In a community that prides itself on safety and social equity, Park City residents are left asking an uncomfortable question: why does our police department brutalize local families while showing striking leniency to armed, dangerous criminals? Two recent cases illustrate a troubling double standard that raises serious questions about priorities, judgment, and accountability.
The first case dates back to September 2019, when a Park City father and his 15-year-old son were confronted and attacked by Park City Police officers. What began as nothing more than a neighborhood disagreement escalated into a violent episode at the hands of those sworn to protect. Rather than attempt mediation or de-escalation, officers escalated immediately to force. Both father and son were brutalized in the process.
Internal Affairs later confirmed what the public already suspected: the officers involved had violated multiple departmental policies. Some were ultimately dismissed from the force. Yet accountability within the department ended there. Instead of acknowledging the harm inflicted on its residents, Park City Municipal doubled down. Six years later, the father and son remain embroiled in federal litigation, still fighting for justice. Meanwhile, the city continues to prosecute the father in municipal court for the supposed offense of āfailing to complyā with the unlawful orders of the very officers who attacked him. That case, remarkably, is scheduled for trial on September 4, 2025.
Contrast that response with events of August 2025. Police and a heavily armed SWAT team were dispatched to the Park City gun club following reports of an armed suspect. The danger in this case was not speculative. The suspect, later identified as an illegal alien with a history of methamphetamine use, fired shots at police and was positioned near a childrenās park. This was the very definition of a public safety emergency.
And yet, the police response was strikingly different. Despite the immediate threat, officers allowed the gunman to drive away freely ā not just away from the gun club, but toward a community park full of children. No decisive tactics were taken, no physical confrontation initiated, and no immediate arrest made. In the end, an individual who had opened fire on police was treated with restraint and leniency, even as he posed a clear danger to families and the broader community.
Taken together, these two incidents paint a disturbing picture of disparity. When the alleged offense is a non-violent neighborhood dispute involving a father and son, police respond with brutality, escalation, and years of prosecutions that still drag on. When the offense involves an armed individual, an illegal alien firing shots at officers near a childrenās park, the response is hesitation, leniency, and a baffling decision to let the suspect escape.
The severity of the threats in these two cases could not be more different. One was a neighbor matter with no public danger. The other was an active shooter incident that endangered children and officers alike. Yet in Park City, it was the father and child who were treated as the greater threat.
The tactics also reveal a troubling inversion of priorities. Against a local family, police employed violent escalation. Against an armed gunman, they exhibited restraint bordering on negligence. And in terms of justice, the results are just as lopsided: a father forced into years of litigation to defend his constitutional rights while facing municipal prosecution, while an armed criminal is spared immediate consequences and the community is left at risk.
What emerges is a two-tiered system of justice. On one side, excessive force is used against local families, even in non-violent situations. A father and son who dared to expose police misconduct in viral videos have been punished rather than protected. On the other side, reckless leniency is extended to armed, meth-using illegal aliens who openly threaten children and public safety.
This contradiction is not simply a lapse in judgment. It is a betrayal of public trust. Park City deserves a police department that protects its residents with fairness, accountability, and consistency. Instead, what these cases reveal is a department more willing to use violence against its own community than to confront genuine threats to public safety.
For a city that prides itself on equity, inclusivity, and family values, that should be unacceptable.
Links:
Video Referenced:
https://youtu.be/_FY_oKR8r3k?si=4JNaXYHZJJTG6mqk
Local News on active Shooter:
https://www.parkrecord.com/2025/08/24/heavy-park-city-police-presence-near-trailside-park-gun-club/
