Mayor Mike In The Hot Seat Over APD Attack On Protest

Ex-Rep. Mike Coffman, now Mayor of Aurora.

As Denver7’s Ryan Osborne reports, the Aurora City Council is holding an emergency meeting this evening to respond to growing controversy over the aggressive response by the Aurora Police Department to a peaceful protest held Saturday afternoon and evening seeking justice for Elijah McClain:

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman called a special city council meeting for Tuesday to hear from police about their response to Saturday’s protests over the death of Elijah McClain.

“We are hearing many questions and concerns from the community about the tactics used by the Aurora Police Department during Saturday’s protests, and council needs to hear first-hand specifically what happened,” Coffman said in a statement. “The tragic death of Elijah McClain brought out many peaceful people over the weekend who want their voices heard, and unfortunately there were disruptions that overshadowed the broader message.”

…Naomi McClain, who is Elijah McClain’s sister, said she felt like police, at one point, were “just trying to shut us down from continuing our protest” after the department declared an unlawful assembly.


Aurora city councilman Juan Marcano, an advocate for police reform, attended the protests to observe. Marcano said he had been briefed with the rest of the council before the protests that officers intended to remain relatively hidden unless protestors began destroying property.

“It was just really surreal to see basically a pop-up orchestra concert get displaced by a line of riot cops,” Marcano said. “It’s not something I want to see in my city.” [Pols emphasis]

FOX 31:

Some protestors say Aurora police used too much force during what they described as a peaceful protest. The statements came on a day when the Aurora Police Department released new information about the weapons used to disperse crowds on Saturday evening…

Aurora police tweeted out that they announced they’d be deploying the crowd-dispersing tactics after allegedly seeing some people carrying rocks and sticks.

But the protestors FOX31 spoke with say they were never violent. [Pols emphasis]

While peaceful protests filled the streets around the Aurora Municipal Center on Saturday and shut down nearby I-225, Ex-GOP Congressman now Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman spent the entire day according to Facebook riding around with the fire department on unrelated calls. Coffman’s choice to visit all 16 Aurora fire stations in one day instead of monitoring the massive protest right outside his office strikes us as a very questionable decision, especially since Aurora currently has an interim police chief while the search for a permanent chief goes on. It all adds up to failed leadership, or at least it plausibly can.

Who takes the fall when the cops charge batons-out into a violin recital?

At some level, that would be the mayor.


40 Community Comments, Facebook Comments

  1. kickshot says:

    Here's Coffman's story:

    It was only sensible for him to spend the day with the fire department unless you've already forgotten the story of Nero and Rome burning.

  2. MADCO says:

    "failed leadership" is a pretty harsh description.

    Sounds about right


    when the shoe fits…

  3. NOV GOP meltdown says:

    I am going to give Mayor Coffman credit for holding a special city council meeting to address the issue, and for not being a Trumpian asshole and try to gaslight everyone and argue that the problem doesn't even exist.

    Low bar, I know…

  4. bullshit!bullshit! says:

    Wow poor Mayor Mike gets pummeled wherever he goes.

    Or maybe it's just FAILED LEADERSHIP.

  5. Duke CoxDuke Cox says:

    If that video doesn’t make your blood boil, you are not a fucking American…isn’t that right, Mayor Coffman? You being the expert in that department. This shit is exactly what we have been talking about here. Who gave the order to unleash storm troopers on that crowd? Those aren’t police…those are soldiers.

    Where are Toody and Muldoon when we need them?

    • notaskinnycooknotaskinnycook says:

      Dress them up like soldiers and they’ll act like soldiers. That’s what needs to change. Take away their military gear, and the anonymity it provides, and they’ll have to behave like civilized people.

      • VoyageurVoyageur says:

        It would also help, Cookie, if so many people didn’t try to murder cops.  More than 100 police died in the line of duty last year.  My cop son in law is alive only because he is a better shot than the disturbed individual who shot at him first.

        Cops aren’t perfect but they are a hell of a lot better than the men — almost always men — that try to kill them.  My son in law is a good man, a loving father and his safety is my first concern.

        • notaskinnycooknotaskinnycook says:

          V, I understand that when the subject is the actions of cops, your belt is around your forehead, but that doesn't make the protesters wrong. It also doesn't make dressing cops in military surplus combat gear a good idea. "The (Washington) Post's database shows police fatally shot 13 unarmed black men in 2019"–USA Today, 23 June 2020.

          • VoyageurVoyageur says:

            Some of those "unarmed" black men were unarmed only because they failed to take the guns away from the officers they attacked.  Michael Brown in Ferguson was a good example.  Two thorough investigations — one by Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder — proven Brown attacked Wilson and tried to take his gun away.  If he had succeeded, it would have been the officer who died, not Brown.  There are some bad cops, yes.  

            But there are a lot more bad men.

            • kickshot says:

              Brown’s attempting to take Wilson’s weapon is a disputed factor in the shooting that followed.

              It is accepted that Wilson grabbed Brown by the back of his neck and tried to pull him into the patrol car. 

              There was a struggle, some see as Brown trying to free himself from Wilson’s grasp and others see as Brown going for Wilson’s gun.

              Brown was shot the first time then, as he was in Wilson’s grasp and in the car and then 10 more times in the street, several times after Brown turned around with his hands raised and said, “I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting!”.

              All that over some cigarillos. 


              • VoyageurVoyageur says:

                The incident begins, indisputably, with Brown robbing the cigarillos from a storekeeper.

                I understand your belief that we should not arrest robbers if they are black.  Victims of robbery, who are disproportionately black, disagree.

                In the ensuing investigations, six witness, all of them black, collaborated Wilson's account that Bown, a very powerful man, attacked Wilson and tried to take his gun.

                Here are some sobering facts.  In 2015, there were 6,095 black homicide victims.  In 2016, according to the Washington Post, there were 258 black people killed by police.

                Practically all of those black homicide victims were killed by young black men.  

                Were a few of police killings unjustified?  Undoubtedly.  

                So should we "abolish the police" and hope that the more than 6,000 black people murdered by black criminals every year will somehow be safe when the gangs and drug dealers — and even the unarmed robbers like Michael Brown — are give total suzerainty over our neighborhoods?

                I don't think so.

                • kickshot says:

                  I understand your belief that you must argue this with a strawman of your own contrivance.

                  If the struggle happened within the confines of the patrol car’s driver’s area then one would have to be standing on or near the car in order to have definitive knowledge of what happened.

                  There are descriptions of that part of the struggle that differ.

                  I have never called for “abolish”ing police. That is one of your strawman arguments.

                  No, I do not “

                  hope that the more than 6,000 black people murdered by black criminals every year will somehow be safe when the gangs and drug dealers — and even the unarmed robbers like Michael Brown — are give total suzerainty over our neighborhoods?”. That is another of your strawman arguments.

                  Can we stick to facts and not resort to innuendo and accusations?


                  • VoyageurVoyageur says:

                    You wouldn’t know a fact if it bit you on the ass, kickshot.  Obama’s DOJ ruled that Wilson fired in self defense.

                    Of course, in your view, Eric Holder and Obama are virulent racists who can’t be trusted to investigate the death of a black man.

                    Oh. wait.

                    The claim by Brown’s friend that he was shot in the back was refuted by physical evidence — the bullets hit Brown from the front.

                    The six witnesses — all of them black — who testified that Brown attacked Wilson were near the car.   You were not.  Yet, somehow you contradict them?

                    You have a visceral hatred of cops, as you proved yesterday when you desperately tried to justify the killing of the Tulsa officer.

                    It blinds you to the truth, straw boy.  

                    Now wrap that up in your cigarillos the next time you steal a pack from a store.

                    • kickshot says:

                      Wilson fired in self defense, yes.

                      Did he have to? No.

                      You can't argue anything without your strawmen. You have to devolve into juvenile, trumpian namecalling. Or maybe namecalling is all you have going for you. It's the lowest form of argument and says a lot about you. 

                      I do not have a visceral hatred of cops. I used to sign their paychecks. I know enough about them that Wilson's behavior disgusted me but did not surprise me. Same for the Tulsa cops.

                      Stealing cigarillos or driving with expired temporary tags are not capital crimes and the cops need to keep that firmly in mind and find an alternative to violence  before they overreact and resort to deadly force.

                      It's called de-escalation.


                    • VoyageurVoyageur says:

                      A cop firing in self defense "disgusts" you, and you are disgusted at the cops in Tulsa when a felon murders one and perhaps two of them. 

                      But you don't hate cops?

                      You are a piece of work, cigarillo boy!

                    • kickshot says:

                      Again w/the strawmen and the namecalling.

                      You are totally helpless and bankrupt without it.

                      No, I do not hate cops. I am just wise to them from experience.

                      Nor do the disgust me. Just some of them and some of their unsupportable actions. A lot like people who have to rely on strawmen and namecalling. 

                    • VoyageurVoyageur says:

                      You said you found Officer Wilson and the murdered Tulsa cops “disgusting.”

                       your words, not mine, Cigarillo boy.

                      P.s.  Next time at least pretend some sympathy for the murdered cops and their families, rather than boasting about your disgust that they tried to arrest a criminal (and did not draw their own guns.)


                      What a hypocrite you are.

                    • kwtreekwtree says:

                      The DoJ report you cite only concluded that it could not be proven that Wilson acted with criminal intent. ( p 86)

                      There were credible witnesses who argued otherwise. There were many questions as to Wilson’s judgement – and the D o J also did a scathing review of the Ferguson Police Department, documenting racist, discriminatory and abusive practices and culture. 

                      Why do you always project emotions and even crimes onto those with whom you have a petty disagreement? Do you suppose Officer Wilson and Michael Brown both came to their encounter with with similar ideas about the other? 
                      He’s a racist white cop who wants to kill me
                      He’s a big black Cop-hating thug and I’d better put him down hard

                      If you resist restructuring policing ( I refuse to use the inflammatory and inaccurate “defund” or “abolish”) , then what is your plan to keep good cops like your son-in-law safe, and also the general public including people of color, given how toxic the relationship has become? 

                    • Conserv. Head Banger says:

                      @kickshot: when a cop is in a life or death situation, "de-escalation" probably isn't in the forefront of his mind.

                      It's like the far right wing gun boys, with their AR-15s who think they can handle protestors with guns. Not so easy in the real world unless one has had training.

                    • kickshot says:

                      "You said you found Officer Wilson and the murdered Tulsa cops “disgusting.”"

                      OK. I am going to call you a name now.

                      You are a bald-faced liar and a troll.

                      And you can't read except to cherry pick and distort.

                      My disgust was with their behavior.

                      And your behavior now too.

                • kickshot says:

                  I agree. De-escalation needs to be practiced before it gets to life and death, well before.

                  There are procedures and policies now to de-escalate high-speed chases in residential neighborhoods. When will cops come to the conclusion that if they don't get compliance to an order quickly that they are not likely to get it without crossing that point-of-no-return that quickly develops into violence and unpredictability?

                  • VoyageurVoyageur says:

                    The behavior you found disgusting in. the Tulsa cops consisted of their being murdered and critically wounded.  The behaviors you. found disgusting in Wilson was that he did not let Brown kill him.

                    The “lies” you claimed I told were quoting your hate spiels.

                    Your are a piece of work, shitkick!

                    • kickshot says:

                      You should have quit while you were ahead.

                      More lies on top of your others.

                      Are you trying to out-Dump Dump?

                      You're well on your way.

                      "The behavior you found disgusting in. the Tulsa cops consisted of their being murdered and critically wounded."

                      Strawman lies. You're not a mind reader. 

                      "The behaviors you. found disgusting in Wilson was that he did not let Brown kill him."

                      More strawman lies. You can't argue with what I really said so you have to make shit up. You're pathetic.

                    • VoyageurVoyageur says:

                      kw tree

                      The DOJ  report clearly and repeatedly ruled Wilson  acted in self defense.  The language about no criminal intent is standard.

                      in 2015 6,095 black Americans died from homicide.  The vast majority were killed by blacks.

                      In 2016, there were 258 black people killed by the police — the vast majority being armed and involved I n criminal behavior.  And about 100 police were killed in the line of duty.

                      And you think these numbers indicate that the Police are at fault for the terror in black neighborhoods like Chicago?

                      I do commend you for avoiding the Abolish the police/Defund the police stupidity of the anarchy left,

                      To see what can be feasibly done, look at New Yorks latest moves.

                    • VoyageurVoyageur says:

                      You’ve never been ahead, kickk.

                      Come on, I dare you, pretend to have just a bit of sympathy for the murdered cops and their families, instead of defending the “right” of Ware to kill them.

                      Come on, pretend you aren’t a total jerk.

                      Can’t do it, Can you?

    • ParkHill says:

      Were any orders given to the riot police, or did the riot police riot?

      Who is responsible for giving the orders, if any? The riot police commander on the scene? The mayor? The City Council?

      Same questions should go to Mayor Webb and Governor Polis.

      I just learned about the 1992 police riot in New York during Mayor Dinkins time in office.

      Thousands of off-duty police officers thronged around City Hall yesterday, swarming through police barricades to rally on the steps of the hall and blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge for nearly an hour in the most unruly and angry police demonstration in recent memory.

      The 300 uniformed officers who were supposed to control the crowd did little or nothing to stop the protesters from jumping barricades, tramping on automobiles, mobbing the steps of City Hall or taking over the bridge. In some cases, the on-duty officers encouraged the protesters.

      While the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association had called the rally to protest Mayor David N. Dinkins’s proposal to create an independent civilian agency that would look into police misconduct, the huge turnout — estimated by the Police Department at 10,000 protesters — and the harsh emotional pitch reflected widespread anger among rank-and-file officers toward the Mayor for his handling of riots against the police in Washington Heights last July, his refusal to give them semiautomatic weapons and his appointment of an outside panel to investigate corruption.


  6. kwtreekwtree says:

    A friend of mine attended the protest Sunday, and said that there were definitely a very few  outsiders (people no one knew or had seen before), who arrived prepared to break stuff, confront police, and cause chaos. They were white, older than the youth and families comprising the crowd, masked, and carrying sticks and pipes. 

    I don’t know police work, but it seems to me that there should be training on how to identify provocateurs, separate them from group, and leave the vast majority of peaceable protesters alone.

  7. Pam Bennett says:

    Remember “plausible deniability”?  It sure looks like Aurora has a serious case of it.  From when I did drive along with the Aurora Fire Department, I am very sure I could hear the police radio.  So when Mike says he was isolated and unable to know what was happening in the rest of Aurora, I have a serious problem believing that.  If the mayor of Aurora is supposed to be unattainable by anyone in the city because he is touring fire stations that means absolute plausible deniability. 

    He should have been informed that the police were taking on peaceful protesters. He should have been informed that they were attacking. 

    If he was not then the police went rogue.  If he was informed then he should be kicked out of office.

    I am so ashamed for my city.

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