May 6th: March against police terror! March for Marvin, Oleg, and all the victims!

Friday, May 6 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm

Sunken Garden Park

8th and Speer

Denver, Colorado

The police are at war with the people.
It’s time for the people to be at war with the police.

9 months ago, jail guards in the Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center in Denver, murdered a homeless street preacher, Marvin Booker. Videotape of his brutal murder exists, but has never been made public. The Denver District Attorney declined to file charges against the deputies responsible.

No one has faced any justice for Marvin’s murder.
…
On May 3rd, Denver will host city wide elections for a new mayor and new city council members. Though most of the mayoral candidates have promised a change in the local police forces, the results of this election will change nothing.

No matter who is elected, the police will still terrorize our communities.

High profile cases of police violence fill the headlines of local media. Officers beat, taze, and pepper spray residents of the Denver Metro Area with impunity. Though several tolkeinized terminations have recently taken place, these firings will ultimately not stop the police terror raging in our neighborhoods and streets. In Aurora, police execute Russian migrant youth merely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Denver, police raid homes and beat whole families.

This isn’t a case of a few bad apples. The whole orchard is diseased and rotten.

As the U.S. military occupies countries across the world to maintain control over a global economy that impoverishes billions, police forces across the United States occupy neighborhoods to maintain a social order that impoverishes millions in this country.

The poor and working class are beaten, murdered, imprisoned, evicted, raped, abused, and tortured in Iraq and Afghanistan by U.S. soldiers and in Denver by local police officers and other state agents.

We’ve marched three times in the last year, and our rage has become something that cannot be dismissed.

On May 6th, on a weekend that will see celebrations honoring the memories of struggles, revolutions, and people’s victories from centuries ago, we will fill the streets.

Whoever is elected on May 3rd, they will understand the power of the people they hope to control and govern after May 6th.

May 6th- Into the streets!
For Marvin Booker!
For Oleg Gidenko!
For all of us!

Cop injured as driver rear-ends patrol car and drives away

A Denver police officer was injured Tuesday night when his patrol car was rear-ended on Federal Boulevard.

Just before midnight, the officer was stopped on Federal Boulevard near West 23rd Avenue when a car hit the cruiser’s back left side, said Sonny Jackson, spokesman for the Denver Police Department.

The car then continued south in the northbound lanes of Federal Boulevard and at one point drove onto a sidewalk.

Police caught up to the car in the 1700 block of Grove Street, where they arrested the male driver, Jackson said.

The officer was taken to an area hospital with back pain.

The driver, whose name was not released, faces charges of felony eluding and hit-and-run and other traffic-related charges, Jackson said.

Aurora leaders hold counter-insurgency meeting

Take note of the ongoing operations by which our enemies intend to prevent an uprising in Aurora while the cops murder people left and right. These are the people who work together to keep peace in the streets while class society continues to rule: Cops, religious leaders, activists, volunteer cops called “peacekeepers.”

Below is from the Denver Post, slightly edited to reduce misinformation:

Aurora officials convened a meeting of volunteers, police and the U.S. Department of Justice office that helps prevent racial tensions in the wake of recent shootings in which four people have been killed by police and two others wounded by police bullets.

Barbara Shannon-Banister, chief of the city’s community-relations division, said her office has not heard reports of unrest from the community and that Monday’s meeting was standard procedure after a major incident such as an officer-involved shooting.

Among those in attendance were members of the city’s Key Community Response Team, a group of volunteers who meet regularly and respond in times of civil disorder, as well as the city’s human-relations commission and representatives of the local faith community.

Also participating was a representative of the Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service, which is described on its website as the department’s “peacekeeper” for community conflict and tension arising from differences of race, color and national origin.

Shannon-Banister said the representative is a regular attendee of such meetings and a member of the Key Community Response Team.

Aurora officers have killed four individuals since Feb 10, three of them in the past week. The first two murdered individuals were both Latino. Police and the coroner’s office have not released the identities of the two others killed in the most recent shootings.

Aurora sees 4th armed standoff with police in a week

Aurora SWAT officers, snipers, canines and a hostage negotiator staked out an apartment in the 1400 block of Clinton Street in pursuit of a suspected armed fugitive tonight.

After more than two and half hours of negotiations, 22-year-old Grant Bletcher released a hostage unharmed and then surrendered, said Aurora Police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson.

A U.S. Marshals fugitive task force was looking for Bletcher in the area about 6 p.m. When Bletcher saw the marshals near East 14th Avenue and Dallas Street, he took off in a white pickup truck driven by a woman.

Though police didn’t chase them, the truck crashed a short distance away. The woman was taken into custody for questioning, and Bletcher ran into a nearby apartment, taking a woman inside hostage, Carlson said.

Court records show Bletcher was wanted on felony warrants for burglary, menacing and escape.

He has been arrested in the past in Denver, Jefferson and Adams counties on drug, burglary, identity theft and vehicular eluding charges. He was sentenced to six years of community corrections in January for a Thornton burglary, court records show.

Bletcher served nearly a year in jail was sentenced to 10 years community correctons for a 2007 conviction for conspiracy to distribute drugs, records show.

Third officer-involved shooting this week in Aurora

The Aurora pigs have shot 5 people this week, killing 3 of them. All of the people tried to defend themselves, and some shot back.

Looks like it’s that time and place…

Hurry to play, comrade, before the media convinces you that the actions of the police are somehow ‘justified’.

No peace in the streets with police in the streets!

 

AURORA — A man is dead, two others were injured and a police officer also received injuries in a late-night shooting in Aurora.

This marks the third time in the past week that an officer was injured and a suspect killed in an officer-involved shooting in Aurora.

It happened shortly before midnight, in the 400 block of North Laredo Street when Aurora police officers encountered three male suspects in an industrial area, according to a news release from Aurora Police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson.

The shooting happened inside a fenced-in car storage lot behind the Automotive Service Center, a group of three buildings where auto repair and collision businesses — many of which are family-owned — rent space.

Police were responding to a possible car theft in progress when they found the three men in a back lot.

That’s when, Carlson said, the suspects hopped into a truck and tried to drive off.

Carlson said shots were fired.

Two of the three people in the truck were hit by gunfire. One man died at a hospital. A second man who was shot is being treated at a hospital, while the third man is being treated for injuries believed to have been sustained in an ensuing, post-shooting crash.

One officer received an injury to his head and was taken to a local hospital. It was unclear how he was hurt. Police said he is expected to be released this morning.

Carlson said police are investigating whether the driver drove at an officer and hit him with the truck.

The names and conditions of the people involved weren’t released.

Investigators are still determining who shot at whom and a sequence of events.

The officers who fired their weapons have been placed on standard, paid administrative leave pending an internal review of the shooting. Their names were not released.

Aurora cop shot; suspect killed after barricade

AURORA – Police killed a man accused of wounding an Aurora Police officer Thursday night and then engaged in a shoot out with police.

Around 8:15 p.m., an Aurora officer attempted a traffic stop near Colfax Avenue & Elmira Street, but the man ran off.

The chase went into a nearby courtyard where the suspect fired at the officer, according to Aurora Police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson.

The officer returned fire.

Police say the officer suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.

Initially it was believe the officer was shot multiple times, however, doctors now say the officer was struck by multiple bullet fragments, not multiple bullets. He was been treated and released from a local hospital.

Police set up a perimeter and began a manhunt for the suspect. During this effort, officers were able to contact the suspect who told them he still had a weapon, ammunition and planned to “go out shooting,” according to Carlson.

She says officers were able to determine the man had fled to an apartment complex at Colfax Avenue and Emporia Street and called in the SWAT team.

The SWAT team was able to establish communication with the suspect again.

Carlson says efforts to talk the man into surrendering were unsuccessful. Shortly after 7 a.m. Friday the SWAT team decided to try to force the man out using gas. The man tried to escape through a window. He was still carrying a gun, according to Aurora Police. Officers opened fire, killing the suspect. The man has not been identified.

State trooper dragged 30 feet after pulling car over

LARIMER COUNTY – A Colorado State Patrol trooper had to be treated for minor injuries after being dragged during a traffic stop north of Fort Collins Tuesday night.

According to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, the trooper had stopped a vehicle near College Avenue and Willox Lane around 8 p.m. Investigators say the trooper was standing by the driver’s window when the driver suddenly put the car into gear and tried to speed off. The trooper reportedly grabbed the driver’s arm and was then dragged about 30 feet. As the vehicle approached a brick wall, the trooper was able to let go and he fell to the ground, the sheriff’s office said.

The vehicle was later found abandoned in a ditch near Willox Lane and Shields Street. Deputies with the sheriff’s office and Fort Collins police officers immediately began to search the area. A K9 unit was brought in to help and eventually the suspect, who has been identified as 42-year-old Juan Alvarez of Fort Collins, was found hiding in the 200 block of U.S. Highway 287.

Alvarez was arrested and is facing a felony assault charge.

The trooper was taken to Poudre Valley Hospital where he was treated for minor injuries and released.

Arson investigator’s van arsoned

An arson investigator’s van was set on fire early Wednesday in southwest Denver as he was inside a nearby home investigating two other vehicle fires.

The incident happened about 12:30 a.m. in the 3900 block of West Kentucky Avenue, said Lt. Phil Champagne, a Denver Fire Department spokesman.

Fire officials are now investigating three possible cases of vehicle arson, including the van.

“It’s a great concern to us that an individual would be so bold,” Champagne said.

The van fire started in the engine compartment, and it was quickly extinguished before it could spread to the cab, Champagne said. Authorities believe an accelerant was splashed on the front bumper.

Investigators usually work in pairs, but one of the two called in sick.

Blue-light phones in Boulder used exclusively for prank calls

City officials say they will be removing five emergency phone stations from University Hill because over the past two years the devices have only been used to prank call police.

In 2009 and 2010, police received 351 phone calls from the emergency phones, all of which were false, according to a memo sent today to City Council members from City Manager Jane Brautigam.

“In each case, police responded, diverting them from other responsibilities and actual calls for help,” she wrote in the letter.

The aged “blue light” phones need to be repaired or replaced, and the city has decided against making that investment.

Never is your voice so lovely as when it harmonizes with history

Some words from a friend in the wake of Saturday’s events…

Excellent! What delightful news! Pity that 16th and 17th St are paned in space-glass, or something.

It brings a particular joy to our troubled lives to hear of the constellations of events taking place in the US and across the world. Keep listening comrades, there is a call that is reverberated. The spirits of Marvin Booker, Paul Childs, Frank Lobato, and Ishmael Mena still yearn for redemption. They incarnate all those who will listen to the song of the vanquished. The Queen City has been terrorized by those miserable blue-clad soldiers of fortune for far too long. Let every avenue shake uncontrollably, and expose the enemy to its paradoxical vocation.

Denver is a city with a long history of struggle—a city deeply entrenched in the story which will not come to end until the whole of life is emancipated from Capital and its police. The shame of so many defeats and betrayals haunts that city, filling the streets of Santa Fe, Colfax, and Broadway with sad ghosts. The movements of the oppressed, alienated, and exploited that have been repressed boil beneath that pathetic structure on the corner of 13th St and Cherokee. The labor of the exploited permeates all those disgusting cartographies of neo-ubranism that make Denver such a desert of smiling faces filled with cocaine. We still hold on to the memories that weakened all potency before Obama shook hands with Hickenlooper, and before DPD got up early to beat the crowds.

Remember how they put down striking workers only a few hours south, and transformed the weakest among them over time into allies in their long march of progress. Remember how they reduced the power of brown and black liberation to cowering politicians and NGOs. Remember how they exposed the anarchists of an earlier age to their sad position and neutralized any intensity within their collective form of life. So many defeats, betrayals, frightened passivity yearning—like every city paved in the dead labor and of the past to be avenged—for redemption.

Denver, Queen City of the Plains, your task is not easy, but it’s so lovely, for one who knows intimately what trauma you’ve suffered, to see you fight. Throw off the weight of those scared little puppies, treat the snitches appropriately and refuse to governed by the activist-politicians. Expose the police to their paranoid nightmare, and reduce the facade that covers your beautiful flesh to ashes. Never is your voice so lovely as when it harmonizes with history.

Love and solidarity from the South.

kisses,
-Liam