Police "excessive force:" Denver quietly settles James Watkins suit over another LoDo incident

Alan Prendergast August 18, 2010 12:58PM

This week's feature, "The Asphalt Jungle," examines how better policing, including surveillance cameras, helped to quell years of street violence during Let Out in lower downtown.

But cameras are also capturing more Denver cops using dubious arrest tactics in dealing with intoxicated suspects. On the heels of the disturbing April 2009 video of Officer Devin Sparks using a sap on Michael DeHerrera, the city has settled another, similar lawsuit claiming excessive force in a late-night LoDo arrest.

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Alan Prendergast has been writing for Westword for over thirty years. He teaches journalism at Colorado College; his stories about the justice system, historic crimes, high-security prisons and death by misadventure have won numerous awards and appeared in a wide range of magazines and anthologies.

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