About 100 people gathered for a pro-police rally in Civic Center on Sunday, as members of protest group Occupy Denver chanted the names of victims of officer-involved shootings and heckled speakers.
The rally came in the wake of reports that three Baton Rouge, La., police officers were shot and killed in an ambush. Throughout the day, Denver police dispatchers warned police to use extreme caution in radio traffic heard on a scanner. Denver police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez said the warnings were a precaution.
“That has got to stop, and we have to help our police,” said Ron MacLachlan, who organized the rally in Civic Center.
Janet Matzen, an Occupy member, said police are killing members of the community, a reference to high-profile police shootings in Denver and elsewhere. “They don’t need guns,” she said.
Members of the group handed out mock wanted posters, calling a Denver officer who shot and killed Paul Castaway, a mentally ill man who was wielding a knife in July 2015, a murderer.
Witnesses told investigators that Castaway, who walked toward police with the knife held to his throat, had threatened to kill himself.
Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey found that Officer Mike Traudt was justified in shooting Castaway.
Several family members, including Castaway’s mother, said police should have found another way to deal with Castaway rather than shoot him, and the situation led to protests.
The posters made similar claims about Jeff Motz, an officer who shot and killed Dion Avila Damon, who was wanted for bank robbery. Damon was sitting unarmed in a parked car when he was shot in April.
Police said Damon made “a threatening-type maneuver” before he was shot.
Leora Joseph, a chief deputy district attorney in Arapahoe County, told the crowd that she has seen police officers cry when confronted with sex trafficking victims. She said officers give support to crime victims routinely.
“It is an important day to honor the heroes that walk amongst us,” she said.
As Joseph spoke, Matzen paced in front of the stage waving two bull horns that blasted recordings of sirens. Other protesters chanted, “Blue lives murder.”
Police supporters, who occasionally chanted “Blue lives matter,” crowded near the stage to hear what was said.
The Denver Justice Project, a group calling for police accountability, put out a news release Sunday calling the Law Enforcement Appreciation Day one-sided.
The “event ignores experience of communities of color with police, involved no victims of police violence or their families,” the release said.
The rally began with members of the Colorado Patriot Guard Riders, a motorcycle group whose members attend the funerals of members of the military, firefighters and police, carried American flags to the front of the park.
They stood in front of the makeshift stage holding the flags as a rock band played and Joseph and others spoke. “We are here to support law enforcement,” said Kay Ripley, a member.
The killing of cops, first in Dallas and now Baton Rouge, “is very sad,” Ripley said.
Police gathered near their vehicles, which were parked at the edge of the park, but only one uniformed cop, Cmdr. Ron Saunier, attended the rally.