Written By: Anton Sawyer
A positive article about the police being written by Anton Sawyer? Impossible you might say, but we’re here now. As much time as I have spent exposing the illegalities of those who are charged to enforce the laws and keep order—along with those who are enablers to those illegalities—I feel it is just as important to educate the masses when a police department is doing the right thing. That is why this article is also a call to action. Right now, tensions between the police and the general population are at a fever pitch, and mistrust is found everywhere. I mean, when you know you should make sure to pull over in a well-lit area when getting pulled over by the police so you can film the entire event with your phone because you might get killed, there’s a problem. I feel that there can be as much change brought about by positive reinforcement, but only if people know about it.
If you want to see these kinds of positive changes become nationwide, then we need to let the various police departments across America know that we’re paying attention to the good cops and departments out there.
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It’s not too terribly surprising to see these events come from this specific police department. They reside in what is easily one of the “weirdest” places in the US: Colorado. Sure, Portland, Austin, and a few other cities and states have adopted this motto, but Colorado expresses this through actions, not merely words. Having been to all of the aforementioned places on both tour and vacation, Colorado does not care what you think about it. When you can walk into a 7-11 parking lot and be greeted by a woman wearing cut-off jean shorts (that are WAY short), cowboy boots, and a white Budweiser logo shirt that has been wrapped into a bra and the logo itself has been changed to say “America,” all while puffing on a joint, that’s definitely something that would nestle perfectly in the category of “weird.” It seems that this love for individualism has not only permeated their constituents but has also made its way into law enforcement.
There have been a couple of events that have taken place in 2021 that show the officers in Greeley, CO are trying to do the right thing—even though some news outlets are still trying to maintain the sickening status quo of protecting the boys in blue at all costs. During the spring of 2021, a police officer by the name of Ken Amick was placed on unpaid leave after his colleagues witnessed him using an illegal chokehold on a suspect and registered a complaint. Having been with the department since 2006, it isn’t like this was some kind of rookie mistake, he knew what he was doing. According to the reports, Amick and several other officers responded to an alarm that had been set off at City Center North. Upon arriving on the scene, a City Center employee informed the officers that a man had been threatening to set the building on fire. The officers located the suspect in the building lobby and identified him as Wilson. As Amick was walking Wilson out of the building, Wilson complained that the handcuffs were too tight around his wrists and became increasingly “agitated,” police said. “Officer Amick suddenly placed (the man) into a chokehold,” the department said in a news release. “After several seconds, (the man) showed ill effects from this hold while being placed on the ground. A second officer attempted to intervene during this initial encounter.” Colorado state lawmakers had passed SB20-217, which would make certain chokeholds illegal. Because of this, and the fact that it appeared he was going to kill the suspect, Amick is facing second-degree assault charges—in Colorado, this is a Class 4 felony. If convicted, Amick could receive between two and six years behind bars and a mandatory period of parole of three years. The completely unsurprising part of this is in the way that the Weld County prosecutors have handled the situation in their press releases. They tried to sweep this under the rug by releasing an official statement comprised of only three sentences:
“A Greeley police officer has been charged with a felony in Weld District Court. On Monday, the Weld District Attorney’s Office charged Officer Kenneth Amick with one count of second-degree assault (F4). A court date has been scheduled for August 23 at 9:00 a.m. in Division 17.”
That’s it. This officer committed a felony which could have led to another death if it weren’t for the other cops that have a sense of morality and decency stopping him, and the press release does everything it can to obscure all of the facts and minimize what exactly happened.
It’s because of this obfuscation that I am asking our readers to please share this article. We need to let all of the police departments in America know we are watching, and when an officer or department lifts the cloak of secrecy and holds their officers accountable, that the public has their support.
The other recent event of note in Greeley when it comes to accountability occurred in April of 2021. Sgt. Zachary St. Aubyn, who works in professional standards and was a public information officer, was the subject of a sexual harassment complaint. Because of the complexity/severity of the issue, Deputy Chief Adam Turk has made statements that are vague at best. He has said he cannot discuss the nature of the complaint because it’s being broken down into a few different stages; indicating it could become a serious criminal case. Beyond that, the department has been tight-lipped and hasn’t revealed much using the reasoning of it being a “personal issue.” When you Google the name of the suspect, town, etc. there are only a couple of articles that are about this complaint, and each one gives the same statements/information. Again, this is something that the public needs to know about but is being buried due to the strength of the thin blue line.
I’m aware there are thousands of police departments nationwide. More often than not, the only articles we see in the news at large occur after a cop has murdered someone, or done something truly heinous. We are constantly fed the narrative of how police have a difficult job and therefore have special privileges. I completely understand that. I know their lives are in the balance daily; that is why spreading this information is so important. As a society, we the common people need to know that we’re being heard and that actual changes are taking place. That we are keeping aware of the good cops who are genuinely trying to do the right thing and praising their efforts. As naïve as it may sound, I’m hoping that once enough law departments see that they have the public behind them when they hold those accountable who outright break the law, these systemic changes of accountability will not only become more commonplace but will eventually become the standard. So if you support the good cops out there and want to see actual change, then please share this piece and make it known that there are indeed officers out there who are doing the right thing.
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