Source: Michael Burrell / Getty
Police officers are so committed to violence and impropriety that they will maim and permanently injure their own brothers in blue. Such was the case for a Black recruit to the Denver Police Department named Victor Moses.
Moses was going through the gauntlet of exercises required to become a police officer in Denver. According to USA Today, he was forced to participate in a “brutal hazing” called “Fight Day” by department officials and even some local paramedics. As a result of this abuse, which included hitting his head and passing out twice, Moses would also have to have both of his legs amputated.
On Jan. 6, 2023, Moses was participating in a drill designed to teach officers how to escalate and de-escalate force based on the situation. During one of these stationed drills, Moses hit his head and collapsed, USA Today reports.
He complained that he was having severe cramping in his legs and paramedics found that his blood pressure was extremely low. Despite this, Moses was forced to his feet and pushed to continue competing. In the following station, Moses was “attacked” by a fellow officer and eventually became unresponsive again before being taken to the hospital.
“I felt something I’ve never felt before,” Moses told USA Today, which noted that the cramping was a “sign of distress” in people with sickle cell trait, something Moses said he informed the department of.
“It’s really hard to explain, like, how it feels like to die, and I’ve never had that, but I felt what death feels like.”
Moses would spend the next four months in the hospital recovering from his dual amputation and trying to recover from prescribed drug use.
“When they started weaning down on the drugs, I felt, ‘Why am I still here? Why am I not home, what’s going on?’” Moses said. “You’re just in pain, your parents are there for some reason and it was just living hell. It really became real to me when my classmates were visiting me and started explaining what happened and then you see your rotting body.”
The lawsuit that was filed against the department includes text messages from multiple recruits who witnessed how Moses was treated and more importantly, not treated. It stands to reason that they will all be testifying against the department.
Inexplicably, Moses says he still fully supports police officers and says he would like to return to the career path someday.
“I will always support the police. There’s so many good police officers out there,” Moses said. “Yes, my life was ruined, I was turned permanently disabled. But it doesn’t negate the fact that there are a lot of good cops out there. It’s just unfortunate when the actions of a bad police officer, in this case, a group of bad officers, overshadows their work.”
Maybe they need to run more tests to see if this brotha’s head is ok…