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The Life & Liberty Law Office/YouTube
April 26, 2021, 12:42 pm
The Colorado police officer who is under fire for violently arresting a 73-year-old woman with dementia because she forgot to pay for $13 worth of stuff from Walmart, breaking her arm and dislocating her shoulder in the process, somehow managed to make himself look even worse.
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If the body camera footage of Officer Austin Hopp tackling and injuring an old lady wasn’t bad enough, The Life & Liberty Law Office released security footage from the police station where they booked Karen Garner in which Hopp and two other officers are watching this video, and Hopp is enjoying it way too much.
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Hopp appears to put the footage on for the others to watch, with the audio loud and clear, at about the 45:40 mark. Officer Daria Jalali on Hopp’s right, who arrived later during Garner’s arrest, initially seems to enjoy it, remarking that viewing the body camera footage is “like watching live TV.”
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“Body cams are my favorite thing to watch,” she says. “I could watch livestream body cams all day.”
This is after clear sounds of distress can be heard from Garner in the video they’re watching. A minute and a half later, the three cops are joking and laughing as the sounds of the woman begging and crying out continue. Jalali begins to exhibit some physical signs of discomfort as the body cam video gets worse, fidgeting and shielding her eyes and ears from the footage.
“Can you stop it now?” she asks.
Rather than stopping the video, Hopp seems to revel in the parts where he knows he injured Garner.
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“Ready for the pop?” he says. “Hear the pop?”
“What’d you pop?” asks the officer to his left.
“I think it was her shoulder.”
Garner’s shoulder was indeed dislocated by Hopp’s violent handling and handcuffing of the elderly woman. In the station video, Jalali continues to shield her eyes and seems to make a noise of distress.
“I hate this,” she says.
“This is great,” says Hopp. Either he or the officer on his left then remarks: “I love it.”
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As the two men continue to joke, Jalali leaves to check on Garner. She comes back a couple of minutes later and reports that the 73-year-old is “complaining that they’re really hurting her,” probably referring to her fractured arm and dislocated shoulder.
Garner’s attorney released this security footage with a statement condemning Hopp and the other officers for their callous treatment of an elderly woman with dementia who forgot to pay for the couple of items she picked up from Walmart after walking there from her assisted living facility.
“This is utterly disgusting,” said Sarah Schielke in the statement below the YouTube video. “These videos cannot be unseen or unheard. I am sorry to have to share them with the public. This will be traumatic and deeply upsetting for everyone to see. But as it often goes with bad police departments, it seems this is the only way to make them change.”
Schielke further argued that the joking and laughter from Hopp and the other officers demonstrates that the problem with police in the U.S. goes far beyond a couple of “bad apples,” but demonstrates a deep and systemic problem with the system.
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“That this is not just some ‘isolated incident.’ It is not just one single ‘problem.’ It is widespread, sociopathic criminality. And to attempt to shift the burden to Karen, or a bystander, or her family, or counsel, to report this? Shame on you, Loveland. You took an oath to protect and serve. This is a disgrace.”
Garner’s family and lawyers say that she was in that holding cell for six hours, in pain and confused, before she received medical treatment. They are suing the city of Loveland, Colorado and the 8th Judicial District Attorney’s office has opened up a criminal investigation into the Loveland Police Department.
As of the YouTube video’s publishing, they say that neither the city nor the police has apologized for the way they treated Garner.
*First Published: April 26, 2021, 12:42 pm
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