Deputy Suspended 90 Days For Tae Kwon Do Kicks On Inmate

There's a video at the link that you should probably watch. I'll recap for those who can't.

Bunch of Jail Deputies standing around. One does a sidekick in the air, is mocked by an inmate and then the two appear to be playing grabass. The inmate and Deputy sort of shadowbox for a minute, then seemingly out of nowhere crap gets real, Deputy puts the guy in a headlock and takes him to the ground. Lots of other Jail dudes rush in to help subdue the guy that was just kicked in the head.

Deputy essentially lied about the incident, and is being suspended for 90 days.

This is ridiculous to watch. The Deputy clearly initiates the whole thing, then apparently loses it or suddenly becomes 'frightened' (as he claimed in his report) because the inmate is apparently quite the boxer.

My opinion is that this guy should be fired. He showed horrible judgement, essentially assaulted someone who was in his charge and then lied about it in his report.

When I was in high school I took auto shop. The teacher was lax about almost everything except grabass. We asked him why once and he said because someone always takes it too far and gets serious. We were teenagers and knew that. This is an adult, in a position of authority. It's embarrassing to see it. I don't care if the inmate was the one that took it too far (I need to watch it again but I doubt it) the situation should have never started in the first place.

People in positions like this should get more than a slap on the wrist.

A Denver sheriff's deputy who provoked a fight with an inmate by throwing taekwondo kicks and punches has been suspended for 90 days.

Deputy Roberto Roena, 15-year department veteran, was notified of the suspension July 29 for the fight that happened in April 2013, according to a disciplinary letter issued by the Denver Department of Safety.

Roena was punished for using excessive force, making inaccurate and misleading statements about the incident and conduct that "compromised the mission of the Department."

Roena was on court security duty on the afternoon of April 22, 2013, but he went to a cell block at the Downtown Detention Center to chat with other deputies. The disciplinary letter notes that it's a jail unit for high-risk inmates who may be mentally ill or who have had prior behavioral problems in the jail.

Link

a reply to: Domo1

I usually am biased against the cops but I didn't see the deputy actually land a kick on the inmate. I might be missing it though.

a reply to: redhorse

Nor did I. That was ludicrous - what did the officer expect? Practicing your moves in front of an inmate? Of course he is going to take #. And to me it looked as if the inmate actually got the better of the officer and took HIM down despite the backup...

Idk in this case 90 days seems right IMO but the guy needs to save his moves for the gym. I have seen LEO's on the streets do 1000x worse than this to people and get off without any suspension whatsoever. Only reason he was probably suspended is because the corrections officers are viewed as below the ones on the streets - those are the thugs who LITERALLY get away with murder.

a reply to: lightedhype

Don't get me wrong, it was wrong and as you pointed out... Stupid. I'm not arguing with the 90 days or that it was bad judgment. Only that the OP stated that the inmate was kicked in the head. I don't think he was.

Officer is dumb. 90 days is good. No kick to the face occurred.

Inmate did the right thing...got in close to Bruce and took him down...Guards a Fanny.

a reply to: Domo1

Can we all say it together? ...Tae Kwon Do HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Kinda dumb. Looked to me that the guard was the first to throw a real punch. He got showed up and got mad I think.

I can't count how many fights I have seen that started out as horsing around and someone gets mad. Dumb animals people are sometimes lol.

a reply to: WCmutant

yeah..... i didnt know people still messed with tae kwon do

audio would have helped. it really dont look like anything much happened except the guard was acting like a tool.

looks to me like he wanted to slap box with the inmate. looks like when they were in the door jam he realized tae kwon do is not effective but he was too late cause the inmate clinched. you see when it went to the ground the inmate had his hand on the cops head. he could have smashed his face right into the ground.
then all the other cops rush over and peel the cop off.

really looks like a non event to me