Community pickets Aurora, CO police headquarters, demand accountability

Aurora, CO – On January 18, despite the cold and snowy weather, the Denver Aurora Community Action Committee (DACAC) and community members gathered outside the Aurora Police Department headquarters to demand transparency and justice.

In the past few years, the Aurora Police Department (APD) has killed at least three unarmed Black men – Jordell Richardson, Kilyn Lewis, and Kory Dillard – and has brutalized dozens of other community members, such as Te’Erica Mosle, who was recording police harassing an unarmed Black man, only to be assaulted herself by the police.

APD has a history of racist police violence and terrorizing community members, and yet, DACAC members say, there has not been accountability or justice. The previous district attorney, John Kellner, has refused to press charges, claiming that the police have been justified in their actions. They have refused to release the full unedited footage of any of the incidents mentioned, and in some cases have demanded expensive fees for the information and footage.

DACAC and community members picketed outside of the APD headquarters shouting “Transparency, transparency! Free the footage, let us see!” and “When killer cops are on patrol, what do we need? Community control!” DACAC and members of the community demand that APD release full unedited body cam footage.

Tristen McFarland, a member of DACAC said in her speech at the picket, “We are not here with suggestions; we are here with demands, and, until our demands are met, we will be back. Over these past few years, each of the officers that have pulled the trigger has had a case brought to District Attorney John Kellner’s desk, and each case subsequently dropped. To date each of them has been put back on their full shift, gun back in their hands, their boots back onto our streets. We demand you hold the officers accountable, make all the body cam footage immediately available to the public free of charge, regardless of case status, and instate community control over the police.”

Khalid Hamu, a member of Denver Students for a Democratic Society, spoke about how, after Trump was elected in 2016, many people in the Latino community, “felt like no one cared about them, and that’s really messed up. When you see ICE working with APD, they can’t even follow the laws that this racist system puts on them! If they aren’t even following those laws, how can we expect Latino people to not be scared?” Hamu then quoted Frank Chapman, chair of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, stating “Our oppression is not our fault, but to fight back is our responsibility – It’s our responsibility to make sure those things change, and we need as many people as possible to make this change a reality! If we don’t do anything, then who is going to do it?”

Paul Nelson, a member of DACAC, highlighted the Aurora Police “denying every legal request we made of them to reveal their actions, but each request we give to get the body cam footage they have is illegally denied. They claim some farcical defense of this, in that they’re ‘conducting an investigation,’ but like with the case of Elijah McClain, we see in the conclusion of all of it that they let the murderers off scot-free. So are we going to wait years while they prepare to do just that? No, we’re not going to wait, we’re holding them to account!”

Nelson added, “People can pass what’s called a citizen initiative in Aurora, where it doesn’t matter what our racist city council thinks; the citizens of Aurora can get together and pass the citizens’ initiative and vote on it. No more cops policing cops. No more police officers finding themselves to be innocent of all charges. This police department needs to be put in check by the people and a Civilian Police Accountability Council!”

The picket concluded with the community chanting “Power to the people!”

#AuroraCO #CO #InJusticeSystem #NAARPR #PoliceCrimes #CommunityControlOfPolice