The 6-year-old Lovely watched as her mother, Brittney Gilliam, was led to a patrol car in handcuffs after she shouted in frustration at the police, who mistakenly believed the car she was driving was stolen.
Three years later, Gilliam has agreed to a $1.9 million settlement with city officials in the Denver suburb of Aurora to resolve a lawsuit that claimed the police officers’ actions were evidence of “profound and systematic” racism, a lawyer for the family, David Lane, announced Monday.
One of the officers who stopped the car, Darian Dasko, was suspended for 160 hours. He and the other officer, Madisen Moen, still work for the department.
This settlement also marks the latest Aurora has been forced to pay out over police misconduct. The city settled for $15 million in 2021 with the parents of Elijah McClain. He was a 23-year-old Black man who was killed in 2019 after he was stopped as he walked down the street, placed in a neck hold and injected with a sedative. One police officer also was convicted in his death and two others were acquitted. Two paramedics were also convicted.
A state civil rights investigation — launched amid outrage over McClain’s death and released after Gilliam’s lawsuit was filed — found there was a deeply engrained culture of racially biased policing in the department.
Oh boy, a 20 day vacation and taxpayer paid settlement. That’ll really teach those cops a lesson…
Taxpayers get left with the bill, while police go on paid leave or get fired only to be rehired in a neighboring department.
Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) should be trained and licensed in a federally accredited program. Then individually insured. The more they F-up, the higher the rates. The more it costs the insurance company to payout, the higher the rates. Much like drivers after accidents & moving violations. The more on your record, the more it’s going to cost you. Until no insurance companies want to provide you coverage.
Insurance costs must be covered by the LEO, not the taxpayer. Insurance is used for any liability or criminal costs, not the taxpayer. LEOs risk higher premiums or loss of coverage for bad behavior or incompetence.
All investigations of LEOs should be done at the state level by a independent body / board. All disciplinary files & lawsuits are recorded to a federally maintained database and are under pervue of a federal overwatch. No more investigating ‘your own’ and finding them not at fault. Any department found circumventing this can lose their department’s accreditation and federally investigated.
Other professions have to follow a similar process. It’s not a new idea. Hell, every driver has to maintain a license and insurance to drive.
Other professions have to follow a similar process. It’s not a new idea. Hell, every driver has to maintain a license and insurance to drive
Maybe your country should do the same with firearms too. In Canada you take a course, pass a written test and a firearm test before sending your paperwork in to be reviewed for minimum 28 days where they will ask current and former partners if there is any reason to not allow you to have firearms.
No argument here. And liability insurance with competency evaluation with license renewal.
lose: when you no longer have something
loose: when you no longer wear a belt
Yup, don’t know how I missed that. Thanks.
Next up, laws passed to limit police liability in Denver so that payouts can’t be this large anymore, and then Denver PD operate the same as they always have.
Why would they care? They aren’t paying for it, taxpaying citizens are.
Those settlements don’t come out of the police budget, so they don’t care. The city will end up cutting more social services to pay for the police’s fuckups.
FYI this happened in Aurora, not Denver
Many places consider Aurora a suburb of Denver. Which is what the article says it is too. It calls it “The Denver Suburb of Aurora”. Thus…Denver.
It is its own city within a separate county. It’s not Denver.
You do understand that when the topic is specifically about the local government of a particular jurisdiction, the distinction between different local governments actually matters, right?
After, of course, everyone involved in this is promoted.
Aurora
Kinda saw that coming. ACAB but in Aurora they’re double extra bastards.
And, sadly, the people of Aurora will be on the hook for the increased insurance premiums.
At what point does that stop being “sad,” and instead we recognize that the citizens of Aurora deserve to pay since they keep voting in racist fucks? When do we admit that this is apparently what they want?
Can you blame a minority for the treatment they receive in their community?
I’m not talking about blaming the minority for the treatment they receive; I’m talking about blaming the majority for the treatment they consent to inflict through their votes.
With all these settlements adding up, it would have been cheaper to educate cops to actually do a better job
Why? It’s mostly not the cops money or the governments officials money that goes to pay for these actions of these bad apples that clearly don’t spoil the whole fucking barrel?
Fine the officers in cases of gross negligence.
If the arrest people and take them into custody under false pretenses then charge them with kidnapping and false imprisonment. If they cannot do their own due diligence on the job, they need to be punished for abusing their authority.
Racism is expensive as fuck for cities!
