Reacting to shootings that killed both police and black civilians in three states, voices across the Denver metro area found common ground in the idea that violence is not the answer. But some also insisted that long-standing — and ever more urgent — questions about the intersection of race and law enforcement demand substantive response.
Local leaders weighed in on the festering issue of police shootings, prompted by recent viral videos of black men in Louisiana and dying at the hands of authorities. Those concerns merged with anger and horror over a black gunman’s deadly rampage that killed five Dallas police officers Thursday night.
A procession of speakers from the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance gathered on the steps of the state Capitol to register both their sorrow for the Dallas victims and continuing frustration over the deaths of black men at the hands of police. They appealed to state officials and community groups to work toward reform.
“I thank God that Denver is not Dallas,” said Rev. Patrick Demmer, vice president of political affairs for the Alliance. “We do not do anger for anger and violence for violence. We overcome because we’re nonviolent. But we do demand change.”
Just across Civic Center park, Denver’s mayor, safety director and police chief stood together at a news conference at the City and County Building to talk about the relationship between the city’s police force and its residents, especially people of color.
In the wake of recent events, each said their African-American, young-adult sons reached out to ask questions about police interactions with minorities.
“Each of them expressed tremendous pain and confusion and hurt,” Mayor Michael Hancock said as tears welled in his eyes. “Each of them were reaching to us, their parents, to ask us how they should feel and address these issues. Each of them were questioning the very heart and very soul of America. Each of us had to admit as parents who deal with this every day we don’t know the answer.
“But as young black men they’re facing uncertainty, pain and anger. They’re asking for someone, anybody, to step up and help them find the answers.”
The problems between police and minority communities are not new, the mayor said. There’s always been concern about excessive force by police.
“The difference you see today as opposed to 1975 or 1985 is the presence of social media,” Hancock said. “These incidents are now being broadcast, as we saw in Minnesota, live on Facebook or shortly thereafter as we saw in Baton Rouge. … Now it’s up to the systems to make sure we do right and make sure there’s justice for all and to make sure people are held accountable.”
Hancock offered to try to reach reconciliation between the community and cops that can be accessed at the city website, denvergov.org.
Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz lost sleep watching the harrowing reports coming out of Dallas.
“This is one of those things you’re glued to and you think what if this was my city? What if those were my officers? How would we handle something like this?” he said. “I worry whether this incident will create a greater divisiveness in our country.”
That theme echoed at the University of Denver, where students and others gathered to reflect on the recent violence. For nearly an hour, speakers passed a microphone to share grievances, fears and hopes for racial understanding. They participated in two moments of silence — one for the black men killed by police this year and another for the Dallas officers killed or injured.
“Enough blaming victims, enough debate over whether ‘all lives matter,’” said Tracey Adams-Peters, DU director of inclusive excellence, who gave the main address. Many of the speakers called for both individual and community action to deal with racial issues.
Black communities have had to wrestle with the variations on the same narrative across generations, said Denver native Jeff Fard, a longtime speaker and community organizer who founded brother jeff’s Cultural Center in the Five Points neighborhood.
“It becomes multilayered, but itap the same story and theme — each generation is grappling with the pains and the struggles of the prior generation,” he said, noting similar challenges to eras defined by slavery, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement, Black Power and now, the Black Lives Matter movement that arose from lethal police actions.
He said throughout his life he anticipated how to respond to any interactions with police in order to stay alive, but that the incidents in Minnesota and Louisiana illustrated to him that nothing could guarantee safety.
“I feel numb,” Fard said. “Itap kind of like when the air is let out of a balloon or you’re hit in the gut and have to step aside a minute and catch your breath.”
Several intersecting issues pertaining to equity and justice have played out in the last two days, suggesting that solutions must be broad-based, said Eddie Koen, community activist and board member of the Denver NAACP.
Piecemeal legislation, he added, won’t address the needed system reform and the traditional response of more training or more community policing won’t fill the need for something more fundamental — like acknowledgement of mutual respect and dignity.
“The narrative is that there’s this binary position that if you are against the murdering of people of color, or state-sanctioned violence, that somehow indicates you’re anti-police,” Koen said. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. In communities of color we understand that. We know there’s nothing inconsistent around being supportive of the safe patrolling of our communities and being for innocent black people not being killed.
“There’s nothing contradictory there.”
Staff writers Noelle Phillips, Colleen O’Connor and Ellis Arnold contributed to this report.
