Category Archives: Racial Justice

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

DENVER – In a lawsuit filed this morning against Colorado Springs police officers and the City of Colorado Springs, the ACLU of Colorado charged that two young African-American men were victims of the police department’s “custom and practice” of engaging in racially-biased policing and carrying out groundless, racially-motivated stops and searches. In 2015, the lawsuit asserts, Ryan and Benjamin Brown were pulled over because of their race, handcuffed, searched, and detained at gun point.... | Read More

ACLU of Colorado Executive Director Nathan Woodliff-Stanley presented the following testimony to the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to SB 64, a bill that would have allowed death sentences to be given by non-unanimous juries.  The bill was defeated. Thank you, Madam Chair.  My name is Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, Executive Director of the ACLU of Colorado, and I testify in opposition to Senate Bill 64. There are only three states that currently allow non-unanimous juries in.... | Read More