An investigation into the practices of private security at Denver's Union Station and 16th Street Mall after four guards beat a homeless man in the bathroom and then tried to cover it up.

An audio version read by the journalist is available: https://soundcloud.com/user-11498782/on-guard

I just discovered this 2015 Westword article about the criminalization of homelessness by artist Lauri Lynnxe Murphy which includes a link to one of my weblog entries.

"the criminalization of public sleeping, as brought to Denver by Albus Brooks with the anti-camping ordinance, is spreading throughout municipalities like a cruel poison."

"Releasing the Denver Police Crowd Control Manual is part of our ongoing investigation into the policing of social movements. Using open records requests and other methods, we are currently compiling reports documenting the Denver Police Department."

On Wednesday, April 5, 2017, after a day and a half of testimony, the jury for Denver’s first camping ban trial found the three co-defendants guilty. Jerry Burton and Randy Russell were each given a 6-month probation and ordered to complete 30 hours of community service, while Terese Howard has a 1-year probation and has to complete 60 hours of community service.

Denver's camping ban is finally being challenged in a court. The trial is currently set to begin April 4th at the Lindsay Flanigan Courthouse (520 w Colfax Ave Denver CO 80204).

"The Denver government is spending massive resources to prosecute Burton, Howard, and Russell, including calling 33 Police Officers as witnesses in the trial. According to the law, the co-defendants are facing up to $999 and a year in jail for the crime of using blankets to try to stay warm on a cold winter night. Buron and Russell both had their blankets, sleeping bags and tents taken “as evidence” of the crime of camping – leaving them with no gear to survive the freezing winter night and driving Burton to the hospital. Shortly after this, Mayor Hancock publicly directed the Police Department to cease confiscating survival gear for the safety of homeless people sleeping on winter nights. Yet the government is still prosecuting these individuals."

Update: All three defendants were found guilty and sentenced to community service: http://www.unicornriot.ninja/?p=14793

Denver Homeless Out Loud's attempt at a tiny home village was (temporarily?) ended on Saturday when the Denver Police Department, including a SWAT team, raided the park, arrested ten activists, and dismantled the structures. Here is Google's aggregation of news coverage of the raid.

Just a reminder that the liberal's confused notion of property is actually the dispossession of most people, and the market of capitalism (which prides itself on the price system as an elegant way to match supply to demand) cannot seem to provide the most necessary supplies to the most desperate needs.

"You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority of society." -- M&E, 1848

Video of protesters in Denver chanting at Denver Police Department.

Denver Homeless Out Loud and the Catholic Workers both get mentions in this article on tiny homes.

"The city bans anyone from living in an RV, and people who break that rule often encounter the same hassles as do homeless people who sleep in their cars: tickets, harassment, and orders to pack up and move on."

As someone only peripherally involved but who followed along with the news, I thought Kelsey Whipple did a great job reporting on Occupy Denver.

"A protest group called “Occupy Denver” that used to protest in downtown Denver and in public areas has now reverted to a different tactic — descending on a quiet Denver neighborhood every Sunday afternoon and protesting outside the private home of a Denver business leader whose organization supported Denver’s urban camping ban"