“Though Mr. Stinnett was simply waiting for his train, he was caught up in RTD and Allied’s systematic campaign to target the homeless and communities of color for increased scrutiny and harassment,”
Councilman Kevin Flynn with the requisite call to harass homeless people for "health and safety" reasons.
Eric Brandt found not guilty after being arrested for passing out jury nullification pamphlets.
Folks from Denver Homeless Out Loud talk about the criminalization of homelessness on the Brew Theology podcast.
On how BIDs push for the criminalization of homelessness using Denver's urban camping ban and Downtown Denver Partnership as its primary example.
For a book-length treatment of this and similar issues, I recommend Randall Amster's Lost In Space: The Criminalization, Globalization, and Urban Ecology of Homelessness (2008) which examines the role BIDs play in criminalizing homelessness using the struggles over the sit-lie ordinances in Tempe, AZ, as a case study.
Good report on abusive Denver-area cops.
An investigation into the practices of private security at Denver's Union Station and 16th Street Mall after four guards beat a homeless man in the bathroom and then tried to cover it up.
An audio version read by the journalist is available: https://soundcloud.com/user-11498782/on-guard
"The park rangers took Jackson’s sleeping bag, blankets, and his tent, yet left all of his other property on the ground. Jackson and his comrades believe the park rangers only took the survival gear to force them into shelters or force them to move farther out of sight and out of mind."
I just discovered this 2015 Westword article about the criminalization of homelessness by artist Lauri Lynnxe Murphy which includes a link to one of my weblog entries.
"the criminalization of public sleeping, as brought to Denver by Albus Brooks with the anti-camping ordinance, is spreading throughout municipalities like a cruel poison."
In the section “Rules of Conduct”, of the Denver Police Crowd Control Manual outlines the role of “Shadow Teams,” groups of undercover and/or plainclothes officers who infiltrate demonstrations to observe participants, gather intelligence, monitor “persons of interest”, and help target specific protesters for arrest.
"Releasing the Denver Police Crowd Control Manual is part of our ongoing investigation into the policing of social movements. Using open records requests and other methods, we are currently compiling reports documenting the Denver Police Department."
I was happy to discover that the "Urban Camping Ban" is a significant portion of the Wikipedia article on downtown Denver.
(I read this revision: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Downtown_Denver&oldid=743430248)
On Wednesday, April 5, 2017, after a day and a half of testimony, the jury for Denver’s first camping ban trial found the three co-defendants guilty. Jerry Burton and Randy Russell were each given a 6-month probation and ordered to complete 30 hours of community service, while Terese Howard has a 1-year probation and has to complete 60 hours of community service.
In one clip, Boyle criticizes an officer who had been telling homeless individuals that they have to take down their tents because it would be better for them to be in a shelter.
“Are you an expert in social change, or are you an expert in following orders?” asks Boyle, pointing his camera toward the officer in the cruiser.
The police officer bites his lip, then chuckles. “That’s not my job to change society,” the officer says.
“So then why are you giving advice [to the homeless].... Isn’t your job to be here and follow orders?” Boyle retorts.
Denver's camping ban is finally being challenged in a court. The trial is currently set to begin April 4th at the Lindsay Flanigan Courthouse (520 w Colfax Ave Denver CO 80204).
"The Denver government is spending massive resources to prosecute Burton, Howard, and Russell, including calling 33 Police Officers as witnesses in the trial. According to the law, the co-defendants are facing up to $999 and a year in jail for the crime of using blankets to try to stay warm on a cold winter night. Buron and Russell both had their blankets, sleeping bags and tents taken “as evidence” of the crime of camping – leaving them with no gear to survive the freezing winter night and driving Burton to the hospital. Shortly after this, Mayor Hancock publicly directed the Police Department to cease confiscating survival gear for the safety of homeless people sleeping on winter nights. Yet the government is still prosecuting these individuals."
Update: All three defendants were found guilty and sentenced to community service: http://www.unicornriot.ninja/?p=14793
On GEO Group's slave prison in Colorado.
Denver Homeless Out Loud's attempt at a tiny home village was (temporarily?) ended on Saturday when the Denver Police Department, including a SWAT team, raided the park, arrested ten activists, and dismantled the structures. Here is Google's aggregation of news coverage of the raid.
Just a reminder that the liberal's confused notion of property is actually the dispossession of most people, and the market of capitalism (which prides itself on the price system as an elegant way to match supply to demand) cannot seem to provide the most necessary supplies to the most desperate needs.
"You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority of society." -- M&E, 1848
An article about the Denver Anarchist Black Cross in Denver's Westword (2013)
Video of protesters in Denver chanting at Denver Police Department.