John Smyly, a white Colorado cop who confronted Zayd Atkinson, a 26-year-old black man who was picking up trash outside of his Naropa University dorm, has officially resigned. While this confrontation was ridiculous to begin with, it was made extremely dangerous because Smyly pulled out his gun. Someone else (from inside the building) shot a video (embedded at the bottom of this post) of the cop’s wild behavior and it went viral. Since then, police body camera footage has also been released.
Smyly resigned, though, in spite of violating department policies, he’s still getting $69,000 through a combination of sick time, holiday leave, and administrative leave. Ridiculous.
Here’s how the situation went down. On March 1, Atkinson was putting trash into a bucket using a metal claw tool. Smyly approached Atkinson, and according to Smyly, wanted to know if Atkinson worked or lived there.
Why? That’s unclear, as Smyly slants it. Many people, obviously, believe it comes down to racial profiling. Would a cop clarify a white person’s address if they were seen picking up trash outside of a building? Probably not.
Back to the incident. Atkinson confirmed that he lived there, and Smyly asked for identification that proved this was his address. Atkinson had a school ID, which doesn’t have an address (the norm for college IDs, in fact). As an alternative, he very patiently offered to let himself into the building, which would prove he has access to it.
Smyly asked for Atkinson’s birthday. The student refused to tell him, gathered his tools, and walked away. Then the situation explodes.
“Put that down,” Smyly said, as recorded on the video. “Stop!”
Smyly attempts to hold the student for “trespassing.” He says that Atkinson is obstructing a police officer, which is a “jailable offense.”
Then he draws his stun gun. Then he follows Atkinson, continues yelling at him to put the “weapon” down. Wait, what weapon did Atkinson have?? None. It was just the aforementioned trash tool.
Then Smyly goes from stun gun to a handgun.
“Your hand is on your weapon and you’re gonna shoot me,” Atkinson can be heard saying on the video. “That’s what you’re gonna do, officer? You’re gonna shoot a resident on his property for picking up trash?”
Atkinson continues shouting: “That’s a gun! I’m picking up trash! I’m picking up trash, and you’re holding a gun!”
Additional cops arrive at the scene about eight minutes later. They form a sort of circle around Atkinson, with one officer holding a rifle. They eventually left after “confirming” that Atkinson did, in fact, live in the building.
Siddhartha Rathod, Atkinson’s attorney, said, “Boulder is essentially saying we’re going to pay this officer and let him resign for threatening Zayd’s life, for racially profiling Zayd. If you or I were to do this, we would be criminally charged. We would immediately lose our jobs.”
"I thought that once the firearm was out that that meant that he was going to try to kill me," Atkinson said last month when he appeared on Good Morning America about the incident. "It was a frightening experience. I didn't know what else to do besides, you know, to fight with my voice and to practice my rights, which were thoroughly being breached.”
The city attorney said that investigators determined that Smyly violated two policies in the department: public trust and conduct and police authority. They didn’t find racial motivation. Ridiculous.
Here’s the video, courtesy of YouTube. Caveat: It’s (obviously) potentially triggering for many: