Denver Cops provoke a confrontation with CO AIM

Last night,(feb 16) Denver cops provoked a confrontation with CO AIM members when they harrassed and then assaulted 2 members of the CO AIM youth council as a CO AIM meeting concluded.

A CO AIM member was leaving the meeting early and noticed a cop outside with a clipboard writing down information. Suspecting he was writing down license plate numbers, the CO AIM member approached the cop and asked him what he was doing. The cop responded by telling him to mind his own business and drove off.

Inside, the meeting was coming to a conclusion a little after 9 p.m. 2 members of the CO AIM youth council (ages 14 and 15) took their 1 year old niece outside and got into the vehicle of the mother of the 15 year old. They sat in the car listening to the radio, visiting and playing with their niece.

A cop car drove by slowly and shone the spotlight into the vehicle. The cop then went to the end of the block, made a u-turn and returned, stopping beside the car in which the 2 youth members and their niece were sitting. The cop asked them if they had broken into the car. The 15 year old explained that it was his mother's car, he had the key and that he was keeping an eye on his 1 year old niece. The cop responded by asking him to get out of the car, which he did.

The cop then told him to place his hands against the car so that he could be searched. At this point, the 15 year old told the 14 year old to go into the CO AIM meeting and let people know what was happening. As the 14 year old crossed the street, another cop car pulled up and a cop jumped out and grabbed the 14 year old before he could reach the building. The 15 year old began yelling out that they were being arrested which got the attention of the other AIM members in the building.

CO AIM members rushed out of the building and towards the cops. The cops had both of the youth members in choke holds but released them when they saw the group running towards them and yelling for them to release the youth members.

Within a few minutes an addional number of other cop cars arrived. One AIM member counted at least 14 cop cars that were there within 5 minutes after the 15 year old began yelling they were being arrested. Several of the cop cars had 3 to 4 members and the gang unit was in the mix as well.

The youth members were taken away by some AIM security members and escorted back into the building. The rest of the CO AIM members remained in the street getting into heated exchanges with the cops about their harrassment of the youth members. It took around 15 minutes for all of the cops to leave and for CO AIM members to return to the building.

In an amazing instance of coincidence (or maybe not) we recognized one of the cops who had choked one of the youth members because he had testified in the suppression hearings of the Columbus Day trials. It has not yet been determined whether or not this was the same cop who was earlier spotted outside the building, writing info on his clipboard.

The Denver Police Department had spent years developing a spy file on CO AIM and had accumulated well over 1,000 pages before they were caught. These files were uncovered during a lawsuit and led to the Spy Files Scandal that embarrassed the city administration and the Denver Police Department. One of the tactics that the DPD had used was to record all of the license plate numbers of cars who were parked near the vicinity of an AIM meeting. Several people unaffiliated with AIM, such as neighbors, were included in the spy files simply because they happened to park near a CO AIM meeting.

At this point, we're not sure why so many cops were conveniently in the area so that they could take down a 15, 14 and a 1 year old. 14 cars, 3 and 4 cops deep, would seem to be a little excessive in dealing with 2 teens and a baby minding their own business.

On the other hand, it might not be so excessive but rather business as usual. After all, these are the same cops who murdered a mentally handicapped 15 year old teenager (Paul Childs) and also murdered an unarmed, 63 year old, handicapped man(Frank Lobato) who was sleeping in his own room.

Viewed in that light, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that the Denver cops provoked a confrontation in the first place, but rather that they didn't use the incident as a justification to murder someone and claim self defense.

Below are some picures taken after the initial altercation.


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