BLM on the Front Range

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale

This article first appeared online in Pueblo Pulp Magazine, June, 2020.

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Over three weeks after the killing of George Floyd, Colorado protests continue around the state. Front Range communities like Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo lead the charge towards racial justice, consistently hosting non-violent gatherings and protests. The work does not stop with signs and chants, though. Many of these communities have prompted legislative change on a city and state-wide level. Here is the Front Range Break down of what’s going on, and what we might expect in the coming weeks and months:

Denver

Senate Bill 20-217, Enhanced Law Enforcement Integrity, was passed last week in the capital concerning the integrity and accountability of Colorado law enforcement. Under SB 20-217, by July 1st, 2023, Colorado police forces will no longer have qualified immunity; will be required to wear body cameras, to publicly release all incident related footage, and to limit their use of physical and deadly force, among other more restrictive policing measures. 

Colorado State Rep., Leslie Herod, a sponsor of the bill, believes that her work is far from over. 

“We have to do better in housing dedication, business development, health care,” she said. “It’s not just about one bill or one person. It’s really about a movement and a cry for accountability and end to racial injustice,” she added. 

Herod said communities and city councils across the state are looking to change the way Colorado law enforcement is funded and seek to remove School Resource Officers from schools. Apart from that, she said many community members are demanding accountability across the board, not just in policing. 

“We're not done just because, you know, we passed one bill. There's still a lot more work to do,” she said. 

Dr. Apryl Alexander, a leader of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Chapter 5280 in Denver, said this movement, this cry for accountability, is nothing new. She said Chapter 5280 has been working for years already, and the only thing to have changed in the wake of recent events is the attention the Chapter is getting. 

“I think now there’s a heightened awareness of our work so there will be more engagement with the public about what we’re doing,” she said. “For us, it’s simply a continuation of doing the work we’ve been doing for these last five years,” she added. 

Many areas of the Black Lives Matter platform have remained unaltered since 2016, such as the demand to end the war on Black people, the demand to repair for past and continuing harms against Black people, the demand to divest from the police and invest in Black communities, and the demand for economic and educational equity, among others.

Alexander said Chapter 5280 is currently talking to the Denver City Council about divesting from the Denver Police Department and investing in the Denver community.

“That can include increasing the budget for education, increasing access to affordable housing, resolving issues related to food deserts, increasing mental health and physical health programs,” she said. 

She added Chapter 5280 has been collaborating with other activists in Denver to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

“We need to abolish ICE given the amount of Blacks, Latinx, Refugees, Immigrants in the ICE facilities...” she said. “There was a period of time in which we didn't have ICE and we were managing as a country quite well.”

According to Alexander, Chapter 5280 will focus on local issues and promote the national Black Lives Matter platform as we move into the summer months and towards the election in November.

“We’ve been doing direct action and we’re just going to continue the same kind of direct action we’ve been doing,” she said. 

Alexander believes the election in November will be critical to the success of the movement. As the election nears, she said the Chapter will hold forums to discuss key issues on the ballot.

Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs has also been at the forefront of legislative change towards racial justice. While there is no organized Black Lives Matter chapter in Colorado Springs, there are a number of smaller organizations advocating for policy change and highlighting Black voices in the community.

Two activist groups in particular, the “Back to the People” group and the “Austin Group,” submitted proposals to Colorado Springs City Council and Mayor John Suthers in a meeting on Tuesday, June 16th. Back to the People proposed the creation of a citizens accountability advisory board or committee that would work with the City Council to oversee the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD).

According to Derrick Matthews, a member of Back to the People, they proposed the board consist of eleven Colorado Springs citizens, six representing each district of Colorado Springs, and five coming from the area most affected by the police department. 

Matthews said that the application was released on Wednesday, June 17th on https://coloradosprings.gov at noon. He added that the alternative proposal by the Austin Group proposed Richard Skorman create a  president commission committee. In this proposal, Skorman would appoint a Chair and Co-chair of the committee. The committee would be completely independent from City Council and would operate under Mayor John Suthers, according to Matthews. It would, however, also work to oversee CSPD. 

An official decision has not yet been made of which committee to use, if either, according to Matthews. He said the official decision will be made on Tuesday, June 23rd. He added, in the meeting on the 17th, there had been talk about creating both committees, as they could work independently from one another — one operating under the City Council, the other under the Executive Branch of Colorado Springs. 

Matthew added their proposed advisory board would work with the City Council to reallocate the CSPD budget, potentially focusing on training, certifications, and social workers to work alongside the police. 

Should neither proposal pass on the 23rd, Matthews said he and other activist organizations will apply more pressure on the city to turn towards police reform. 

“Nobody out here is playing, we’re not playing games, it’s not play time,” he said. “Our goal is to… use non-violent ways and apply pressure to let them know that's not okay.” 

Pueblo

Like Colorado Springs, there is not an official Black Lives Matter Chapter in Pueblo. There are, however, other organizations fighting against racial injustice, and there have been protests in support of the Back Lives Matter movement. 

Rita J. Martinez, the chair of El Movimiento Sigue — a movement fighting for Chicano rights in Pueblo — said they stand with the Black Lives Matter movements, as people of color in Pueblo see the same injustices. 

“Our Chicano, Mexicano population is over 50 percent and that's where our police brutality and police killings have reared their ugly face. Within the last three months we’ve had at least three killings,” said Martinez. “They're still people of color and it’s still the same issue,” she added. 

Martinez said that police are sent on calls that they are not always qualified to handle.

“From an educational point of view, send the people out there who know, that are trained in that, and that’s part of this whole defund police movement that's going on,” said Martinez. 

She added that one of her goals is to help to abolish School Resource Officers (SROs) as she said they contribute to the criminalization of students of color — sometimes as early as elementary school. 

“The school to prison pipeline is a real thing. Our funding should be going for true education and not building more prisons to house more kids,” said Martinez. “It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. Sure they need more prisons because they are causing more kids to be criminalized at this point,” she added. 

BreeAnna Guerra Rodriguez, the organizer of the first Pueblo protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, said she is pushing to defund the Pueblo Police Department (PPD). She wants to use those funds to help the community, and contribute to addiction, mental health, and education programs, among other things. 

“If you look at white suburban neighborhoods, that's already happening, they have excellent resources for education, for addiction and they don't rely heavily on police forces,” said Rodriguez. 

She said the Pueblo Police Department already receives $3.3 million in funding per year. 

Rodriguez is still finding a way to move towards divestment from PPD, but wants to open the conversation to the community starting on Friday, June 19th at an NAACP justice rally at Mineral Palace Park from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm. 

According to Pueblo NAACP Unit 4005 president, Roxana Mack, the rally is a chance for the community to voice their concerns on systematic racism and other issues of interest. 

“For Pueblo, we just want to have the conversation. We want people's voices to be heard and we want those that can make decisions and policy changes to hear those voices,” she said.

Crystal Kennedy, a community activist leader for Pueblo, said at the rally on Friday, she will get people registered to vote. 

“A lot of the younger generations aren’t really aware of what voting actually is in state and local type aspects as opposed to voting for the president,” she said. “That’s a really important thing especially with our younger generation growing up because they're the ones that need to make this change possible,” she added. 

On police brutality, Kennedy added that the issue is grave. 

“This is a problem, because we witnessed something more than just somebody being attacked by the police. We saw a modern day lynching on live video,” she said.