AURORA | As protests over the recent deaths of minorities at the hands of police continue around the country — including in Aurora — city officials are hoping a board created to review allegations of police malfeasance can help Aurora stay in front of future police controversies.
City officials are close to instituting the new panel charged with reviewing police discipline cases and giving city leaders advice on how to handle them.
Out of a list of more than 50 people who applied, the city council public safety committee whittled those names down to 21. Once approved by the full city council, the board could be active as early as the first week of January, said Aurora City Manager Skip Noe.
Aurora’s Independent Review Board comes on the heels of protests in Aurora and nationwide in response to New York and Missouri grand juries returning no indictments against police officers.
Those protests reached Aurora last week when hundreds of students from six Aurora high schools walked out of school Friday at 10 a.m. Dec. 4.
Around 400 students walked from Gateway, Overland, Rangeview, Hinkley and Aurora Central high schools toward the Aurora Municipal Center.
Aurora police closed lanes of East Mississippi Avenue, South Abilene Street and other Aurora roads to accommodate the students.
Among the roughly 200 Rangeview students marching from the school to city hall were 16-year-old juniors James Falope and Teron Blanton. Both said they opted to walk out of school because they were upset that the officers who killed New York man Eric Garner weren’t indicted.
Falope said that in the St. Louis Mike Brown case, he saw some justification for the police action considering Brown punched officer Darren Wilson before being shot. But in Garner’s death, the teens said it seemed completely unnecessary.
“He really didn’t do anything,” Falope said.
The pair said that they haven’t had problems with local police.
“So far it has been pretty safe,” Blanton said as the pair walked along East Iliff Avenue and South Buckley Road.
But, the pair said, as young black men they still worry about future contacts with police considering the recent news.
As the Rangeview students marched east along Iliff, passing cars and pedestrians cheered them on.
Niecy Banks and Donna Reed, who cheered the crowd from a parking lot at Iliff and Buckley, said they were proud of what the students were doing.
Reed, who has three sons at Rangeview, said the walkout is a good way for students to send a message that the recent killings and lack of indictments wouldn’t be tolerated.
“At some point someone needs to listen,” she said.
Reed said the problem stems from a fear among police officers of young black men, something she said she warns her three black sons about.
“There is no escaping it as long as you are black and you are a youth,” she said.
Banks and Reed said their sons are well behaved and good students, but they still worry about their contacts with police. Banks, who has a son at Regis Jesuit High School and a nephew at Rangeview said she warns her family to be extra careful when pulled over, including turning on their dome light and putting their hands on the dash.
“I shouldn’t have to tell them that,” she said.
The city’s review board will also be used to deliberate on in-custody deaths, traffic collisions that result from emergency vehicle operations and pursuits, and alleged bias policing, according to city documents.
For each case, four of the 20 participants will be chosen at random to serve on a panel with four officers (two peer officers, one lieutenant, and one member of the command staff). A facilitator will also be present but will not be a voting member. Participants selected by council will only be allowed to participate in one case per year.
“I don’t think the protests in Aurora or nationwide are driving our process,” said city Councilman Brad Pierce, a member of the public safety committee. “We’ve been talking about doing this for months now.”
Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan asked the city council to tackle the issue back in 2013. At that time, the idea for an independent monitor met a chilly reaction from former Chief Dan Oates, as well as several council members. With input from police administration, the city manager and the police unions, the idea morphed into the current plan for the review board.
City Councilman Bob LeGare, a member of the public safety committee, said the IRB is a compromise between Aurora City Council and police.
“This isn’t as broad of a scope as the mayor was seeking, but it’s an alternative that worked for the majority of our council,” he said. “This is a hybrid that fits Aurora. I think it will be a good process, and I hope we never have to use it.”
Citizens picked for the board are required to either live in or work in Aurora and be willing to serve a term of three years.
As for the Aurora protesters, Patti Moon, a spokeswoman for Aurora Public Schools, said school officials estimate between 300 and 400 students from APS participated in the walkout. The students came from Hinkley, Aurora Central, Gateway and Rangeview high schools, as well as a few from Columbia and Aurora Hills middle schools, she said.
Moon said the issues that lead to the walkout will likely be discussed in civics and other classes in the coming days.
“That certainly is a discussion that school leaders are having with students,” she said.
Still, Moon said, while the school supports students raising their voices, they prefer them to be in the classroom.
“We also emphasize that every minute they are in the classroom, learning is important,” she said.
Students from Cherry Creek School District also participated in the walkout. Students from Overland High School and Prairie Middle School marched to the municipal center, while students from Smoky Hill High School marched to the Nine Mile light rail station.
In watching newsfilm on various TV stations where they interviewed some of the kids protesting, most had little information as to why they were out there. They had no real information on the facts of the Brown case or the NY case either. Some just said they were out there because police were stupid. They cut class just to join in the party atmosphere that the school administrators were allowing to happen. Being able to yell, curse at the police without getting in trouble. As far as the civilian review board, ……The police will just have to wait and see.
People should not get in trouble for cursing at the police. That’s not an American value. I agree with you I doubt most of these kids had any idea what they were protesting. The organizers might have, we will never really know. On top of that we do not have the serious racial inequalities that most other cities have. APD is even better than Denver. I really think most Aurora Police are stand up cops. As proven by their handling of these protests, letting them have their first amendment rights, even bearing the name calling, all the while protecting these kids from cars. Good job APD! With that said, I am always glad to see civilian oversight, but they usually have no teeth.
Just a thought, everyone talks about rights what about mine? My right to live in peace, safety, not in fear for my wife or children.
I lived in Denver my whole life, I was chased by gangs of blacks since high school (G W FORCED BUSSING)
My wife was a nurse at a downtown hospital and had to drive nights through the worst parts of the city, but I couldn’t help her myself. Because I was a cop in Aurora working nights. I have been spit on, had the other stuff in a kids diaper thrown at me, shot at, punched kicked, finally I retired after a drunk hit my patrol car at 60. I have seen convicted mass murderer get off because the Governor let them escape justice. I have been to more cops funerals than my family in the military. Do you think I left a 10$ an hour job to go to an 8$ job because I wanted to experience all of this for 20 plus years, yes we got raises, I got accused of picking on one black male, why? Because I would park at the intersection of Laredo and Mexico, I would stop cars at 15 over the speed limit and above, funny thing at 400 plus feet away at night with head lights on you can’t see the driver, radar sees the car! After 3 tickets for speeding 15 over to the same man it was then racially motivated, right, I went through that it was horrible.
One fate full night my partner and I were at a shots fired call in a gang house packed with “crips” self professed with an elderly black male shot my accident. Out of 40 people only 3 knew he was shot because of the booze drugs and noise. The fire department was there, they weren’t going in untill we did, untill we made it safe. Long story shorter, I pulled my weapon and put it to a black pregnant females head, why? She had a butcher knife and was a half inch from stabbing my partner in the left side, missing his vest. I thank God she knew I was serious, she dropped the knife. How would that have played out for my life. While cop kills pregnant black girl, or cops partner dies as I stood bye and watched. Either way my life would have been trashed. But I didn’t have time to hesitate or think ,, ummm what should I do? There would have been 60 witnesses saying I just shot her.
So when a grand jury does not find evidence of wrong doing, it’s our system. If a black killed a cop and the grand jury let the black off, how many people would protest, easy zero, maybe 10, ok 15 people but no more, why is this equal for one and not the other. I did my job because I lived in the neighborhood I patrolled and I loved it, crappy pay and all. Now you couldn’t pay me millions to work as a cop. All the protesters are doing is driving out good cops and keeping good people from being cops. Thugs will end up being cops, because they won’t care.
What about my rights to be safe ???? I am too old to be a cop any more, and want to vomit at how we are today. APS sucked then they still do!
Thank you for your service. I am not entirely sure what this rant is aimed at? I understand you have rights, but that does not trump the rights of others. I am sorry that you do not care if a white unarmed teen gets shot by a black cop, but Gilbert Collar has proven that others do, and are willing to protest. Though I appreciate the service of police officers, they should not be a protected class of people, immune from our justice system. When a police officer shoots another human being it shouldn’t be investigated by their friends and colleagues. I hope retirement is going well, though I think I have gotten a few tickets at that intersection from you.
so these kids don’t go to school anyway just another example of APS system at its best and another example of a city with absolutely no leadership to have someone stand up to these punk kids
these kids are on there way to a great job like editor or writer for the sentinal
In my school days, Mr. Krebs (Principal) would have held meeting in auditorium of all students, teachers, and staff to discuss reasons, facts, with questions and answers. We had small, local schools in the 1940s, but probably had much more knowledge of history, geography, mathematics, science, and county-state actions effecting our education then taught now. I reviewed curriculum of Maryland State History classes, based on Common Core, and there is no way that much information can be handled by class in one year, or one text book. Every item was analysis of how Europeans coming to colonies, and developing our country from colonies to forming USA (North America) was by taking away lands or property of others. Would produce the activists, demonstrators, and problems we see now on our streets. I could not see any positive room in that curricula. Similar to Ward Churchill, who claimed to be Indian, teaching Indians how to be Indians, so to speak.
Think a requirement that those who walked out of class, whether parents approved, or not, should be required to submit a written report, indicating they had read the testimony before both Grand Juries, and where they agreed or disagreed with the decision. VERY GOOD CIVICS LESSON, AND LEARNING SOMETHING ABOUT LAW AND EVIDENCE.
By the way. New York Times posted the entire 4750 some pages of Brown Grand Jury on net. Also posted elsewhere, in other papers too. Browns Family was represented by NBA (National Bar Association) headquartered in Washington DC, with offices in all 50 states, whose mission statement is Civil Rights Violations. They had attorneys in Fersugson on 10 August, next day after Michael Brown was shot. Same ones who created the turmoil in Sanford Florida, over Trayvon Martin. Made a lot of money from donations, collecting from all over USA, even Europe, and went to UN. Marin’s family life was as screwed up as Michael Brown’s, but got same turmoil, demonstrations, with added vandalism, burning of buildings, and agitation from outsiders. Not much different than Shiria Law would have created. Really would prefer attorneys from ABA (American Bar Association) who honor Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Legal System for Plaintiffs, and Victims. And especially all moral and legal citizens who wait for evidence, and court action.
I’d like to have a review board over the Sentinel and general media, stories crafted and presented irresponsibly. That is the problem in our society. Guess what? They’d never allow it!