Policing Gone Wrong
It’s easy to see when police officers step way over the line but what is more common are the lesser ways they violate their duties. The below video is a perfect example. The protesters are being obnoxious and the officer sounds like he’s being reasonable and polite. The thing is, there is no law against being obnoxious and the protesters are actually the ones who are correct and apparently know the law better than the officer.
Officer Chris Dickey, of the Commerce City Police Department in Colorado, is ordering some peaceful protesters off of public property. He is wrong. They can be on public property as long as they are not blocking access to the building. He asks them for their I.D. There is no need to request their I.D. because they are not violating any laws. You need to get past how obnoxious they are being. Remember, there is no law against being obnoxious. The reality is that Officer Dickey is mad because the protesters are protesting police brutality. The signs says, “F*ck Bad Cops.”
When one of the protesters calls him Mr. Dickey, Officer Dickey corrects him saying, “Officer”. There is nothing disrespectful about being called mister. Officer Dickey should have just ignored that but instead chose to make an issue out of it. This shows he is taking this situation personally. The protesters move to the sidewalk, leaving the area that Officer Dickey asked them to leave. In other words, they were complying with his instructions. Officer Dickey decides to continue harassing them by continuing to ask for their I.D. so he can issue them a citation for trespassing.
One of the men, Josh Condiotti-Wade, refuses to give his I.D. at which time Officer Dickey says he’s going to arrest him. Wade says no you’re not and runs, Officer Dickey falls, which I suspect made him even more angry and embarrassed. He chases Wade and shoots him with his taser. Another officer, Ryan Sedgwick, joins the chase and he too shoots at Wade with his taser. Ironically, Wad was not even the protester who was being obnoxious.
Fortunately, Commander Mark Morgan arrives and stops Dickey’s illegal actions. Dickey has taken this so personally that he argues with his commander. He even tells his commander that the protesters were telling everyone f*ck you which is not true. They were directing their comments towards the police, bad cops specifically. Dickey is giving a false impression of events to try to get his way (makes you wonder about the veracity of the reports he writes) but his commander is too much of a professional to bite.
Condiotti-Wade had to be taken to the hospital to have the taser barb removed. He sued and was awarded $175,000. Dickey has a troubled history and has already cost another city $825,000 for beating and tasing a man who was having a diabetic attack and is being sued in another case in which a veteran died.