cop shoves man down stairs
An 11-year veteran of the Denver police department received a 30 day vacation for brutally shoving an innocent man down a flight of stairs. Officer Choice Johnson was only "disciplined" after surveillance video showed that his report on the incident was completely fabricated. The incident started during a bachelor party for the brother of Brandon Schreiber. Schreiber's brother had a bit too much to drink and had fallen asleep at the bar. For this "crime," Officer Johnson was arresting him.

According to 7 News Denver,
"The report indicated that Johnson falsely portrayed the bar patron as taking a fighting stance toward the officer, when a surveillance video showed the man was standing with his hands in his pockets as the 260-pound officer violently shoved him backward down some stairs."
Schreiber was simply asking the officer to let them take him home. Johnson claimed that Schreiber "verbally challenged him" and "pushed his chest out in a defensive manner," but the video shows these claims to be lies. Johnson wrote in his report, that this man, with his hands in his pockets, made him sense "this is going to be a fight." So, he violently shoved him down the stairs and arrested him. Luckily Schreiber wasn't killed.


Johnson's disciplinary report from the department concluded that the video "does not support Officer Johnson's claim that the complainant 'pushed his chest out in a defensive manner.'" The report goes on further to state, "he (Schreiber) makes no threatening gestures or movements toward Officer Johnson." In the report, Johnson also admitted to investigators that "I thrust him too hard, so he went to the ground...I didn't anticipate the thrust, him going flying."

To top off his illegal assault, Johnson charged Schreiber with the standard resisting and interfering with a police officer. These charges have all been dropped.

If a citizen were caught on video violently shoving someone down as this officer did, they would be the one arrested. If a citizen were caught assaulting someone while working at their job as this officer did, they would certainly be fired. If a citizen were caught flagrantly lying to their supervisors as this officer did, this would also get them fired.

However, if you are a member of law enforcement, you can wantonly assault an innocent person, kidnap him, falsely imprison him, lie about it to your bosses and emerge unscathed. Your "punishment" consists of a 30 day vacation.