The Denver Police Department has been forced to defend its officers after shocking video emerged of cops taking blankets and survival gear from homeless people in the freezing cold.
Footage was widely circulated this week showing as many as nine officers standing over a group of homeless people, pulling blankets off them as they slept and sat on the sidewalk.
In a video published on November 29 shortly after 2:30am, two officers stacked the blankets in piles and then carried them away.
The blankets were taken as 'evidence' the homeless people in the video were committing a crime by violating the city's urban camping ban. 'We are taking your tent and sleeping bag as evidence of a crime,' one of the officers told a homeless man, who the video claims is a veteran. 'It's cold out here, and (the police) are telling me they don't give a f*** about whether I die out here in this cold weather,' the homeless man was heard saying in the footage. The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado shared the videos this week, and included a letter to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and the Denver City Council demanding officers stop taking things from homeless people. 'It is not an inherent crime to sleep outside, and many people right now have no other viable option,' ACLU of Colorado Executive Director Nathan Woodliff-Stanley said. 'Denver’s shelters are simply unable to serve all people in the Denver area experiencing homelessness, even in the short term, much less as a long-term solution. 'Until real solutions become Denver’s priority, the city’s ongoing policing-first approach to homelessness is a cruel waste of funds, curtailing fundamental constitutional rights, causing deep human suffering, and endangering lives.' Hancock defended his officers, saying it is not a 'widespread practice', and claimed the homeless people were protesters. 'The video clip... was actually three individuals who were protesting and setting up camp in front of city hall,' he said, according to CBS Local. 'And after the police asked them to move, they did not, they were cited and their equipment was taken as evidence. 'But this is not a widespread practice throughout the city and we wanted to make sure that it didn’t go any further and that people understand this is not how we want to operate during these frigid temperatures.' The Denver Police Department also released a statement, saying it took the equipment from the people in the videos because they were 'illegally camping'. 