When I was still in Grand Junction volunteering at the Day Center, three Grand Junction police officers were pulled off duty for trashing a homeless camp along the Colorado River.
Today the chief of police announced the three have been fired and two others have been reprimanded for failing to report the acts of vandalism.
I decided not to write about the incident at the time because I didn't have all the facts, but did have enough to be dangerous. Several of the men whose tents and bicycle tires were slashed are regular guests at the Center, and my brother is a commander on the force. I did respond to a letter in the local paper tacitly approving actions to drive the homeless somewhere else.
The chief had already made overtures to the local homeless community when the incident occurred, and he reached out again after it happened. I was pretty certain he'd take strong action once the investigation concluded. He said:
It would be an understatement to say that I am angry. Our job at its simplest is to serve and protect. The officers on this occasion did not do that. It’s said that a society is judged by how it treats the least among us and by that standard, we failed miserably.
Not all the citizenry agrees with that position, but I think the new chief is a class act.
A good local blogger observed that the DA's decision not to prosecute the case was likely political. Sounds right. The homeless are unpopular and the DA is uncommonly popularity-conscious, even for a politician.
