Denver — Blog — NERDGNOSTIC

Mr. Hinds,

As a resident of Capitol Hill, I have been closely watching the footage of the protests, and the Denver metro area's police response. In that coverage, I happened to see a brief conversation between you and (I think) Noel Brennan on 9News last night (Saturday May 30th).

In the conversation and on your Twitter feed, it seems like you have quickly turned away from discussing excessive force, systemic racism, and the murder of black men and women - to the property damage that is being caused by a very small group. It is right - and important - to call out the possibility that people who do not represent the protests at large are the ones causing the violence and distorting the message, but you are then stopping short of clearly speaking on what the protest at large does represent.

As your constituent, I would like to see you speaking just as loudly on what you can and will do as our elected representative on the city council to ensure that our police department quickly makes the necessary changes to move away from military-style tactics to counter peaceful protests (especially when those same tactics were not on show a few weeks ago when the protests were about masks and staying at home), and how we ensure our police are protecting black lives and holding accountable those among them that do not.

More concerning to me than the damage of property in and around the capitol are the stories of police firing rubber bullets and pepper spray at bystanders and the tear gar canisters being flung toward crowds of peaceful protesters. Additionally, it seems Chief Pazen has been focused on pushing any violence and destruction away from the empty capitol building and central business district, without any regard for those of us who live in the warpath.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Kind regards,

Justin Clark