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Tag: five points

  • Community members voice concerns in town hall with Denver police chief over disciplinary policy change

    DENVER — Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center in Five Points was filled with community members on Saturday as people wanted to address Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas over his proposal to change the department’s disciplinary policy. The push is for an education-based development model for certain low-level policy violations and would be an ‘alternative to traditional discipline.’

    “I think it’s very unsatisfying to give someone a written or an oral reprimand a year after they have committed an infraction,” said Thomas. “I think it’s insufficient for the officer, and I think it’s insufficient for the community.”

    Denver7 first spoke with Thomas last month about his push for this alternative approach and how it would move from oral or written reprimands to ‘individualized education and training to improve employee performance.’ Thomas explained to Denver7 how a citizen could wait months after filing a complaint against an officer for a low-level violation.

    “I want this policy because I want a much more solution-oriented outcome for lower-level forms of discipline because I think that the time it takes to complete these cases in and of itself erodes trust because I think the people are allowed to think the police department has forgotten and then if the outcome in the case is not sustained then you waited a year to tell me, well how serious did you really take that case and so I think that if we can provide those resolutions much more quickly, I think that we can continue to maintain community trust,” Thomas said.

    Caleb Foreman

    Members of the audience directly asked Thomas questions, with Brother Jeff Fard facilitating the conversation and asking questions from the livestream. Topics of conversation revolved around community involvement, accountability, and specific examples of low-level policy violations.

    “We covered all of those questions that were submitted. We also said you have an opportunity to not just ask a question, but sit and dialog with the chief, and that means follow-up questions. Now, you may not agree with what he’s saying. He may not agree with what you’re saying, but you’re communicating,” Fard explained.

    Lisabeth Pérez Castle, Denver’s independent monitor, previously spoke with Denver7 about her concerns and the lack of engagement from the community. She says there is no research evidence to support this new model and is worried about how it will impact oversight.

    Castle talking.jpg

    Caleb Foreman

    “For the past 17 years, training could have been used in conjunction with discipline, which is the accountability portion,” said Castle. “So this model was something completely different. This is eliminating accountability, eliminating sustained findings, and instead only doing training. That is a completely different thing than doing training in addition to accountability.”

    The independent monitor’s annual report showed 94 of 156 officers were disciplined for violating policy and given a written or oral reprimand. Following the meeting, Castle shared that her biggest takeaway was the community wanting their voices heard and to be involved with any future policy changes.

    “I think the community is clear. They want to know more. They want to be engaged. They expect to be engaged. They demand to be engaged. I hope that the chief hears that message and involves the community further. Specifically, hopefully in the same model in which the original discipline system was adopted with significant community engagement, academic engagement, research, bringing all parties to the table to discuss what exactly this policy is going to say,” Castle said.

    The Denver Police Department is accepting feedback through September 30. Thomas said he has ‘provided considerable community input’ and has received over 800 responses from the community.

    community sharing concerns.jpg

    Caleb Foreman

    While the conversation was focused on the education-based discipline model, there were also conversations ranging from nonviolent concerns surrounding expired tags to a student showing up at Denver East High School with a gun this week. Lanier Deruso and Mckiya Johnson, with the Struggle of Love Foundation, asked questions about school safety and how officers confronted the individual with the gun at school.

    “The youth is the upcoming generation, so of course we want to put more information in them so they can [be]come better human beings,” Johnson said.

    Coloradans making a difference | Denver7 featured videos

    Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what’s right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.

    Maggy Wolanske

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  • One arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in Five Points death

    One arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in Five Points death

    A 34-year-old was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with a woman’s death at a home in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood.

    Katie Langford

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  • Denver closed Sonny Lawson and La Alma/Lincoln parks due to ‘drug sales’ and ‘violent incidents’

    Denver closed Sonny Lawson and La Alma/Lincoln parks due to ‘drug sales’ and ‘violent incidents’

    Five Points’ Sonny Lawson Park is mostly surrounded by metal barricades. Aug. 22, 2024.

    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Paradise de Fer had been living in Five Points’ Sonny Lawson Park for just a few days before the city kicked her out.

    Officials arrived on Tuesday morning, she said, forced people camping there to leave.

    Then they surrounded its grass and basketball court with metal fencing.

    Paradise de Fer sits on the sidewalk outside of Five Points’ Sonny Lawson Park, where she was sleeping before officials closed it off with metal barricades. Aug. 22, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    “The only reason people are sleeping at the park is that they don’t have nowhere else to go. You’re building apartments right in front of us. What are you telling us? What? We’re not good enough?” she told us Thursday, sitting on the sidewalk outside the fence line. “The park is supposed to be free.”

    Officials did the same at La Alma/Lincoln Park, and a few grassy medians near 14th Avenue and Kalamath Street.

    Parks and Rec says the green spaces will be closed for about a month. It’s a move they’ve made before

    “The closures will last for at least 30 days,” city spokesperson Stephanie Figueroa said in an email. “The decision was made due to the increase in drug sales, violent incidents and vandalism. [Denver Parks and Rec] attempted other interventions before deciding on the closures, but the problem persisted.”

    Some sections will remain open, like dog parks and playgrounds — you’ll just need to walk through aisles of barricades to get there.

    Events that were already permitted in those spaces, like ballgames and farmers markets, will also be able to carry out their plans if they still want to.

    La Alma/Lincoln Park is mostly surrounded by metal barricades. Aug. 22, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    This is not the first time safety has spurred Denver to do this, Figueroa pointed out.

    Parks and Rec closed Civic Center Park in 2021 after officials raised concerns about drug use and sales there. It didn’t fully reopen until 2023.

    “As you walk the park today, you can witness firsthand how successful that closure and reopening was,” Figueroa said. “The park is in amazing shape and is welcoming to all who want to visit this public space.”

    Some neighbors call the move ‘ridiculous,’ while others say the park didn’t always feel safe.

    Yes, de Fer said, some people were buying drugs at Sonny Lawson, probably blue fentanyl pills. But she also felt safe there.

    “It was a community,” she said.

    Adam S., who declined to give his last name, agreed with her from over the fence as he ran his Australian Shepherd in the dog park.

    La Alma/Lincoln Park is mostly surrounded by metal barricades. Aug. 22, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    “98 percent of the time it’s perfectly calm. People are chilling. And I think that’s a good thing. That’s community,” he said. “And I think it’s ridiculous that they put a fence around a public park, where it’s for people to come and relax. If me and ten white people came and sat out, you think they’d say anything?”

    But Cisco Saenz, who we met exercising on the still-open playground, said he was not upset about seeing the new fencing. He understands that the people who were sleeping here will have to move along, but it didn’t always feel like a safe place.

    “You see a lot of people out here, arguing, yelling,” he said. “I’m glad they put them up. I feel like [this place] needed a break.”

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  • Former MMA fighter, Aurora community activist charged with murder in alleged revenge killing

    Former MMA fighter, Aurora community activist charged with murder in alleged revenge killing

    A former professional MMA fighter and Aurora community activist was charged with first-degree murder this week after police say he fatally shot a 28-year-old man during a child’s birthday party at a Commerce City park in retaliation for his son’s death.

    Lumumba Sayers, 46, is charged with first-degree murder and two counts of felony menacing in the Saturday shooting death of Malcolm Watson near Paradice Island Pool at Pioneer Park.

    He appeared in Adams County District Court on Thursday, where a judge increased his bail from $1 million to $5 million.

    According to an arrest affidavit and witness statements made in court Thursday, Watson was carrying party supplies for his son’s birthday at the pool at 5951 Monaco St. when Sayers walked up to him and shot him multiple times, including once in the head.

    After shooting Watson, Sayers went to talk with a man and a woman in a black Cadillac Escalade parked nearby before returning to Watson’s body, taking his keys and trying to place a handgun under his body, according to the affidavit.

    Commerce City police officers arrived on scene to find Sayers crouching over Watson before he started to walk toward the Escalade, according to the affidavit.

    Officers arrested him after witnesses began yelling that he was the shooter. Watson was pronounced dead at the scene.

    Witnesses told detectives they believed the shooting was retaliation or revenge for the death of Sayers’ son, 23-year-old Lumumba Sayers Jr., who was killed almost a year ago in a shooting involving one of Watson’s friends, according to the affidavit.

    Lumumba Sayers Jr., was one of two people killed in a shooting near 18th and Welton streets in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood on Aug. 19, 2023.

    Denver police arrested 24-year-old Tyrell Braxton on suspicion of first-degree murder in the shooting, but no public court records are available in the case.

    In response to an inquiry about Braxton’s case, the Denver District Attorney’s Office stated “no such records exist,” which is the only response prosecutors can provide under Colorado law when a case has been sealed.

    Braxton is on trial in federal court in Denver this week for a weapons charge related to the August 2023 shooting, according to court records.

    He was indicted by a grand jury in January on one count of possession of ammunition by a prohibited person, court records show.

    The trial is scheduled to wrap up this week, court officials said Thursday.

    In the wake of his son’s death, Sayers told Denver7 reporters that Sayers Jr. was dedicated to preventing gun violence in the community and was frequently at his father’s Aurora gym, the Heavy Hands Heavy Hearts Center.

    Katie Langford, Lauren Penington

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  • The destruction of a memorial mural paints a picture of gentrification in Five Points for the community behind it

    The destruction of a memorial mural paints a picture of gentrification in Five Points for the community behind it

    Pines stands in front of the spot where a mural for Brea, aka “Sovereign Status,” was recently visible, before it was painted over. July 26, 2024.

    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Street art is often covered up by other street art. Those are the rules.

    But for a memorial mural painted on May 25, on a wall between 27th and 28th streets on Larimer and defaced two months later, the case is different.

    That’s according to a man who identifies as “Pines,” who facilitated the creation of a mural in memory of his friend Brea, also known as “Sovereign Status.”

    Its disappearance wasn’t a symptom of new art replacing old. It was a symptom of gentrification.

    This city block Brea’s mural called home is in the area some might call RiNo, or the River North Arts District. Others refer to it as Five Points. 

    The distinction carries historical and political baggage.

    Technically, RiNo is part of the historic and historically Black Five Points neighborhood. It got its name and designation as an arts district in 2005.

    But for much of Denver’s Black community, and others who occupied the area prior to RiNo’s founding, the neighborhood has been — and will continue to be — Five Points.

    Community members are mad about more than the irony of an art bar defacing art

    The wall that the mural was painted on belongs to an upcoming “immersive art lounge” called Mockingbird. According to Pines, the business painted a large, black stripe through Brea’s memorial mural and added three of the bar’s logos.

    “It was done with such disdain and lack of consideration,” Pines said.

    His community feels similarly. Over the past few days, social media users have put Mockingbird on blast, calling the move “ignorant” and “disrespectful,” along with harsher names.

    Pines says one striking part of the incident is that the streets respected the mural, created by local artist Lesho.

    “The streets knew what was up. That mural has not been touched. Every other mural that you might see on this block, it might get tagged over, it might get touched,” he said. “[But] that mural has gone untouched.”

    A photo of the black strip covering Brea's mural, with three, white Mockingbird logos on it. All of the logos have been tagged with orange spray paint.
    A mural for Brea, aka “Sovereign Status,” was painted over by an incoming immersive art bar called Mockingbird.

    Pines is angered that his work wasn’t replaced by something that made sense, something with artistic value. 

    “If it was done tastefully with just whatever mural or whatever they need to do on that wall, you probably wouldn’t have heard a peep from a lot of us,” he said, “because we do know that that can sometimes be a revolving wall.” 

    But to have this art — honoring his late friend — covered up in such a haphazard way unleashed tension lurking just below the surface in one of the city’s most gentrified areas. 

    As Brea’s community turned up the heat, Mockingbird co-owner Robert Champion faced the blaze. 

    In a publicly-streamed conversation, he met with Pines to discuss the harm done, and reconciliation. 

    In the discussion, Pines thanked Champion for initiating a conversation with him and seeking resolve.

    “I don’t believe you to be ill-intended,” Pines said, but added, “I hold intention and impact in a high regard.”

    A close-up of hands holding a phone, which is displaying a photo of a mural.
    Pines holds a photo of a mural for Brea, aka “Sovereign Status,” in the RiNo Art District, which was recently painted over. July 26, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    In a video posted on the Mockingbird account shortly after that discussion, Champion stated: “I don’t know how I could possibly say sorry enough for the impact we’ve had in painting our logo over Brea’s memorial mural.” 

    “I claim full ignorance, but I also claim full responsibility,” Champion said.

    Pines later told Denverite that Champion kept reiterating that “he felt like this was him getting a crash course on Denver politics” and the community surrounding his new business. 

    Wood is stacked against the exterior of a building, which is covered in paint — you can see that some art has been covered by newer layers of paint.
    A mural here in the RiNo Art District for Brea, aka “Sovereign Status,” is no longer visible, after it was painted over and because of some construction materials in the way. July 26, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    “I don’t believe it to be my job to educate people who are unwilling to do the research,” Pines said. “[But in this case,] as it pertains to my sister, my dear, dear, dear friend, and the gravity of how this came about, I do feel this [incident] inclined me to pipe up a little bit more.”

    Pines says Brea was, “incredibly community-oriented, forward, and very outspoken.”

    Her memorial mural will be repainted on Saturday, July 27. 

    Lauren Antonoff Hart

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  • Saying goodbye to 123 Speer: Denver7 is moving to Five Points

    Saying goodbye to 123 Speer: Denver7 is moving to Five Points

    DENVER — Denver7 is in the final days of operating out of the 123 Speer Boulevard location before moving broadcasts to our new state-of-the-art facility at 2323 Delgany.

    While we are excited to experience the upgrades at the new building, we wanted to reflect on Denver7’s history at its Speer location.

    Bill Saul is a member of the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado and worked for KLZ radio in the 1960s. KLZ was the first radio station in Denver, which went on the air in the 1920s.

    “To make it to Denver radio when I was 21 was something,” Saul said, thinking back on how he felt when he was first hired.

    Celebrating 70 years of Denver7

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    In 1953, KLZ added television into the mix, which would eventually become KMGH.

    Saul remembers moving into the building we now know as Denver7 in 1969. Before that, he worked in the original building where Denver7’s parking lot is located.

    “It gave us a much bigger studio; it was a much nicer studio,” Saul said about moving into the larger space. “When we were in the old building, the pink building, we were in a closet, literally.”

    Denver7 gave Saul one last tour of the building at 123 Speer before we move to 2323 Delgany.

    “A piece of history. Definitely, absolutely,” said Saul while sitting inside the control room.

    Celebrating 70 years of Denver7

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    However, what’s made the space so special over the last several decades are the people who have shared their stories with Denver7 and the individuals who work to ensure those stories continue to be shared.

    We’re not going anywhere and are ready to cover Colorado’s future from our new space in Five Points.

    In May 2021, Denver City Council rejected an application to make 123 Speer a landmark. That application for historic designation was not filed on behalf of Denver7 and went against our wishes, as our former General Manager Dean Littleton stated at the time.

    Local

    Potential historic designation endangers Denver7’s future

    Dean Littleton, Denver7 General Manager

    4:07 PM, Apr 21, 2021

    The Follow Up

    What do you want Denver7 to follow up on? Is there a story, topic or issue you want us to revisit? Let us know with the contact form below.

    Colette Bordelon

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  • 5 hospitalized after Denver apartment building fire

    5 hospitalized after Denver apartment building fire

    Five people rescued from a burning apartment building in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood were sent to the hospital Saturday morning.

    Lauren Penington

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  • Cleo Parker Robinson continues to redefine what “legacy” means

    Cleo Parker Robinson continues to redefine what “legacy” means

    A short time after Cleo Parker Robinson was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2021 — along with the four other founders of the International Association of Blacks in Dance — she did a little dance in the White House. No surprise, really: Even at 75, the Denver-based choreographer and cultural doyen is so often in motion.

    One afternoon last week, Robinson was sitting a few rows up in the theater at the historic Shorter AME Church in Five Points — the home of her titular dance company — watching the Cleo II dancers rehearse “Roll Me Through the Rushes.” She didn’t fidget but she did lean in several times, making appreciative sounds, emitting thoughtful hmms, articulating beats to herself and very occasionally offering suggestions to the dancers.

    “Rushes” is one of three pieces that Robinson choreographed for her momentous Spiritual Suite, created early in the life of the dance company and dance academy, now in their 54th year. “Rushes,” “Mary Don’t You Weep and “To My Father’s House” are set to be performed at the upcoming Mother’s Day concert. Also on the program: associate artistic director Winifred Harris’ “When Wet Came to Paper,” which celebrates even as it mourns the life of early ensemble member Charles Fraser (“the engineer who became a dancer,” Robinson likes to boast); and David Roussève’s “One Nation Under a Groove,” a response to the racially motivated bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four girls in 1963.

    The weekend’s program is called “Legacy: Opening the Way.” And the timing could not be more apt, as Robinson continues to champion the works of Black choreographers and dancers, honor the history of dance in the African Diaspora, and build on the culture of the city where she grew up. And, in the neighborhood that forged her love of the arts, no less: Five Points.

    On May 15, Robinson will break ground on the Cleo Parker Robinson Center for Healing Arts. Set to open in September 2025, the 25,000-square-foot building will be adjacent to the historic stone church that sits at the corner of Park Avenue West and 19th Street. Imagined by Fentress Architects (designers of Denver’s snowy-peaked airport terminal and, more recently, the Denver Arts Museum’s welcome center), the new building includes a theater, reception area, rehearsal space, offices and classrooms.

    Where the past and future meet: The Cleo Parker Center for the Healing Arts and Shorter AME Church. (Provided by Fentress Architects)

    Passersby will see the high-glass atrium of Studio A. And, in a gesture that reaches for the visually eloquent and historically beguiling, the solar panels on the building’s east side wall will contain the labanotation of parts of “Mary Don’t You Weep,” a piece Robinson created in response to the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and her younger brother. Labanotation is a method of marking dance movements on paper. It resembles a musical score, but its patterns may also evoke the graphic richness of kente cloth.

    Inspired by the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ’70s, Robinson’s lineage runs deep. She studied and danced with iconic choreographer Katherine Dunham. CPRD owns the rights to more than 30 of the works of choreographer Donald McKayle, the singular sensation who directed and choreographed the Tony Award-winning musicals “Raisin” and “Sophisticated Ladies.” Some of the dancers and choreographers who are forging or have forged their own paths, having come through Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, include: Gary Abbott, co-founder of Chicago’s Deeply Rooted Dance Theater; choreographer Nejla Y. Yatkin; much-celebrated choreographer Leni Wylliams (who was killed in 1996); and, locally, Terrell Davis, founder of Davis Contemporary Dance and Jacob Mora of Moraporvida Dance.

    Robinson doesn’t much dwell on tales of her own artistic process — at least not in ways that emphasize the nuts and bolts of her craft. Instead, she’s more likely to sing the praises of collaboration and of her collaborators, among them Denver Symphony maverick Marin Alsop, Gordon Parks, Maya Angelou and Julie Belafonte (wife of Harry Belafonte and a dancer in Katherine Dunham’s company).

    Lisa Kennedy

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  • New phone scam: Claiming to be Denver Sheriff, they ask for Bitcoin

    New phone scam: Claiming to be Denver Sheriff, they ask for Bitcoin

    A Denver Sheriff Department vehicle. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

    If someone calls claiming to be the Denver Sheriff Department — and that they have a warrant out for your arrest and you need to send them Bitcoin ASAP — they’re probably not from the Denver Sheriff Department.

    The Sheriff Department is warning Denverites about a new phone fraud approach involving scammers calling people impersonating a Denver Sheriff Deputy. The scammers call with a number similar to those on the Department’s website, give out a fake badge number and sometimes transfer potential victims to a “higher-ranking official.”

    According to the Sheriff Department, scammers then tell the victim there is a warrant out for their arrest and instruct the person to pay them in Bitcoin to avoid going to jail.

    “A DSD deputy or a higher-ranking official will never request payment for failing to appear in court,” wrote Daria Serna, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department. “A DSD deputy will never make contact by phone or suggest meeting on the street or at a facility for a cash payment and will never ask to wire money or utilize a Bitcoin machine.”

    The scam comes as scammers and phone fraud become increasingly sophisticated. 

    Scammers will often impersonate loved ones or use the threat of jail time or caution a security breach that must be fixed by sending money to the scammer.

    If people receive calls from groups like their bank or a local police department, experts recommend hanging up and calling the group or company directly.

    In 2023, Colaradans lost more than $187 million to scammers, according to an FBI report released Monday. Colorado had the seventh highest number of fraud complaints per capita.
    The Denver Sheriff’s Department is urging people who receive suspicious calls from someone claiming to be a Sheriff’s Deputy to report the information to police and report the call to the State Attorney General’s fraud line.

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