DENVER — The Colorado Women’s Alliance (CWA)* has taken a formal position on a 20-year-old police report concerning a confrontation between Gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis and a former employee.
Joni Inman, executive director of the organization, said her group is often approached to comment on various hot issues of the day, and this was no different.
After reading over the police report, CWA put out a news release saying, “brutish physical force by a man against a woman is never warranted.”
Shutz Polis – It's Never Okay by Sherrie A Peif on Scribd
According to its website, CWA researches, educates and advocates in areas of concern to women voters, as well as creates initiatives and common alliances to address the areas of concerns to women voters, and it promotes and educates women on issues and candidates.
In the press release, CWA acknowledges that the woman was stealing from Polis and that Polis did not cause the bruising on her arms. However, a welt on her leg was likely caused by being pushed into a filing cabinet, the release said.
Inman said her group also agrees that Polis had a right to block the door, but that he crossed the line when he used physical force.
“I can understand him standing in front of the door, trying to urge her to stay,” Inman said. “But I don’t believe that he should have used force in any case in that situation. It certainly wasn’t warranted. Police are on their way.”
Inman said it is her group’s responsibility to look at what is real and what they can clarify for the public, adding that is why they did not address Polis’ name change or any other accusations.
“What does it really say, and does it have importance to women in the state of Colorado?” She said. “Any type of violence against women is of course important to women.”
Inman condemned the employee’s attempt at theft, but bottom line, she said, is that Polis, who was much bigger, stronger and younger than the woman, should have handled it better.
“She certainly was attempting to steal something and that was wrong,” Inman said. “He did in fact block her. He did in fact shove her by his own admission. She did sustain an injury, and she did in fact try to call 911. The only relevant piece to me is that this was a man who used physical force to the point of injury against a woman, and I don’t think it was warranted.”
*Independence Institute Executive Vice President Amy Cooke is on the advisory board for the Colorado Women’s Alliance. Complete Colorado is a project of the Independence Institute.
