The “press advisory” from Denver CopWatch arrived by e-mail 24 hours after a cowardly piece of scum shot police Detective Donnie Young in the back of the head. The release called police behavior on the last night of the weekend Cinco de Mayo celebration “appalling.”
“The good work done by the police force over the first three days of the holiday were undone in a single evening of police excess,” the “press advisory” said.
Here’s a little advice from the press for CopWatch and other groups that monitor police conduct:
If you want anything other than street cred with the gang bangers, better learn when to lose the “us and them” mentality.
The appalling thing that happened over the weekend was that a jackass murdered a cop in cold blood at a baptismal celebration at a banquet hall in southwest Denver.
Young and Detective Jack Bishop were working off-duty in uniform there. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, a guy shot both of them point-blank from behind.
Young, a decorated detective, a good husband and doting father of two girls, died. Bishop, blessedly, did not.
What this tragedy demanded from CopWatch was what it demanded from every organization and citizen: unity born of an outrage that diminished us all.
Rather than scouring Federal Boulevard on Sunday looking for cops inconveniencing Cinco de Mayo cruisers, groups such as CopWatch and One Nation United (ONE) could have better served their members and their city by devoting resources to finding Young’s killer.
Instead, CopWatch chose to whine about “numerous stops” of cruisers, including “six simultaneous stops by GANG Unit officers in just two blocks.”
“As tragic as the loss of this officer was,” CopWatch leader Steve Nash told me, “I don’t think it justifies the reaction of the gang unit.”
He should have thought a little more.
“Did any of your people see the cops hit anyone or menace them with guns?” I asked Nash.
No, he said.
The worst things that Nash’s people apparently witnessed were six young men handcuffed and forced to kneel for half an hour on the pavement, as well as penny-ante tickets issued to those who wouldn’t let police take their pictures or otherwise cooperate.
“There were lots of arrests for outstanding warrants,” Nash added. “There were no breaks.”
Most folks believe that if you have an outstanding arrest warrant, you don’t deserve a break. If Nash wants to focus on arrests for outstanding warrants, well, that helps explain why groups like his often struggle to be taken seriously.
Was there some police harassment Sunday while trying to find a cop killer?
Probably.
Was it the racist clampdown on all Latinos that Nash charged to me?
Are you kiddin’?
The first 24 hours after a murder are crucial for investigators. This shooting happened at a Latino bar. Witnesses identified the shooter as Latino.
By Nash’s own admission, his group’s complaints were limited to the actions of the gang and motorcycle units. The officers of District 4, where the shootings took place, “behaved as professionally as they do every day,” Nash said.
What CopWatch and ONE members saw Sunday night was not racial profiling or brutality. It was a murder investigation with leads cooling down fast.
Rather than serving as hostile proctors of police in that environment, CopWatch and ONE members could have offered invaluable help as community liaisons. In that case, everybody probably would have behaved better.
That still doesn’t seem to register.
“I think CopWatch is more than willing to report this person if we see him,” Nash said Monday as he waited for activist Leroy Lemos to deliver a composite sketch of Young’s killer to distribute among CopWatch members. “But I don’t see two wrongs making a right.”
Neither, Nash may discover the next time he looks for a place in the public-policy mainstream, do the rest of us.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
