Photo: Archive / Michael Ciaglo / Getty Images
By: EFE
Sunday, October 6
Colorado Attorney's Office Announces Anti-Racism Measures from Police in Aurora
DENVER, Colorado – The State Attorney’s Office of Colorado announced on Tuesday a new package of measures to “protect the safety of the public” in Aurora, an eastern suburb of Denver where local and federal investigators detected and documented dozens of cases of racism and police abuse between 2015 and 2019.
“This decree of out-of-court settlement will raise the quality of police activities and improve public safety in the City of Aurora. The tough task before us will be to rebuild trust in law enforcement, operate in the spirit of continual improvement, and protect public safety through fair and legal means, ”said State Attorney Phil Weiser at a press conference announcing the agreement, the First of its kind in the country.
“By working together, we will be able to protect public safety and civil rights by collaborating with the forces of the order to improve the way they operate. As Aurora carries out this important task, our department will support her by doing everything we can to ensure that Aurora is successful in meeting her commitments. ”
In September 2020, the State Prosecutor’s Office published a document of 118 pages (prepared jointly with the FBI) in which it concluded that both the Aurora Police Department (APD) and the local Fire Department (AFD) “repeatedly violated state and federal laws” against racism, including excessive use of force against minorities, disproportionate arrest of minorities and illegal use of sedatives on suspects.
The report states that APD and AFD operated following “a consistent pattern of illegal conduct” and, consequently, “the trust of the community was destroyed” in those agencies.
Specifically, APD “practices racism” and “excessive use of force”, while at the same time, contrary to as required by law, it “does not document” interactions of uniformed officers with the public.
Among the most recent notable cases cited in the report figure not only the death of the young African American Elijah McClain (who, despite not being a suspect of any crime, was sedated by the police until he lost his life), but the fact that three policemen later took a photograph in front of the floral offerings in memory of McClain imitating the pose of the young man deceased.
In March of 2020, APD agents detained at gunpoint a doctor, originally from India, who was about to enter his own community clinic, thinking he was a thief.
And in August of that year, six members of an African-American family (including four minors) were forcibly removed from their car when APD believed erroneously that it was a stolen vehicle.
On the other hand, Latinos and African Americans in Aurora are detained two and a half times more than the percentage of people from those groups in the general population . And the same happens with immigrants, who represent the 20 % of the 370. 04 inhabitants of that city (including 111. 04 Latin).
In addition to 2008 to 2018 APD allocated $ 7 million dollars to train its soldiers in the use of force, without having been trained in other alternatives.
Therefore, Aurora must now create new rules for police action, train your staff on these new rules, promote diversity among police officers, document all interactions with the community, and follow federal laws when administering sedatives. The Arapahoe County District Court will oversee compliance with that process.
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