A Denver Police Department captain has been demoted after he was caught on video shoving a fan during a Colorado Rockies baseball game.
Joe Black now is a lieutenant and no longer has responsibility as commander of the department’s juvenile division, said Chief Robert White. Black supervises officers who work the front desk at the department’s headquarters.
The incident at Coors Field happened July 22, and the video of went viral after it was posted on Facebook.
Black’s disciplinary letter, obtained by The Denver Post on Wednesday, said he used inappropriate force and failed to file a use-of-force report. Such reports are mandatory any time an officer has a physical confrontation with a suspect.
Black, who was notified of his demotion Nov. 20, will appeal the decision, according to an e-mail from his wife.
Leslie Black said her husband was punished because of the social media attention, and the public pressure forced the department to stand by its new “everyone matters” motto.
“Joe has worked off duty for over 30 years and has never had one sustained complaint,” she said. “A two-minute video doesn’t warrant a conviction when the altercation lasted 30 minutes. So, does everyone matter? Obviously not, since they don’t stand by their officers.”
July was a rough month for Black, a veteran police officer.
Just days after the incident at the Rockies game, he An internal investigation into that incident found Black had violated the man’s First Amendment right to free speech and had changed his story about the incident during interviews with investigators, according to his disciplinary letter.
Black lost four days of time off for that incident.
In the video of the Coors Field incident, Black is seen shoving Buck three times as he tries to get the young man to cooperate with questioning.
Buck repeatedly yells that his rights have been violated and at one point shouts, “Abuse me again! As a citizen of the United States of America, abuse me again!”
According to the disciplinary letter in the case, Buck had been accused of buying beer for underage people. Buck was not charged but was escorted from the stadium.
Black has received an appropriate punishment, Buck said.
“He’s not a professional,” Buck said. “He’s a bully. He’s one of those officers who gives other cops a bad name. I’m not a cop-hater or anything.”
As for the video, Buck said, “It’s not my proudest moment.”
Because of the two incidents, White said he had no choice but to demote Black. The demotion will cost Black thousands of dollars a year in salary.
“This is a captain at the police department,” White said. “This isn’t a rookie officer. This is a manager.
“I was just concerned his actions were not in line with the policies of the department and the direction we want to go.”
