DENVER- On the fourth day of watching Denver mobilize countless police squads in anticipation of problematic demonstrations, you’d think this patrol wouldn’t have caught our eye. Except, the officer leading point on this patrol advanced past our outdoor table with his weapon drawn…
We turned to see him approach a handful of kids, while the other officers quickly encircled them.
Next the leader, or perhaps he was the youth-liaison officer, pulled the kids aside to offer his advice. “No one wants to see you guys on the 16th Street Mall.” And: “You guys aren’t dressed for the occasion. Do you think Colorado’s visitors this week want to see kids dressed like you are on the 16th Street Mall?” He recognized a couple of them from Juvenile Detention, I’m guessing, and cautioned them that he could make things easier, or more difficult, depending on whether they helped him out today. He added: “You heard about the two hundred people we arrested the other night? They were arrested for not following our request that they leave.”
When I interrupted by asking the officer to repeat himself, so that what I considered to have been an improper act of coercion could be made more clear, he stopped talking and told me I was interfering. His fellow officers then began taking constant pictures and threatened me with arrest if I didn’t back off.
