NOW TRY RECALLING THE FACTS

In The Past Year:

The NAACP accused the Denver Police Department of fostering a "culture
of violence and lawlessness'' that allows officers to commit brutality
against citizens of all races without fear of reprimand.

A group of Hispanic police officers accused the department of
nepotism, inadequate efforts to recruit minorities and "an oppressive
management style'' that has destroyed morale.

A federal court jury determined that in the 1996 shooting death of
Jeffrey Truax, Denver police officers had violated the victim's civil
rights. The courts also criticized the department for its "deliberate
indifference with respect to the training of its police officers as to
the use of deadly force.'' Soon after, a 21-year veteran of the
department filed suit, claiming that after he gave his critical court
testimony in the Truax case he was dumped from the SWAT team and
exiled to a less important position in the police academy.

A female police officer filed a lawsuit in July against the department
on the grounds that the environment was so hostile to women that an
officer was not reprimanded for slapping her buttocks and that phrases
that describe sexual acts were used to identify female officers over
the police radio.

In September, officers tear-gassed a crowd of college football fans,
including band members, parents and small children, because they
worried the crowd might riot after the University of Colorado-Colorado
State University football game.

Then, officers only made a handful of arrests at the Denver
Broncos-Oakland Raiders game in November when hard-drinking fans were
openly firing snowballs, iceballs, batteries and other projectiles at
the players on the field during the game and engaged in a fistfight in
the stands when it was over.

In August, a group of Denver police officers riddled the body of a
stoned Steven Evilsizer with 14 bullets after he came after them with
a steak knife.

The week before that, a TV news crew videotaped two Denver officers
brutally beating, berating and pistolwhipping two suspects during an
arrest.

In September, officers entered the wrong house in a no-knock drug raid
in the middle of the night, killing Ismael Mena, father of nine. No
drugs were found anywhere.

Just this month, the Denver Post reported that the Denver Police
Department has some of the least stringent qualifications for recruits
in the country, that two-thirds of those attending the police academy
have used illegal drugs and that a guy who admits to long-term illegal
drug use, theft and violence against his ex-wife and a girlfriend was
accepted into the academy despite the fact that he was rejected by 19
other police agencies.

In the face of all this internal turmoil, controversy, allegations of
harassment and police brutality, and even careless loss of life,
public pressure has been whipped into a frenzy demanding the recall of
John Stone?

The indictment against the Jefferson County Sheriff is that he
flagrantly released public information to the press.

Go figure.

Diane Carman's commentaries appear here Tuesday, Thursday and
Saturday. E-mail: dcarman@denverpost.com