The Denver Police department is using social media in an attempt to discredit a KDVR story that claims officers tried to destroy video evidence of alleged brutality during a drug arrest in August.
The department tweeted out a press release with the title in all caps, “ACCURACY MATTERS – KNOW THE FACTS…” claiming KDVR reporter Chris Halsne minimized or omitted facts they “believe are relevant and should have been provided to Fox 31’s audience as a part of a balanced, ethical, and un-biased news account.”
Halsne’s reports alleges Denver police threatened witness Levi Frasier and deleted video he took of police punching a prone suspect in the face multiple times, then knocking the suspect’s pregnant girlfriend to the ground after she tried to intervene. The Denver Post reports, the police say they never saw the video.
In the release, the police say among other things, Frasier told Halsne he “didn’t know if the officer deleted the video” and that he told officers at the scene they had “acted correctly.” The department goes on to say Frasier recently served a “lengthy sentence” in Michigan and has “six aliases.”
The Denver Police also say they should be given the right to check Frasier’s Samsung tablet to see if the video was, in fact, deleted, something they say KDVR didn’t do “prior to reporting the allegations in the sensational manner that they did.”
See the Denver Police Department’s tweet after the jump.
ACCURACY MATTERS – KNOW THE FACTS… #Denver pic.twitter.com/Mg5qAZGBEo
— Denver Police Dept. (@DenverPolice) November 28, 2014