Saturday
Jan292005
Denver Cops threaten arrest over Bush bumper sticker
Saturday, January 29, 2005 at 02:13PM
Denver police Sgt. Michael Karasek will be disciplined for threatening
to arrest a woman for displaying on her truck a profane bumper sticker
about President Bush, Police Chief Gerry Whitman said Tuesday. An
internal affairs investigation took just a day to complete, and the
allegation against the officer was upheld, Whitman said. He declined to
say what the discipline would be but said that all the department's
officers will receive "training about the topic." About 11 a.m. Monday,
Shasta Bates, 26, was confronted by a man while standing in a UPS
store. The man told her he was upset by her bumper sticker, which read
"F--- Bush." The man then went outside and flagged down Karasek, who
was working off-duty in uniform at the shopping center, in the 800
block of South Monaco Parkway. After reading the sticker and talking to
the man, Karasek went into the store to confront Bates. Bates, three
UPS employees and a Rocky Mountain News reporter who happened to be
there all say that the officer threatened to arrest the woman if she
didn't remove the bumper sticker from her truck. Bates filed a
complaint against the officer with the department. [more] and [more]
