Residents of The Edge at Lowry Apartments at East 12th Avenue and Dallas Street in Aurora speak out against what they say is widespread disinformation about their apartment complex. Some Aurora City Council members have gone on national and local TV saying that the complex is dangerous because its overrun by Venezuelan gangs. Residents, police and city staff say it’s untrue, and that a “slumlord” has made it nearly unlivable. PHOTO BY SUSAN GREENE, For the Sentinel

Some day in the future, there will be a long list of lessons learned about how Aurora botched the Venezuelan immigrant calamity, but local, state and federal officials can correct course right now to stem the disaster.

Aurora — for generations a bastion of pride and hope for all races and all cultures from people from around the globe — has tragically become ground zero in a dog-whistle race war against immigrants.

For weeks, a growing clan of Republican extremists, led by Republican Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky, have flooded the media with disinformation, exaggerations and fear-mongering, insisting that a notorious Venezuelan gang has overrun parts or all of Aurora.

Credible police, city, state and congressional representatives have repeatedly said, and shown, that it’s a lie. 

It’s a lie created and propelled by Republican extremists to advance an anti-immigrant and white-nationalist agenda in hopes of swaying scared or distracted voters with what amounts to domestic terrorism.

Do not be misled nor fooled by this dangerous and cruel partisan scheme by political leaders and complicit or inept media advancing this clear cause.

All residents in Aurora should look to credible media for the facts in a crisis that threatens the lives and the livelihoods of every resident in the city, the region and the state.

All readers should consider these documented facts:
• As many as 40,000 Venezuelan immigrants have come to the Denver metro area over the last two years after the governor of Texas and other officials there contrived a way to bus immigrants coming over the border to targeted large cities across the nation, including Denver.

• Denver was overwhelmed by the wave of migrants, and while state and federal officials have provided some financial assistance to manage the humanitarian crisis, it has never been and is not now nearly enough. The financial and management burden has fallen primarily on Denver, Aurora and those taxpayers.

• Many of these Venezuelan migrants are here legally under temporary refugee immigration policy, or they could be if the federal government would make current immigration policy workable and navigable.

• A critical, bi-partisan congressional immigration and border policy measure was scuttled in February by Trump and his political allies as a presidential campaign ploy, extending border and immigration chaos.

• A 1-square-mile part of this 170-square-mile city, in northwest Aurora, has struggled with myriad crime, code and poverty issues for decades, beginning in the 1960s when the city abandoned East Colfax Avenue as its downtown.

• Three apartment complexes in the region have long been the subject of tenant and neighborhood complaints. These properties have been the target of city code and health inspectors for more than two years, well before Venezuelan immigrants began arriving in the region. These complexes are held by the same out-of-state company, which has faced similar health and safety complaints in other cities.

• The owner has told media and elected officials — without proof or evidence — that his properties became slums because Venezuelan gang members “took over” the complexes, terrorizing residents and stealing rent payments. Police and city officials have repeatedly disputed the claims, saying current residents and preliminary investigations make it clear there has been criminal activity related to and separate from any gangs, the owner’s claims are false.

• To date, 10 people have been arrested by Aurora or other metro law enforcers and are accused of having ties to Venezuelan gangs and are connected with a wide range of crimes across the metro area.

• A so-called “investigation” into the Whispering Pines apartment complex health and safety issues was conducted by a law firm hired by apartment owner company principals. Touted as an actual investigation by some political officials, as well as some local and national media, it is actually a letter sent to city officials, summarizing similar claims made by owners of the beleaguered apartment complexes previously. City officials said the law firm and other principals continue to be “uncooperative” in allowing police to perform an actual and credible investigation.

• Despite claims by Jurinsky and others, police have never denied Venezuelan gang activity, nor any other gang problem, in the complexes and area. Despite that, Jurisnky has repeatedly, falsely claimed that police and city officials have hidden or pooh-poohed the problem, and that some local media, including the Sentinel, have been complicit.

• On July 28, days before the apartment crisis erupted, Jurinsky claimed a variety of disproven claims on her Facebook page after a massive gathering of people in an Aurora shopping mall parking lot led to a Sunday night conundrum. The flash-mob was the result of Venezuelan immigrants expecting to see Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro ousted from office by voters. Jusinsky claimed police lost control of the event and that a police car was “shot up.” Police have repeatedly denied both claims. Jurinsky said the event was a portent of why the 2024 election was critical to choosing candidates based on border and immigration policy.

• Since then, Jurinsky has been in the forefront of local and national media stories, continually insisting, without fact or merit, that parts of Aurora have been “taken over” by Venezuelan gangs, creating widespread fear among immigrants, Latinos and others as they have become the direct or indirect target of the demonization.

• Trump has capitalized on the scheme and boosted it, falsely claiming now that the entire city is overrun with and paralyzed by Venezuelan gangs.

• Mayor Mike Coffman has both promoted some of the Venezuelan gang fiction and pushed back against it, sometimes on different TV news shows even on the same day, causing confusion among everyone as to what he means and believes.

• Jurinsky has, also, now tried to backpedal on some of her claims, saying that while she maintains, without proof of merit, that “some” areas of the city and “some” apartment complexes have been overrun by gangs and have been and continue to be under their control, she did not go as far as Trump as to say that “all” of Aurora has been overtaken. Her multiple TV appearances with far-right extremist FoxNews news personalities, easily available at FoxNews.com, are unequivocal.

The way forward is clear. Neither Coffman nor Jurinsky can be trusted by anyone to act as a credible spokesperson for Aurora. Aurora, just last week, hired a new police chief and, along with a city manager spokesperson, should be the sole official voices in this crisis.

There are 11 voting members on the Aurora City Council, answerable to the city’s nearly 400,000 residents. The city needs only six voices of reason to agree to take control of this self-inflicted catastrophe, allowing Jurinsky and Coffman to say anything they want, but not on behalf of the government of Aurora and the residents.

Aurora residents can call Access Aurora at 303-739-7000 and email them at access@auroragov.org to reach their city representatives and push the council in a direction of responsibility and reality.

55 replies on “EDITORIAL: Crucial facts about Venezuelan gang claims in Aurora can’t come from Trump, Coffman or Jurinsky”

  1. So let me get this right. Our open borders and Colorado’s sanctuary state status has resulted in over 40,000 Venezuelans coming to the metro area. The state and Denver funded two charities to house these immigrants, many of which are in the country illegally, in several metro apartment buildings. Some of the Venezuelans were members of the TdA gang. The gang members began preying on their countrymen and intimidated the apartment management to give up the property. Aurora PD has arrested at least 10 gang members. All of that is fact, verified by the Denver Post and Denver Gazette.

    You are upset that your spin of the news has been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of actual reporting by other news services. Your solution is that the messengers of this news from city government should be ostracized and ignored.

    That might be a credible way forward, if anyone was naive enough to believe the Sentinel’s reporting.

    1. They literally addressed all of this in the article. You should try reading for once, you illiterate Nazi. You are purposefully spreading disinformation, and inciting violence against migrant communities. Blood is on your hands. You are the problem. You need to be arrested.

        1. Sorry, I’m not up to date on your current Nazi dog whistle.

          I’m the problem for advocating for the humanity of all Aurora people, of all Americans?

          I’m sorry that you’re so upset your side lost WW2.

          1. If you can hear a dog whistle, Joe, that means you’re a dog, irrespective of the unity-criticism-unity dialectic you’re trying out.

            I’m sorry that you’re so upset your side lost the Cold War.

          3. Your side murdered 100 million people in the 20th century alone, rata, and has murdered countless more since the French Revolution. You’re hardly one to whine about eliminationism.

      2. Hey, Joe, if you’re going to act like a lefty spastic, the least you could do is not repeat your talking points under different screennames in the same comment thread.

        1. I am an openly disabled person, yes, but I am not ashamed of that which I cannot control.

          It doesn’t surprise me that you hate disabled people as well.

          1. Your lack of self-control doesn’t make you disabled, Joe, it just means you’re emotionally stunted. No one needs to “center” your “lived experiences.”

  2. Still trying to claim that a next-level violent foreign gang setting up shop in Aurora isn’t anything to be concerned about, eh?

        1. Why are you making up nonsense? No one is opposed to locking up and prosecuting gang members.

          I do like to see them improve, and turn from their murderous ways though.

          One of our city’s most violent and destructive gangs, the Aurora Police Department, is actually showing itself to be on the right side of this issue.

          Hitler had the exact same playbook to execute the Jews. They must be portrayed as an unstoppable threat to the white children, and making up stories about them is justified because non-whites do not count as real citizens to Nazis/Republicans.

          1. Of course you are, Joe, that’s why you cheer gang members and petty theft. It’s also why you think anyone resisting you is a Nazi.

    2. Tell you what, go hang out at Colfax and Nome for a night. Take pictures, maybe turn on an old war movie for wartime sound effects, come back and report.

      Maybe I’ll see you there, taking pictures and sweating bullets as the street people…walk to the store and back, maybe get an ice cream.

      I’ll be the guy laughing his head off.

      But you won’t come. You jump at shadows.

  3. No trump in Aurora – his only mission is spread hate, division, fear by & of the most vulnerable & distract from him having no legit, well-considered plans & incapable of it – wants to blame to distract. Tired old playbook. It’s Coffmans MO too. No mass deportations here ever. Publicity stunt. We know Coffman loves those & will court any national attention – even if it hurts Aurorans. Creates chaos & if there’s any criminality, that’s for the police – which have debunked all of this. We don’t want the horrible situation Vance/trump created in Ohio, repeating in Aurora. They incite violence intentionally. Stay away.

    1. Good point, the real threat to public safety and security is white leftists, and they should probably be the ones to be mass deported. I hear Haiti and Venezuela are beautiful.

    2. Well, Debra, some new commenters should know you almost always comment only to show your hatred for Mayor Coffman. You seem to have nothing to add but that hatred. Try something new, please. We already know of your hatred.

      Many of us know you have adopted, “Tired Old Playbook” as your phrase of the month. It, too, becomes tiring.

      Finally, if you truly believe the APD has “debunked” all the criminality that goes with this new problem in Aurora, then you continue to be extremely naive.

  4. Politics aside. Please pay attention to what is happening around the world and in our country. The Mexican Cartels are here in America in a big way and are controlling drug trafficking in a big way. The Venezuelan gangs are also here because of the border situation and have a refuge among their fellow countrymen who can be terrorized and victimized. What you see in the news is only a small portion of what police agencies see on a regular basis. Understand that the officers are not allowed to speak. Their bosses are political types who are controlled by City officials who do not want any negative press to affect their City. I will paraphrase a quote from Thomas Sowell (he is a reputable black researcher for those of you who simply scream “racism”). He said “If you want to help someone, you tell them the truth. If you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear”. I realize that Americans can no longer think objectively or use any critical analysis. Put aside the blind red or blue fanaticism and look critically at the signs of what is coming with the influx of many people from different cultures. You can see it everywhere in Europe and the UK. In many cases they are telling you exactly what they are going to do. Meanwhile, we continue to ignore the facts and mire ourselves in name calling. The Attorney General in Ohio said about Springfield that it was not a matter of who they were (the migrants), it was a matter of how many there were. But, we must look also at cultures and what they are telling us will come to our country. Look at the environment that many of these people come from and ask yourself if you would like our country to be like theirs. I expect that our leaders will continue to be bogged down in childish competition and that no realistic border policies will result. The fact that Jurinsky warned us about the problem is not something that should upset us. At least one unit of the police department was keenly aware of the Venezuelan gang problem months ago and their bosses just ignored it. Unfortunately, during my time in law enforcement, I found there to be much concern for the public among the officers and little from our bosses. Th politicians on both sides are going to continue to feed you half truths to favor their side. Their concern is not for you, it is for their pursuit of power and control. Dave Perry has only one side to his arguments. He is not objective and is not informed. Worry about the facts and how we actually address problems instead of whose idea it is.

    1. Why would I care if criminals were from Vermont of Venezuela? Why would the “culture” of anyone, good or bad, have any real effect on me? I haven’t been terrorized or victimized in any way. You say their fellow country men can be victimized and terrorized. You mean in the area in Aurora that passes for a slum? I have a suggestion, if you’re living in dump and being terrorized by gangs, leave. Because you want my money, and you want to make the problems and concerns of the slaves I employ to do the things that I find unpleasant, my problems and concerns, you come to me with you hand out, asking for protection money like the Mafia don who would tells you you that it would be a shame if you business burned down. You can “protect” me for a nominal fee each month. Prove it or beat your feat.

    2. You are a Nazi, and a fascist, and a racist, and citing Thomas Sowell – one of the biggest racism and genocide apologists in all of conservatism – is just proof of that. You are purposefully spreading disinformation, and you are inciting violence. We do not want Aurora to be a staging ground for American holocaust. Jurinsky has no proof for her claims, and she never did. I literally asked for proof in an email with her, and she offered none. You are disgusting, and you need to be in prison for inciting violence against other Aurorans. Blood is on your hands. You are a bigger threat to Aurora than Tren de Aragua ever was.

        1. You are supporting the violent mass deportation of marginalized Americans, many of them who came here legally. Trump will be using camps to accomplish this.

          2. No one is supporting that. Lying about something doesn’t make it true. There is no need for camps. As they are detected and arrested for crimes they can be immediately deported. Your buzz words and fear mongering is typical of alarmist. Learn from history. Trump was roundly criticized his first term for calling some of them rapists and murders. Then here we are. A wall, yes. Camps? Not needed.

        2. -“Poisoning the blood of our country”
          -calls immigrants “Vermin”
          (Hmmm… these things are familiar… I wonder where I’ve heard them before)

          2. No, he called illegals vermin. And they are. Costing Denver Metro alone over 100 million dollars. Even a small percentage of them being lawless is still a huge problem. I’m mad as hell having to pay for that. In money and victimization. You’ve heard these things throughout history. Different cultures have handled that differently. Notice, no one is staying in Mexico.

        3. For the record, I used my real name in the above comment because I cited actual email exchanges I had with Jurinsky.

          I asked her for evidence that the cop car was shot at during the Venezuelan demonstration on Havana, and she provided none.

          I directly emailed her and said all the things I said here. I called for her to be fired, and arrested, for making things up and trying to incite violence against her own constituents.

          It is very ironic that the very white supremacy she has inspired came back to bite her. Nazi Jewish people like to think that they will be exempted from the hate, and extermination, of white supremacy, if they become “one of the good ones.”

          No one is safe under a white ethnostate. Not even white peiple.

          1. Your view is backed up by the actions taken by the actual NAZIs. They didn’t stop with Jews, they also executed those with which they violently disagreed. Authoritarianism cedes control to the strongman leader. Citizens are subject to the whims of a strongman. That is why the immunity finding of the SCOTUS is so out of step with Democracy as shaped by the founders of our country! Authoritarians use the vilification of others to trick the population into a false sense of security. We shouldn’t let them…

          2. Just because you hate yourself for being white, Joe, doesn’t mean other white people need to indulge in such pointless self-mortification.

          3. Calling for Jurinsky to be fired (people elected her, not you, Joe) and arrested (for free speech) is certainly trying to incite violence. What a hypocrite!

      2. It has been said that Malcolm X once told one of his young followers that ‘a man curses because he doesn’t have the words to express himself.’ I would extend this by saying that a left-wing liberal name-calls because he lacks the intellect to present an arguement based on reason. Consider this in your next entry.

  5. Mr. Perry, I don’t understand your solution. You say these two (Coffman and Jurinsky) are allowed to say anything they want to (which they are, constitutionally) but not on behalf of the city. How do you propose stifling their speech again? They both seem to be speaking from their personal platforms of free speech, rather than through official city media. What am I missing?

  6. It is always risible to hear conservatives and Republicans discussing urban problems. It is hard to believe that there are that many ignorant fools in this city, and these are just the ones writing to this paper.

    I live on Nome Street, about a half-mile north of the intersection with Colfax. As a retiree, I am here a lot. Know how many times the police go tearing down Nome or Peoria to respond to emergencies involving “Venezuelan gang members” in my neighborhood?

    Let me answer this way: I had no idea there was a cadre of gangbangers terrorizing my neighbors on Nome. There isn’t a lot of traffic, and the sirens I do hear are going to University of Colorado Health, and even that isn’t that often.

    I worked in law enforcement in Chicago. I know from gangs, and ambulances, and immigrants. I know quite well what goes on in gang-run neighborhoods, and my neighborhood is nothing like that.

    So all the little Trumpalos can get the vapors all they want. J.D. Vance, who is someone only Donald Trump could have believed is presidential timber, can regale us with phony stories about Haitians eating our dogs and cats. Doubtless he actually believes this nonsense. Trump gave a ludicrous shout-out to Aurora during the debate, as if he knows a damned thing about this town.

    HE believes “They’re eating the dogs! They’re eating the cats!” But at least he has an excuse: He’s an idiot.

    1. Speaking as someone who actually went to APS, Jeffy-poo, your desperate deflection that “nothing’s going on here, nosiree!” doesn’t even pass the laugh test.

      1. Republicans and landlords [and cops, most of the time – this being a rare exception] point the finger at non-white people so you don’t see that they are robbing you blind.

        This is absolutely true of Democrats as well, who have been embracing racist immigration policies, and are just a shade away from being just as fascist as Republicans on this issue.

        Immigrant and crime panics, just like Satanix panics or the more recent Queer Panics, are always a tool of the status quo to keep wages stagnant, to privatize public resources, to cut benefits, to allow price fixing, to gerrymander and disenfranchise non-white voters, to break the power of unions, and to break the education system so that every last working person is an impoverished and angry flat earther.

        Deprive a person of education, job security, a living wage, social safety nets, and social mobility, and it is easy to get them to turn on their neighbor.

        1. I know this because I’m not a Nazi, so anyone who isn’t on my side is a Nazi.

  7. They are spreading disinformation that is directly causing violence against migrant communities.

  8. Well Hi. Hello. How ya doing to all the Repubic Trolls wjich I see in any comment section of any news source in the United States of America during an election cycle ( which is all the time now ). It’s a wonder we get any laws passed or anything done with all our “representatives” ( use of that term’s meaning now totaly lost in truth of the matter ) so busy trying to make us all believe they are worthy of our votes ( mostly not ).
    Instead of telling us their qualifications, what they want to do to improve our lives, continue our freedoms we have, and keep us safe from foreign and domestic terrors and threats, they bully other candidates and representives ( of us supposedly ). Name calling, telling lies, voting for their Party not their constituents ( us, the reason they want our vote. You know, Represent us.) There is more that goes into it, like the Electoral vote ( try to get anybody to expain how that bullcrap works ), how our votes are supposed to break down in various states that have delegates from each party ready to go whenever our votes get counted in the state to decide which party take the states Electoral votes to congress to be tallied by the Senate ( or is that congress? It shouldn’t be this confusing ) on January 6th ( remember that date? ).
    So in reality, all the fighting and namecalling is just part of these ” Used Car Salesmen’s” ( closer to present definition of Represntitives ) ploy to take our votes and give to their party ( The Man Behind the Curtain ).

  9. I’m sorry it was long. I was still getting to a point but I didn’t want to lose all of ut because of length.
    DO NOT PRINT THIS ONE! OK?

  10. Oops, I guess.they printed that oneafterall. Anyway, it used to be we voted for president every 4 years meaning we’d have to listen to election campaigns for a year before, then have 3 years of not hearing their BS. Now it’s 24/7 of their garbage. In the 2 party system of elected government we have ( at present ) the Democratic party, vs the Republican party. It used to be each party would have a set of Ideas and Goals for running our country which differed slightly from the other party. Both ideas and goals would stay within the rules and confines of our Constitutuonal Government. Through the years, people learned that each party had their tendencies of how to govern which we call today conservative and liberal. And for the most part that worked for 250 years give or take.
    But the parties ran out of ideas for running our country. They realized the amount of $ they were taking in really looked better in their parties, than putting it into programs designed to support and aid and improve our country for the people. The party’s wellbeing became more important than the wellbeing of the people and somewhere for the people got lost! Both parties did it. Both party realised the addiction of greed and knew they both were becoming a cancer for the people. And rather than work to free themselves and give back to the people, they decided to start attacking and blameing each other’s party for the destruction and degregation through namecalling, destroying the other parties ideology and basicly turning thus election process into a 24/7 soapopera, throwing insults and lies and bullshit at each other to fool all of us of the people, so for the people became for the party! We’ve been Gaslighted ( is that the new term for wool pulled over our eyes? ) by a bunch of organized shysters, a crapload of Used Car Salesmen!
    How could this happen? The power of the pen, the 4th estate, the Media surely saw this happening! Well, that would make very good discussions but, for now, lets stop buying the used cars

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