Fourth-graders from Evergreen were feeding pigeons during a break from a field trip to the state Capitol last week. A tourist from Scotland was tending to his 2-year-old while his wife pushed their infant in a stroller.
And just yards away, Denver police handcuffed and patted down a convicted robber, finding marijuana in his pants before carting him off to jail.
It’s a very short walk from where legislators are making laws to where they are being broken. Violent crime is gradually rising in the Civic Center area, and some of those who frequent Colorado’s front yard are noticing.
“It’s across the street from the state Capitol, and you’ve got more violence than any part of town,” said Leonard Wenz, who is crippled with arthritis and sits in his wheelchair soliciting handouts at the northeast corner of Broadway and East Colfax Avenue as dealers operate an open-air drug market all around him.
“You can buy cocaine, heroin or any kind of prescription drug you want,” Wenz said. “But if you come here after dark looking for drugs, you’re going to get robbed.”
For the most part, the crime in and around Civic Center is petty — misdemeanor drug possession and sales, and other minor offenses. Still, in the past year, while the total number of reported offenses in the area has declined, the number of reported offenses for violent assaults is going up.
The worst of those occurred March 16, when a gang-related brawl involving several people erupted near rush hour, just before 6:30 p.m., outside the Regional Transportation District Civic Center Station. A man pulled out a gun in front of several bystanders and fired multiple times, striking another man in the back.
Kenneth Lee, 24, remains hospitalized, and Jahi Mills, 19, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
The area has been on a list of the most active crime zones in the city’s sixth district for five years running, Sixth District police Cmdr. Deborah Dilley said.
“Civic Center routinely shows up as a hot spot,” she said. “I ask my officers to spend as much time there as possible.”
The man arrested in front of the fourth-graders, Conrad Wilson, was charged for the fifth time in three years with drug offenses committed in and around Civic Center.
“The frustrating thing is if we arrest them, shortly after, we see them back here again,” said police Officer Mark Beluscak, patrolling War Memorial Park on his bicycle on a recent afternoon. “If we arrest one drug dealer, five take his place.”
Some robbers, using knives or fists, attack dealers or customers in drug rip-offs, Dilley said, explaining some of the violence. Most of the crime in the area is tied to the drug trade, she said.
From his panhandler’s perch, Wenz said he has seen packs of teens engaged in turf wars. One group will wait until a rival dealer sells all his drugs, then gang up on him in the middle of the sidewalk, demanding the day’s drug take, Wenz said.
Officers on horseback, bikes and motorcycles, and others in disguise — sometimes as homeless people — patrol the parks and sidewalks near Broadway and Colfax Avenue daily, Dilley said.
Police watch feeds from surveillance cameras installed on traffic-light poles near the intersection. They often see deals going down on street corners from police headquarters, Beluscak said.
While total reported offenses in the area dropped 15 percent in the past two years — from 177 in 2006 to 151 in 2008 — total reported violent crimes rose 45 percent, from 22 to 32, in the same period, according to Denver police records. The number of reported robberies increased from six in 2006 to 15 last year.
Since the start of this year, six violent crimes in the area have been reported, including the shooting outside the RTD station and a rape.
Crime has drawn the attention of business interests who are concerned that it keeps people away from the area.
“The park certainly has its problems,” said Sarah Neumann, spokeswoman for the Downtown Denver Partnership.
But the problem seems to disappear when Civic Center hosts festivals and food markets, attracting enough outsiders that criminals find somewhere else to go, she said.
“When the park is activated, you see a drop in crime,” Neumann said. “It’s unacceptable to abandon Civic Center.”
People often tell Dilley that the city could rid much of its Civic Center-area troubles simply by arresting the homeless and suspicious-looking people who loiter there all day.
But it’s not that simple, she said.
“Just hanging out in a park is not illegal,” Dilley said. “Police can only act under reasonable suspicion. We have to be very careful about who we contact.”
Four men who were with Wilson when he was arrested last week complained of police harassment, three claiming they were targeted.
“You guys always hassle the black people,” Sean Kimble, 30, yelled at an officer who drove onto a sidewalk in a patrol car and four officers who arrived on motorcycles as backup. Kimble later told a reporter they weren’t selling drugs.
One method authorities use to stymie repeat offenders is restricting where in the city people on parole or probation can go, Dilley said.
For example, if they return to areas where they were originally arrested, their probation can be revoked and they can be sent to prison, she said.
But it would take an army of police to wipe out crime in Civic Center, Beluscak said.
As long as people wanting to buy drugs keep streaming into the area, there will be dealers there to sell, he said.
Research librarian Barry Osborne contributed to this report.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
