Your confusion is you fail to understand settlements due to bad tort law don't equal guilt.

O'Malley is a panderer if not a cop-hater herself. She's repeatedly engaged in disciplinary overreach and it keeps getting thrown back in her face. 

And yeah, the political clique running Denver should be broken up, but the clueless inhabitants of this city keep voting them in, don't they? 

The offices of Chief of Police and Sheriff are political appointments that represent nothing other than corrupt Denver business as usual.

Dare I say you can't have quality city government without quality voters. There's something wrong when you vote a guy as mayor AFTER he's busted hiring prostitutes to manage a police dept where a cop got a 14 day suspension for doing what the mayor did. That's a reflection on the people of Denver.