Denver Police today released dozens of text messages sent between officers during Occupy Denver protests, expressing regret for “the tenor and tone of some of these texts.”

“Unfortunately, a few communications between individual officers through a car-to-car text system have not met the standard of professionalism expected by the Denver Police Department and the citizens of Denver in regards to the Occupy Denver protests,” said Police Lt. Matt Murray in a statement. “We recognize this and have already taken steps to address the behavior and to remind all officers of our expectations.”

The messages, sent through a system officers use to communicate from their patrol cars, show that some officers berated the group’s message, behavior and even appearance at times.

“They’re supporting the same BS protests going on on Wall Street,” one officer wrote during an Oct. 13 march in response to a question about the nature of the protest. “The typical “Tax the Rich” & “Eff the cops” anarchist crap.”

In another, an officer, also not identified, suggests that the “real” protesters won’t be a problem.

“Probably little problems from the ‘real’ protesters,” the officer writes. “But the grungy hippies and the usual Civic Center yahoos will more than likely be a problem.”

At an afternoon news conference, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock called the messages, “very bad judgment on behalf of a few officers.”

Hancock said the frustration officers expressed is understandable, given the long hours police have worked as a result of the protests. But he said disappointed officers chose to vent that frustration the way they did in the messges. He said he trusts the police department to handle the matter.

“This has not been easy, and I’ve started to see some of the frustration of our officers,” Hancock said. “But that is not an excuse.”

The existence of the messages was first revealed during a court hearing Monday on a request for a temporary restraining order made by Occupy Denver. The movement sought the order to keep police from enforcing certain city ordinances against the protesters, arguing that police were using the ordinances to silence the movement.

Occupy attorney David Lane used one message — which said several officers had created a fake Twitter account to harass Occupy Denver “idiots” — to argue that police had retaliated against the movement for its speech.

A federal judge denied the request today, saying the movement hadn’t proven that the police department as a whole had an agenda of retaliation against Occupy Denver. Lane dismissed today’s release of messages.

“They’re not being more transparent,” he said of police. “They’re just trying to clean up their act so that when they do get caught, it doesn’t look as bad as this.”