In this edition:
Join us on Thursday, August 26, for our virtual Annual Meeting. Together we will honor local civil liberties heroes, celebrate legislative successes, and look ahead to the next year.
Thursday, August 26 at 5:30 p.m. MST Zoom (log-in details provided upon registration)
In 2021, fueled by injustice and powered by you, we fought passionately to pass bills that protect the free speech rights of people living in HOAs, provide due process to Colorado immigrants, limit the detention of children and reform pretrial detention. Together, we launched a statewide clemency campaign to safely release people from incarceration and bring families back together. We filed lawsuits challenging policing in our schools and the local government's ability to bar people with past felony convictions from public office. But that's just the beginning. Our accomplishments are too many to list in one message, and all were made possible with your support. To build on these successes and continue extending civil rights and civil liberties for all Coloradans, we are convening virtually with our staff, supporters, and community partners to take a deeper look at some of our legislative wins, lessons learned, and what's next on the horizon. CART, ASL, and Spanish translation provided. If you have questions, please feel welcome to email [email protected].
On March 9, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Douglas County family whose 11-year-old son, A.V., was handcuffed, restrained in the back of a police car for hours, injured, traumatized and held on $25,000 bail after an unnecessary School Resource Officer (SRO) response.
What A.V. and his family experienced was not an isolated incident. Across the country and here in Colorado, SROs disproportionately target students with disabilities and students of color. This only reinforces the school to prison pipeline. Below are more first person investigative accounts from families who could have been spared trauma if their schools relied on counselors, not cops.
