In This Issue:
Unhoused Peoples' Rights is part of ACLU of Colorado's Systemic Equality Agenda.
Following the onset of COVID-19 and the rippling effects of the pandemic on housing, healthcare, job and food security, the number of people surviving outside is currently at its highest point in Colorado since 2014. On any given day, there are 1000 people sleeping outside and a recorded 6000 unhoused people living in Denver in 2020. Municipalities throughout Colorado have created laws making it illegal for those who are unhoused to rest in public spaces, while limiting the number of shelters or safe outdoor spaces for them to turn to, putting unhoused individuals, renters, and homeowners in turbulent situations.
The ACLU of Colorado is committed to decriminalizing homelessness while working with grassroots partners to create solutions that work for all Coloradans. Our efforts include protecting the right to Free Speech for panhandlers in Greeley, and defending Colorado’s Eighth Amendment which allows a person to sleep outside when shelter is unavailable to them. We are committed to continue our work with unhoused advocates to disrupt the systems that force people into homelessness.
DENVER – The following statement can be attributed to Deborah Richardson, Executive Director of ACLU of Colorado.
“Two years after Elijah Jovan McClain, a 23-year-old African American, a beloved brother and son, a massage therapist and gifted violinist, died at the hands of Aurora police and first responders, two of the three police officers directly involved in his death still work at the department. Six months after the Aurora independent investigation report confirmed that police had no grounds to stop Mr. McClain in the first place and no adequate basis to direct paramedics to administer an excessive dose of ketamine, the department and those involved had yet to be held accountable for their actions.
Today’s announcement by Attorney General Phil Weiser of a 32-count indictment against three police officers and two paramedics is a necessary next step in ensuring that the deeply-embedded systemic failures of the city of Aurora will finally begin to change. Historically, the internal culture of policing normalized the treatment Mr. McClain experienced and was callously written off. Hopefully, this law enforcement abuse will no longer be tolerated. The arc of the moral universe has been too long and painful for Elijah and his family. Our responsibility is to demand it bend toward justice.”
