There’s a prodigious difference between being civil and being bullied. Aurora residents are suffering because some city leaders seem unable to discern that critical difference.
It’s difficult so far to discern whether Aurora’s newest police Chief Todd Chamberlain is simply ill-equipped to protect Aurora residents from being bullied by Donald Trump and his rabid fans, or whether he actually aligns himself with their repugnant philosophies and repeated threats.
The lack of clarity comes from mixed and worrisome messages Chamberlain has provided the public in the few weeks he’s been here, trying to find his footing in a hurricane of the city’s self-inflicted controversy over Venezuelan immigrants and gang members.
The controversy over how a handful of northwest Aurora apartments fell into such dire, uninhabitable conditions — rife with filth, vermin, chaos and crime — culminated in Trump marshaling his faithful minions to Aurora for one of his dependable rallies here. On the program, as always, was a salute to racism, intolerance, fear, misinformation, authoritarianism, xenophobia, and, above all, endless lies.
Trump himself, and those who attend these events, are the first to make clear, these rallies are like nothing else in the United States, save for the insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The rallies are filled with not just those allegiant to Trump’s wanton deceits, participants fervently cheer and whoop when acolytes like Stephen Miller scream to the roaring crowd that “America is only for Americans” or when a favorite “comedian” says Puerto Ricans are sub-human breeding animals or make Jokes about Black Americans and watermelons.
After Trump left Aurora and his invigorated fans behind earlier this month, the Sentinel reported that Aurora police had spent the day trolling for new police officers at the Trump rally.
Chamberlain retorted on social media, “Last I checked, political affiliation doesn’t exclude you from being a police officer.”
Chamberlain continues to conflate membership in a political party with being a disciple of a convicted cult leader leading a movement to suspend the rule of law across the nation to benefit himself and others convicted of a violent and deadly insurrection attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Last week, at his first public appearance to the community since being hired, Chamberlain reiterated those sentiments.
“I stick by my statement: I don’t think a political affiliation eliminates somebody from being a police officer,” he said. “It doesn’t. If we did that, this would be a fascist country, and I got a lot of problems with that.”
No doubt, most political and history scholars would take exception to what Chamberlain understands to be “fascism.”
And the vast majority of the people in Aurora he’s sworn to serve and protect — including from the police department itself and Donald Trump — understand the vast difference between partisan politics, the Republican Party, and the dangerous cult betrothed to Trump.
Chamberlain has now set himself up in a no-win situation. If he tries to assure 200,000 minorities, minority immigrants — and the white population that supports all people who live in Aurora — that Trump “isn’t that bad,” or that the convicted former-president was just kidding about forcing the U.S. military and local police to round up immigrants and people he considers “the enemy from within,” he’ll appear naive or complicit.
Having defended, twice now, the wisdom in drawing recruits for police officers from the ranks of Trump acolytes, Chamberlain appears to align himself with Trump and his politics. Taking the time to actually attend the rally himself, meet Trump and pose for a signature “thumbs up” photo, reserved for Trump’s adherents, creates a huge obstacle for the chief.
If Chamberlain is being kowtowed by someone in the city or the Trump campaign into trying to pass off this absurdity as well-considered police policy, he should make the extortion public now.
If no one in the city can advise Chamberlain how unsettling his response is and how it undermines his credibility, he should reach out to successful police chiefs in similar communities for their take on trolling for new cops at a Trump rally, in particular a police department under fire for allowing Trump-like cops to remain on the police force.
Chamberlain’s ability to succeed as chief, or even to continue, depends on his ability to build trust from the community, first for himself, and then the entire department.
He’s made that critically difficult.
If Trump wins the presidency, will Chamberlain vow to protect Aurora residents from Trump and any immoral, illegal or unconstitutional demands he would make? If so, he, in theory, could be up against badged Trump adherents drawn from the ranks of a local rally.
If the chief can’t find a way to extricate himself from this quagmire, city leaders must do it.
To start, make all political rallies and events off limits for police recruitment. Even though this is the only campaign rally the department has ever fished from, prohibiting these events for recruitment ends further risk for dangerous optics and needless controversy.
And the chief needs to assure Aurora residents he does not support and will not enforce the campaign promises Trump has made that undermine the constitutional rights of Americans or use police to beat or abuse any residents in Aurora.
God, what a stretch. While the Chief simply tried to remove political consideration from police work, the Sentinel has twisted his stance to political support for Trump. I understand that the Sentinel simply hates Trump and must interject their left wing philosophies into everything. But, give it a rest. Both our political parties are demonstrating a lack of any moral values that are real. Both are constantly lying to us. Law enforcement is supposed to be based upon facts and justice. Your political beliefs have nothing to do with it. The belief that political influence or ideology has no place in police work, means that when the time comes, any law enforcement officers with integrity will make their decisions based upon our laws and the Constitution. I don’t care what any politician says, the police are supposed to follow our laws and our Constitution. The police cannot be effective if political influence decides the outcome instead of our laws and facts. Sentinel, quit twisting everything to fit your warped view of our world. Police officers cannot police fairly if they live in fear of politically motivated media, special interest groups, politically motivated prosecutors and those who cannot understand that justice requires fairness and impartiality. Sentinel, quit putting your political pettiness on the police. Do you expect the police to simply change how they work based upon which political party is in favor? Let us hope that the police can rise above that. The police are supposed to be able to look past race, religion, ethnicity, and political party to enforce our laws. Justice has little to do with politics. In fact, politics display just the opposite.
How is it that Trump is polling better than he ever has with black and Hispanic voters? If you read this fantasy diatribe you would never think that could be true, but it is. Playing the racism card is so worn out, no one believes you anymore. They see your lies for what they are. Dems are in trouble if these trends continue, to which they will respond with more race baiting and double down.
There is little doubt left the city decision makers now stand bewildered how to handle the political fallout created by the hijacked CBZ apartments. The CORA produced APD emails recently released show the apartments was a risky scene for officers to be dispatched to. Clearly this was known was known over a year ago and the city kept it quite. Whats worse, the city kept up with the general sophistry nothing to see here. What became secondary to apartment dwellers safety and the neighborhoods close by was the fact the cities priority was it maintained some alternate appearance all is well. These CORA’s have also ferreted -out letters produced by Perkins-Coie law firm to Aurora indicating gang activity was high and predicting all the apartments would fall. Again, APD chief Heather Morris, took a position no unusual problems around these apartments, that we see. Looks like she didn’t get these particular emails of the City-Danger-Zone from her own men.
This episode now has gone to far and the city has demonstrated they are otherwise either untrustworthy or incompetent. The new police chief has to figure out what he should do and not buy into the cities politics. He did not create any of this, and has been around long enough to know how fickle politics are. Hopefully, the chief will move away from the city drama and ask that an outside law firm be retained to investigate this. Without that, its an unending tug-of- war, something the chief should not be swayed by.
Well, look it up: In the seven weeks between the two polls, Harris lost ground among Latino voters, who now support Trump 49% to 38%, and among Black voters. They favor Harris 72% to 17%, a 55-point advantage that is well below where Democrats traditionally fare.
The margins of error for the small subsamples of Latinos and Black voters are plus or 9 points − a potential shift of up to 18 points one way or the other − and other recent polls show Harris in a stronger position, including a lead among Hispanics.
Then? Latinos have made gains in health insurance coverage, homeownership and inflation-adjusted wages under the Biden administration.
In Miami, Gonzalez said he and one of his sons, a first-time voter this year, planned to cast their ballot for Harris early.
“The one biggest thing for me is character, integrity and ethics in the individual,” Gonzalez said. “In my eyes, Trump is the antithesis. He’s the complete opposite.”
so spin it if you want but let’s see what happens Nov 5th. Let’s hear it for the Latino WOMEN!
What a twisted presentation!
Sounds like The Sentinel has been overtaken by the MSM. That’s sad. The Sentinel used to be a reliable source. Go woke, go broke Sentinel!
Sick vulgar disgusting far left propaganda article get a life!
The editorial ‘board’ is one person and he thinks he’s progressive while the majority of the country is leaving those old false narratives behind and making real progress.
Law enforcement has no business recruiting ANYONE from a political rally. Any department that does so cannot complain later when citizens question the political leanings of law enforcement, and how that will color their approach to their duties.
The power structure, as personified Danielle Jurinsky, does not engender trust when it allows this. Every chief of police that I’ve known has made clear that politics is not part of their brief. I have never seen any other “chief” politicize his/her hiring practices. They are smart enough, and conscientious enough, to communicate to the public that the police are NEUTRAL when on duty. Politics must cease when the recruitment efforts cause people to believe that, while mumbling words professing neutrality, the police are only interested in one brand of politics.
That this needs saying in these times is a sorry sign of just how low Aurora has sunk under the current regime.