'Act Like A Lady': Body-cam Shows Denver Cops Cuffed Indy Editor

DENVER, CO – By Alex Burness for The Colorado Independent. Police body camera footage released today shows two Denver officers told The Colorado Independent’s editor, Susan Greene, to “act like a lady” as they handcuffed and detained her in July for attempting to photograph them as they responded to a call on a public sidewalk.

Greene was driving along East Colfax Avenue near the Colorado State Capitol building on the afternoon of July 5 when, by her account, she noticed Denver police surrounding a nearly naked African American man sitting handcuffed on the sidewalk, and stopped to see what was happening. (The man was later taken to the hospital and then released that night, the city has said.)

Greene is an veteran investigative reporter who has written extensively about police brutality and incidents in which African-American men have been killed by law enforcement while in custody.
As Greene detailed in a post the next day, and as the body-cam footage confirms, she approached the scene and was immediately blocked by Officer James Brooks.

He continues to block her as she tries to keep shooting, at one point raising the camera high above Brooks’s head.

Brooks is quickly joined by Officer Adam Paulsen, and the two advise her that she can not take photographs because doing so violates the HIPAA rights of the nearly naked man they have cuffed. HIPAA or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act outlines an individual’s rights to medical privacy.

“There’s also a First Amendment,” Greene responds. “Have you heard of it?”

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Image via Denver Police

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