PERRY: Holy moly and water, Venezuelan frenzy draws the whack out of the weird in Aurora

The life of a journalist is stressful, exhausting — and bizarre.

For the last few weeks, this newsroom and others around the metro area have worked far past overtime to bring clarity, facts and reality to the explosion of melodrama and panic over supposed Venezuelan gang takeovers of Aurora.

Despite the freakish frenzy this story has inspired among right-wing extremists elected to public office, self-appointed on social media or masquerading as journalists at FoxNews, you gotta laugh at some of this. 

It’s not funny that thousands of Aurora residents have suffered for decades as tenants in slummy apartments. It’s not funny that most of the victims under the media microscope right now are helpless Venezuelan immigrants, who, by the way, freaking walked here from South America in hopes of finding a piece of the American life most of us take for granted every single day. As a comparison, most passionately determined Colorado “natives” and “pioneers” I know, currently hating on immigrants complain when they can’t get a close parking space at Safeway.

What is funny, is that some of those people have so much time on their hands and spend it spreading the idea that brown people trying to come to the United States are “them.” They passionately believe that those lucky enough to be born here are “us.”

And some of them are willing to stop by the Sentinel newsroom and irrigate me with holy water in an effort to help send “them” back from where they came.

Last Thursday, the hate mail filled our email inboxes and the phones rang and rang and rang with people anxious to tell me how heinous it is that the Sentinel pushed back on accepting the “gang takeover” narrative, without demanding vetted and verifiable proof. It’s what sets apart journalists here at the Sentinel and similar media from other venues rolling film and leaving viewers to figure out for themselves how to fill in between the lines and gaps. 

I picked up the newsroom ringing line early to catch the loud yelling from a man with a charming New England accent demanding to know what I was doing to stop the flood of Venezuelan gangsters from overtaking Aurora, or maybe not. He wasn’t making a lot of sense, but he was making a lot of noise. He said his job is to make loud noise on the Take A Stand Radio Show in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

“This is all everyone in Rhode Island is talking about,” he said, demanding to know whether as a fellow “patriot and journalist,” I was going to tell him the inside story.

When I asked his name, he hung up. Must be a patriotic journalist thing.

But before he could, a clearly concerned middle-aged couple came into the newsroom, asking for me. They seemed taken aback by either my gray hair, which takes me aback nearly every morning, or my penchant for short pants.

“You’re Dave Perry?” the clearly skeptical woman asked, maybe expecting someone who looked more like my newspaper mugshot.

She collected herself and launched in.

“You need Jesus Christ in your life,” the woman insisted, saying that consulting with Jesus would set the Sentinel and my errant signed columns on the right path. 

I playfully asked if Jesus might be able to help with a pile of rewrites, as I have an empty desk for him.

She wasn’t amused, pulled out a plastic bottle labeled, “Holy Water,” pulled the cap off and began dousing me.

I objected and said that unless she was ordained, she had to take her bottled water, her lobbying for Jesus and dubious behavior back out into the parking lot.

It’s been like that for several days.

In between, the Sentinel article comments, tweets and twits have been a rich mix of hate for me, for journalism, for immigrants, for 9News anchor Kyle Clark and just stuff in general.

Here’s a sample:

“What do these (Venezuelan) freeloaders expect? They come here with no skills, no money and no prospects and expect the struggling US Citizens to subsidize them. We must roll up the welcome mat and turn our backs on these invaders. They do nothing but diminish our society and drain resources that could support the taxpayers that contributed. NO MORE ILLEGALS!!!”

— Juan

“All our (news) media centers are within walking distance of each other. Let’s bbq in their parking lots and interrupt their live broadcasting with heavy protein farts.”

— lark216

“You are fu***** insane!!!”

—CatherineH

“Lock them up!!”

—ScottDaniels

“Dude, give it up. You tried and failed to cover it up. Admit you’re a liar and running cover for the Dems. Aurora is lost.”

— Jerry Lewis

“Only a Bolshevik would see barely human immigrants and immediately demonize the people shedding light on the NEGATIVE effects these “people” have on American society. They don’t belong here.. .and honestly, you don’t belong here either. Stop calling common sense governing “far right policies”

— Quinn Gardner

No one is anti-immigrant. We are anti-crime. We all came in through Ellis Island, where we were vetted. Who in their right mind would allow anyone to walk across the border with a criminal history? Do you let criminals walk through your backdoor? (House, not butt hole)

— ImagineAGreat

In addition to the fabulous pay, the luxurious schedule and the glorious work conditions, journalism does have its pitfalls, but the lack of an interesting day isn’t one of them.

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