Denver police make shirts celebrating beating Dems

[mekender]

http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2008/0 ... blems.html

http://cbs4denver.com/local/t.shirts.dnc.2.823937.html

DENVER (CBS4) ― A tongue-in-cheek t-shirt poking fun at Democratic National Convention protestors is selling fast and creating some minor controversy along the way.

The shirts were created and distributed by the Denver Police Protective Association, the union that represents most of Denver's 1,400 police officers.

The front of the black shirt shows the number "68" with a slash through it. One of the primary protest groups at last month's DNC in Denver called themselves "Recreate 68," harkening back to the violent, 1968 political convention in Chicago.

The back of the shirt features a menacing-looking police figure, wearing what looks like a Denver police badge and helmet and clutching a baton. He's looming over the city of Denver along with the slogan, "WE GET UP EARLY, to BEAT the crowds." Also written across the back of the shirt is "2008 DNC.'

One CBS4 viewer, Seth Barnett, contacted the station to complain about the shirts, writing they "are a terrible representation of our city and its police." Barnett, a 21-year-old college student, called the shirts "disrespectful," saying they seemed "like a low blow."

{Snipped by mods for Fair Use considerations}

a picture of the shirt is at the first link.

now i am all for a good hippie ass whoopin... but to make up shirts commemorating it... thats a lil far...

[The Quiet Man]

meh...make a few bucks on some hippy bashing shirts...I'm OK with that. Especially considering that they really didn't bust any skulls like the cops in Chicago '68. For that I would expect DVDs...or at least a run at the midnight movies (do they still have midnight movies?).

[HTRN]

now i am all for a good hippie ass whoopin... but to make up shirts commemorating it... thats a lil far...

Yup.

Shouda used bayonets.


HTRN

[DKDay]

This is a disgrace.
Cops will always make jokes among themselves about ass-whippings they delivered, whether the recipients deserved it or not. We can't stop that. When they start doing it in public, I don't find it in the least amusing. I find it all too easy to imagine them "following orders" and administering the same to me.

[Combat Controller]

The only ones "proffessional enuf" to wear those shirts...

[chrisb]

Sigh. Just another example of police JBT mentality.

[workinwifdakids]

We all have professional (or not-so-professional) "inside" jokes that let off steam. We shouldn't allow that to be seen by others, because - well, for example, EMT humor isn't meant for general consumption. As a teacher, we joke about aerosol dispersal of Ritalin, which I do not in any way condone or believe in. But hell, after a hard day of work, it's pretty funny - TO US. I don't think it would be funny to make a t-shirt to wear around town with a graphic depiction of that joke. It would be in pretty poor taste.

Peace officers (I despise the term 'law enforcement') can take away our freedom, our most cherished physical property, and indeed our lives. I joke about beating hippies, but I don't think their despicable political beliefs warrant unnecessary physical abuse by the authorities.

“Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.”
Sir Robert Peel