Editor: The recent polarization of the Aurora City Council has led to unethical behavior of the newly elected members and the firing of the Chief of Police for purely political reasons. It pains me, as a lifelong resident of Aurora, born at Fitzsimmons, 1976 graduate of Gateway HS to see what is happening.
Chief Wilson was fired without cause because she instituted reform into a department that the State Attorney General mandated be reformed. As she said in her statement, it was not because they filed a report late, or made clerical errors. Rather, she said… “I’m talking about abusing individuals. I’m talking about lying in police reports. I’m talking about criminal behavior,” Wilson said. “It cannot and will not be in that building … What I did is not popular, I understand that. Leadership is not a popularity contest.”
Chief Wilson exposed Officers who were dangerous, racist and needed to be removed for their actions. And the union did not like that.
The culture Chief Wilson was attempting to reform is clearly exemplified by Office Doug Wilkinson, President of the Aurora Police Association. Officer Wilkinson sent an email to the department after he was found to be in violation of the City’s Anti-harassment Policy and the directive on discrimination and harassment. Officer Wilkinson said…“I suppose that the city could do political polling to make sure that the average politics of the department reflects the political ‘diversity’ of ‘the community.’ Or, to match the ‘diversity’ of ‘the community’, we could make sure to hire 10% illegal aliens, 50% weed smokers, 10% Crackheads, and a few child molesters and murderers to round it out. You know, so we can make the department to look like the ‘community’,” he wrote.“…So, yes, the State’s plan, fully embraced by the city, is literally systematically sexist and racist,” he went on to add.
It seems that they want the Police to go back to the good old boy network and brutality that has cost the city millions in settlements without accountability.
On a radio show in January, Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky spoke publicly about Chief Wilson saying… “We remove the chief immediately, and with her takes out the trash of the deputy chief of police, Darin Parker.” She followed that up by saying, “Chief Vanessa Wilson is trash.”
Councilmember Jurinsky seems to want to model Marjory Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert by making inflammatory statements, then hiding behind a veil of “First Amendment right to say what I want. Perhaps by an ordinary citizen, however she is held to a different standard by the City Charter when discussing City personnel issues. Her comments possibly violated the City Charter, and a Censure motion was voted down in a closed-door session. This is another possible violation of the City Charter and public Sunshine laws, but backed by the Mayor and City Manager Jim Twombly, both of whom are behind this partisan hack of Chief Wilson. Jurinsky also stormed out of a Council Meeting after not getting her way like a petulant adolescent after being admonished for her behavior by Mayor Coffman.
This pattern of behavior is encouraged by GOP actions at the County, State and National levels. The DCSD Board is an example, and the list goes up the ladder to the State GOP now endorsing election deniers and the most extreme ones at that, including indicted Tina Peters who could have again violated state law by accepting funding by Mike Lindell. Ultimately by the Congressional GOP leadership, turning their blind eye to January 6 and the alleged illegal actions of the POTUS and his supporters to overturn the election.
Aurora deserves better behavior that what is being displayed by the new Council members and its leadership.
— James McKeeman, via letters@sentinelcolorado.com
Bravo!