PERRY: Aurora lawmakers play ruff with new Denver mayor over cop brutality case

Time for city hall to remind everyone that Aurora is actually still just a very big little town.

The mayor of this big-little town, Mike Coffman, has decided to bark at Denver’s new mayor, Mike Johnston, apparently to let him know Aurora is here. 

Bark. Bark. Bark.

Coffman persuaded just barely enough city lawmakers Monday night to join him at yapping at the city downstream from us, just as Johnston was being sworn in as the new top dog of our permanent neighbor and sometimes nemesis.

Bark. Bark. Bark.

All that yapping should have been for Denver’s last mayor, Michael Hancock, whose claim to fame turned out to be a taxpayer-funded gloss-u-mentary about His Truly’s 12 years of keeping the mayor’s seat warm and the throngs of homeless people there cold.

Also on Hancock’s watch, thousands of people descended on Denver’s Capitol Hill to protest the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020.

Denver Police rushed to the seemingly endless scenes of protest, some of them brutalizing protesters and breaking the law, rather than upholding it. And alongside some of those Denver cops, were Aurora cops, there to help.

See, Aurora and Denver have long had a pact between them for when stuff gets real in either city. It’s called a “mutual aid” agreement. If an entire block of houses or a giant building catches fire in Denver, overwhelming their fire department, Aurora firefighters will roll in and help, if asked.

When the throngs of protesters headed for the state Capitol in the “summer of violence” in 2020, Aurora cops were called there to lend a hand, and, it appears, some tear gas and rubber bullets and who knows what else.

It’s the “what else” that has racked up, so far, $14 million in police brutality court-awards against Denver Police, and it’s unclear how much is blamed on Aurora cops.

As part of these mutual aid agreements, each city agrees to pay the other side for expenses incurred while being a good neighbor, and each side handles the insurance and
indemnity expenses.

Back in the day, police would either refrain from beating and injuring people, or their victims wouldn’t complain about it. 

That was then. This is now.

For some reason, which only the now-defunct Hancock administration might explain, Denver decided it didn’t want to pay for all or part of the brutality claims that included Aurora cops.

Can you imagine?

Coffman couldn’t. So he persuaded just enough conservatives on the city council, five of them, to halt the mutual aid agreement with Denver until they pay up. The matter has already gone to court, with Aurora filing a “friendly” pay-up lawsuit against Denver in May.

A few months ago, this was all cool with everyone when the two cities agreed to let a district court sort it out, which it has yet to do.

Most likely, the court will rule in Aurora’s favor. The agreement both cities have long worked under is clear. The city getting the assistance is responsible for everything
happening in their city, under their control.

Whatever possessed the Hancock administration to jump the shark on the past is as much a mystery of what it did for 12 years over there. It’s just as much a mystery as to why Coffman surprisingly decided to honor the Denver mayor, Hancock, a few weeks ago, with a gushy public commendation just as the clock ticked out on the Hancock administration.

Councilmember Curtis Gardner said Monday that Coffman’s current barking scheme is essentially Aurora giving Denver “the finger,” and it apparently needed to happen just as we’re setting up the tone of our relationship with Denver’s new mayor on his first day on the job.

Bark. Bark. Bark.

No worries, Coffman says, about what could happen if the tables were turned, as they have in the past.

When thousands and thousands of people poured onto Interstate 225 in the summer of 2020 to protest Aurora’s very own Black Lives Matter debacle after the killing of Elijah McClain, Denver sent cops here to help keep what peace there was to keep.

The public safety relationship between the two cities has been long and strong on matters of policing, until now.

Rather than settling our differences in meetings and the courts, Coffman has decided to go the old-fashioned way, like how Congress operates: Pick up your toys and go home.

Bark. Bark. Bark.

If you’re thinking there’s some kind of suspenseful ending here, that, suddenly, Denver is going to cave before the court rules, maybe, but probably not. In the real world, not the world inside Aurora City Council chambers, Denver has nothing to lose now that Aurora has played its public pithy hand of judgment and wrath. 

Bark. Bark. Bark.

The case is pretty solid. There was an agreement, and Denver has clearly violated it. Hancock took a bad gamble to shave a few million of his brutality tab, which is part of the real Hancock legacy.

What Coffman and five others in Aurora don’t seem to get is that the very crux of Denver’s bad bet and argument is one that needs to be discussed and solved — in public.

What do we, and they, do when police violate the law, rather than uphold it?

If Aurora has another wave of public and violent protests this summer, like it very much did two years ago, and Denver — or Lakewood or anyone — sends cops to help out, and they end up brutalizing or even killing people while they’re providing “aid,” should Aurora taxpayers foot the bill?

Under our current agreement, yup. Aurora is working diligently to reform its police department to end brutality and abuse. Who knows. And if Aurora’s “aid” cost Denver millions in lawsuits, Coffman may have simply beat Denver to the punch of “thanks, but no thanks, we’ll call someone else.”

If all this sounds like we need cool heads, thoughtful analysis and some serious, professional discussion, I agree.

Barking isn’t talking, and neither are puerile threats.

Follow @EditorDavePerry on Threads, Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook or reach him at: 303-750-7555 or dperry@SentinelColorado.com