Category Archives: Racial Justice

DENVER – An ACLU of Colorado report released today highlights 22 stories of families whose loved ones were murdered and why, in the face of such tragedy, they firmly oppose the death penalty. The death penalty is an expensive, ineffective and unjust process that harms victims’ families. Over the course of decades, victims’ families are forced to navigate a complicated legal process and relive the trauma of their loved one’s murder. “There was a trial for the killer’s accomplice that dragged.... | Read More

2020 is here, and this will be a very important year for the ACLU, Colorado and our nation. Here are seven ACLU of Colorado resolutions for the New Year to help guide our work and yours: Bring Our Neighbors Home. The majority of people in Colorado jails are not there because they have been convicted of a crime. The majority are legally innocent and only incarcerated because they can’t afford to pay a monetary bond. As the Colorado legislative session begins this week, the ACLU of Colorado.... | Read More

We had an ambitious legislative agenda entering into the 2019 session and are happy to announce a series of successes. First, we championed legislation that will fund for the first time in our state's history, comprehensive sex education for schools seeking to adopt such a curriculum. We were able to champion legislation that will bring some relief to our immigrant friends and neighbors and advanced legislation that will reform aspects of our cruel bail system. You made this happen and we thank you.... | Read More

It is always sad to lose allies and friends of civil rights and civil liberties, but Colorado experienced a particularly great loss recently with the death of the Rev. Tammy Garrett-Williams. A fierce champion for the rights of people caught in the criminal justice system, her Above Waters Project has been deeply rooted in the lives of people directly impacted by mass incarceration and the criminal legal system. Her activism was widely visible across the community, from the NAACP to the Greater.... | Read More

DENVER – The ACLU of Colorado filed a lawsuit this morning seeking previously requested records related to the arrest, detention, and subsequent death of Kamyar Samimi, an Iranian man who died on December 2, 2017 while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at the Aurora Contract Detention Facility, a for-profit detention center operated by GEO Group, Inc. Mr. Samimi came to the United States as a student in 1976 and became a Legal Permanent Resident in 1978. ICE agents.... | Read More

https://soundcloud.com/thepurplestatereport/we-need-to-be-honest Subscribe to our podcast. On today’s episode, John sits down with Jeffrey Robinson, ACLU Deputy Legal Director, and Director for the Trone Center for Justice & Equality. Mr. Robinson, the ACLU’s top racial justice expert, discusses the dark history of Confederate Monuments across the country, Trump’s criticism of NFL athletes who have knelt in protest of police violence, and what we can learn from our past to combat systemic.... | Read More

APD Officer: “Your kind of business is not welcome here”  DENVER - The ACLU of Colorado filed a federal lawsuit this morning on behalf of Omar Hassan, a black man who was forcibly removed from a coffee shop by two Aurora Police officers who told him, “Your kind of business is not welcome here.” Hassan did nothing more than order a muffin and sit down to eat it when, according to the lawsuit, the two officers singled him out because of his race and, with their hands placed on their.... | Read More

Police tased Kelley in the back as he said, “I know my rights” DENVER – The City of Aurora will pay $110,000 to settle claims brought by ACLU of Colorado on behalf of Darsean Kelley, a young Black man who was unlawfully stopped, detained, and tased in the back by Aurora police just as he said “I know my rights.” A video, taken from an officer’s body camera and released by the ACLU last September, gained national attention and accumulated more than 1 million views. “Through constructive,.... | Read More

DENVER – The City of Colorado Springs has agreed to pay $212,000 to settle a racial profiling lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Colorado alleging that Ryan and Benjamin Brown were pulled over because of their race, handcuffed, searched, and detained at gun point and taser point, all without legal justification. Along with monetary compensation, the Colorado Springs Police Department has agreed to several revisions of its policies on stops, searches, and recording officers. Ryan Brown posted.... | Read More

DENVER: Two days after the launch of an emergency campaign to stop the retrial of Clarence Moses-EL, who spent 28 years in prison for a crime he did not commit and now faces a highly controversial retrial by outgoing Denver DA Mitch Morrissey, a coalition of community activist groups and concerned citizens will deliver a petition signed by thousands of Coloradans demanding that Morrissey end this persecution of an innocent man. “Clarence Moses-EL has already spent 28 years in prison for a crime.... | Read More