Call to Action

1.       Demand from the Denver Mayor and Colorado Governor a zero-tolerance policy for dangerous, illegal street tents and urban camping.  We need to end urban camping now and move people to shelter and treatment before more die of drug overdose and freeze to death.  The illegal tents remain only because neighbors allow them to remain. 

2.       Expand funding and staff for DOTI (Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure) and partner resources to get large, dangerous encampments removed faster, so they don’t have time to fester as health hazards to the unsheltered and the neighborhoods.

3.       Expand funding and access to the Colorado Safe Parking Initiative (https://www.colosafeparking.org/) and move all the unregistered RVs and cars that people are living in today to a parking lot away from residences, schools, and businesses.

4.       Demand the Mayor stop mollycoddling the service resistant/hostile unsheltered addicts and mentally ill with social workers begging and pleading and instead get them all into treatment and shelter using involuntary commitment and/or the Drug Courts.  Gavin Newsom is proposing this strategy in CA - See https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayarea/heatherknight/article/Gavin-Newsom-Care-Court-mental-health-16973070.php?utm_campaign=premiumsfgate_breakingnews_20220303&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email and https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/03/03/governor-newsom-launches-new-plan-to-help-californians-struggling-with-mental-health-challenges-homelessness/.

5.       Lobby RTD to secure access to the underground bus depot at Union Station and remove all the illegal drug users and dealers by only allowing ticketed passengers into the bus depot.

6.       Lobby the Colorado General Assembly to re-felonize hard drugs to promote stronger incentives for public drug abusers to take the option of drug treatment in the Drug Courts versus jail time or probation.  Demand that the Colorado General Assembly Repeal the Defelonization of Hard Drugs Laws now (https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb19-1263).  The illegal street drugs today are commonly laced with deadly fentanyl that is killing two people a day in Colorado (https://www.denverpost.com/2021/09/26/fentanyl-deaths-colorado/). 

7.       Demand that the District Attorney Beth McCann and judges stop releasing violent criminals and accused drug dealers on personal recognizance (PR) bonds and instead keep them behind bars so they cannot re-offend while awaiting trial. See https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/investigations/denver-courts-administering-high-number-of-personal-recognizance-bonds and https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/investigations/denver7-investigates-uncovers-systematic-failures-in-accountability-for-accused-drug-dealers.

8.       Stop funding so-called “harm reduction,” which is really “harm induction” (https://www.city-journal.org/vancouver-harm-reduction) trapping addicts in the cycle of addiction.  Repeal the Denver City Council’s 2018 approval for City-sponsored drug dens (a.k.a. supervised injection sites) (https://www.cpr.org/2018/11/27/denver-city-council-approves-possible-safe-injection-facility/#:~:text=Denver%20has%20taken%20another%20step,sponsored%20by%20Councilman%20Albus%20Brooks). You don’t fight drug addiction by making it easy for addicts to do drugs.

9.       Fund more on-demand, inpatient addiction treatment facilities outside the City, where addicts have less access to illegal drugs and dealers (see https://coloradosun.com/2021/11/09/homeless-campus-recovery-governor/).

10.   Lobby the State Legislature to support statutory improvements to involuntary mental health commitments including M1 holds and short and long-term certifications for the mentally ill and public drug users.

11.   Demand that HOST stop giving free apartments and so-called “Safe Outdoor Tents” to active drug users without requiring drug treatment. “Housing First” is “Housing Fiasco” when you just put active drug users in a building or campsite together. There must be accountability to work toward sobriety instead of endless drug parties. See https://original.newsbreak.com/@david-heitz-561257/2410160935587-drugs-alcohol-rampant-in-denver-homeless-housing. Also see https://glendalecherrycreek.com/?s=Saints+of+Enablement.

12.   Demand the Colorado State Assembly fix the issues created by SB 21-271 (https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb21-271) related to “possession of a weapon by a previous offender” (POWPO) to make it illegal for felons to possess guns again. Both 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner (https://www.denverpost.com/2022/02/18/senate-bill-271-felons-vicitms-rights-act-gun-possession/) and Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen (https://denvergazette.pressreader.com/article/281913071519348?fbclid=IwAR1mRNWpzcqmQI14klD8Hcgbr_BdbGZq2s4I7cqlgGH0mRHeBhTpXzr1MTkhave) have publicly expressed serious concerns about SB21-271 and the likely impact it will have on crime rates in Colorado due to more felons being allows to possess guns.

13.   Demand the Colorado Assembly pass legislation to prevent District Attorneys and judges from releasing dangerous criminals on PR bonds. Colorado State Senator Rob Woodward recently proposed SB22-041 to rein in the District Attorneys and the judges by preventing judges from releasing violent criminals back on the streets without putting up a bond https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb22-041.  Sadly, the bill was killed in the Judiciary Committee on March 2, 2022. We desperately needed this bill.

14. Demand the Colorado General Assembly reinstate qualified immunity for police officers and other law enforcement professionals, which was banned by SB20-217 https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb20-217. Don’t allow criminals to personally sue our officers. In a 2020-2021 statewide survey (https://www.publicsafetycolorado.com/pressreleases/blog-post-title-one-aykzb-gdpp4-h9xyx), 65% of officers who resigned from law enforcement in the past year cited concerns about the new police reform bill (SB20-217) as one of their "top reasons" for resigning.