Aurora, CO protests killing of Black man by police

Aurora CO – On Saturday, May 17, a dozen community members gathered in front of the Aurora Police Department Headquarters for an emergency rally to protest the killing of another Black man by the APD, and the subsequent cover-up that is still unfolding.

It was on May 12, Monday evening, that the APD received calls about a “suspicious person” wandering a private Park-and-Ride near the Denver International Airport.

The chief of APD, Todd Chamberlain, claims that the man was tased after refusing commands and starting a fight with the officer who was first on the scene. The victim has not been publicly identified, and Chamberlain’s retelling of events leaves one with more questions than answers.

“APD shoots to kill then hides the proof! We demand to see the truth!” was printed on fliers advertising the rally and echoed in protesters’ chants toward the APD headquarters. The Denver Aurora Community Action Committee (DACAC) organized the event with the Denver Alliance for Street Health Response (DASHR) and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

Anna Harris, a member of DACAC and the partner of Kory Dillard, a Black veteran and father who was killed by the APD last October, spoke out against the lack of information released by the department saying, “If these killings are justified, why lie? Why hide the truth? Why bury the videos?” Harris continued, “Let me be clear, Aurora has a police brutality crisis, and if our elected leaders won’t name it, I will. There are dangerous people with badges walking our streets, terrorizing our communities, and it’s time to put it to an end.”

Organizers with DACAC spoke about how many of the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) and Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act (CCJRA) requests they were submitting were being refused, delayed and given the runaround.

Tristen Hurst, a leader in DACAC said, “We have laws like CORA and CCJRA because Coloradans demand accountability, but let’s be clear; APD treats these laws like a joke.” Hurst also said, “Records about the brutalization of Te’Erica Mosley, a woman brave enough to film the APD’s crimes are being lost in bureaucratic limbo to keep the truth hidden. The family of Kory Dillard were quoted more than $9000 just to receive the full body camera footage of his killing – $9000 to grieve in peace. Shame!”

One demand in particular rang out repetitively at the action in the form of a chant, “Free the footage now!” APD has stymied the release of footage around their killings repeatedly over the course of the last year, working in the meantime to create narratives in the press that attempt to justify their violations of the constitutional rights to due process.

Nels Pine, another leader in DACAC spoke, saying, “These cops have another thing coming if they think their brutality is going to stop this. These actions of theirs will just light a fire under the people and the people will fan the flames and come back with a fight back. Pine continued, saying, “What might seem like a smaller action here today is in fact a spark. It’s a spark taking place on dry prairie grass.”

One of the groups present, DASHR, has been at the forefront of fighting for and winning alternatives to police response. In Denver, after the 2020 George Floyd protests, they won the establishment of the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) Program, which responds to calls related to mental health distress, poverty, homelessness, and substance misuse, among other needs. A similar program in Aurora was also established called the Aurora Mobile Response Team. Vinnie Cervantes, one of the founders of DASHR explained, “As soon as they hired city personnel to run that program, they kicked us out.”

Cervantes went on saying, “This city continues to be violent towards our community, but also continues to show resentment towards people that want more out of their public officials, out of their police department, and out of their city government.” Cervantes continued, “Too often police harm our communities. They hurt our community. They destroy our community, and they refuse to have any level of accountability in doing so. They will not change as a system or as a department unless they’re afraid of what we’ll do in response.”

The fight against police crime in Denver and Aurora has faced challenges and attempts by those in power to dismantle community alternatives. It is clear those in the fight are not slowing down.

Khalid Hamu, a member of the FRSO, said, “We need to extend the democracy that was promised to the people in this country so that Black people get to determine who gets to patrol their neighborhoods, how much money they’re given, and who gets to be on the police force.” Hamu continued, “Let us continue the struggle of the Black Panthers, because we do not forget them. Let us continue the struggle of all those who have been killed in the Black Liberation struggle. We say community control of the police now!”

#AuroraCO #CO #InJusticeSystem #PoliceCrimes #KillerCops #PoliceBrutality #FRSO #DACAC

Source: https://fightbacknews.org/aurora-co-protests-killing-of-black-man-by-police?pk_campaign=rss-feed