape across both ends of the block. Bomb scare. Somebody found a suitcase lying in the street outside Crazy John's house and called it in. And after what went on the previous day the cops were taking no chances:


No kaboom.

Update: AP says two Occupy Denveroids were taken to Denver Health last night from Civic Center Park suffering from "symptoms of hypothermia." No kidding. The story also says "about 30" people stayed overnight without tents (the cops made them take them down) in heavy, wet snow. Sounds like fun.

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