Denver weaponizes terror tactics, continuing a summer of brutality

In the Code of Federal Regulations, terrorism is defined as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

On Thursday, in a series of carefully choreographed operations, police arrested six participants and leaders of the anti-racism protests held across Denver and Aurora in recent months. More specifically, four of them are prominent figures in the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), which has organized vigils, marches, and community actions demanding justice for Elijah McClain throughout the summer. Two of the three Aurora police officers involved in McClain’s murder remain on the force, and none have faced any charges.

The manner of Thursday’s arrests can only be considered an “unlawful use of force and violence,” as Russel Ruch was scooped up in a Home Depot parking lot, five police cruisers surrounded Lillian House after her car was pulled over, and a SWAT team threatened to break down Joel Northam’s door during an afternoon raid, while unlawfully refusing to produce a warrant. The trumped-up charges related to protest events stretching from late June to late July, yet these coordinated arrests came on September 17, just two weeks after a large anti-police violence march from Aurora to Denver—organized by the PSL—that disrupted traffic on Colfax for hours.

At the time of this writing, five of the six remain in custody, facing a laundry list of bogus charges that include attempted kidnapping (for surrounding a building), stealing a counter-protesters’ sign, and trying to incite a riot, among others. This charge-stacking strategy is heavy-handed and transparent, a brutish tool of coercion, but these are still felony charges, which means the organizers in custody could face years in prison.

This choreographed flurry of wrongful arrests is not about justice or wrongdoing… it’s about instilling fear. It’s about “intimidating the civilian population” into silence, rather than bending to the people’s will and their vocal demands for change. It’s about this bloody summer of increasingly violent behavior by police across the country, emboldened by divisive rhetoric from the White House and systemic impunity for police that dates back to their slave-catching origins. It’s about the biggest gang in America flexing its overfunded muscles when it gets bored of pretending to serve and protect. It’s about democratically elected officials in Denver and Aurora showing where their loyalties and priorities lie— firmly with the status quo. In support of the boot heel when a throat needs to close.

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State-sanctioned violence against challengers to entrenched power is a shameful American tradition, but police brutality has historically been leveled at black and brown bodies who have dared to rise up in righteous anger. The sustained national outcry against police brutality this summer has shifted that corrupt narrative; the intersectionality of the BLM movement makes it hard to target or blame a single minority group as retribution. Instead, they have criminalized outrage and the freedom to assemble, demonizing those who rattle the cages and have the audacity to stand in solidarity with the oppressed. Tear gas doesn’t discriminate, and the powers that be no longer care who it chokes; if you’re on the wrong side of the police line, you are part of the problem. The police unleashing excessive force against citizens protesting police brutality is a nauseating form of irony but ultimately unsurprising.

Arresting the leaders of a powerful social justice movement—one that has demanded reform, defunding, and even abolition of the police—has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, but it’s a favored weapon of authoritarian states (see: Putin’s playbook). The “political or social objective” behind these actions is clear—send a threat to those who organize and raise their voices. Warn the masses that dissension will not be tolerated, at least not for long. Remind the commoners where the real power lies, and what happens when that domination is challenged.

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For those still waffling over their stance on protests, or denying the insidious bigotry and violence that underpins police departments, this spree of unwarranted arrests should be a damning piece of evidence. This is not a “slippery slope” to be wary of, lest we fall; America has tumbled into disgrace in the eyes of the world. We are no longer a shining city upon a hill, and perhaps we never were, but today we’re just a dumpster fire on stolen land. The authorities in the Denver area and elsewhere have adopted Gestapo tactics because their swastikas have started to show, and rather than retreat from such evil ancestry, they’ve chosen to double-down, history be damned.

America has been a police state for decades, and the suppression of outspoken figures is nothing new, but this latest attack on community leaders is still deeply disturbing. These arrests mean to undermine and delegitimize peaceful and lawful protests. They spread fear and division among communities and send the rightfully enraged scurrying back to their homes, to sit down and shut up and obey. However, this latest assault will likely have the opposite reaction; the police are using kerosene to douse a flame.

These arrests are meant to show strength, but their desperation is weakness.

These arrests are intended to spread seeds of terror, but those in power would be wise to remember—you reap what you sow.