A former police officer in Colorado, United States, was sentenced to five years in prison for violently detaining a seventy-three-year-old woman suffering from cognitive disorders, causing her fractures and injuries throughout her body. Karen Garner, aged 73, went to a store in Loveland, Colorado, in June 2020, to purchase items worth $14, but failed to pay due to her dementia, prompting store personnel to call the police even though they retrieved the merchandise.
On the roadside, Officer Austin Hopp grabbed the elderly woman as she was walking home. Because she apparently did not understand his orders and refused to comply, the officer threw her to the ground to restrain her and placed her hands behind her back. The confused victim repeatedly told the officer, "I'm on my way home." The scenes of this violent arrest, captured by the officer's body camera, evoked significant outrage, especially when surveillance footage from the police station shortly after the incident showed Austin Hopp and his colleagues laughing after viewing the footage.
During his trial, the officer, who resigned after the incident, pleaded guilty to the assault and eventually apologized to the Garner family, calling his actions "truly shameful," according to the Denver Post. District Judge Michelle Brinegar of Larimer County Court stated that "this case is not based on error" but relates to "a young officer who abused his position of power to exert force without showing the slightest sense of humanity, displaying a concerning criminal character."
Initial internal investigations into the incident found no fault with Officer Austin Hopp's conduct. However, last year, the city of Loveland reached a settlement to pay $3 million in damages to the Garner family, who filed a civil lawsuit in the case. Source: AFP
