REFLECTION ON DISRUPTION
More than a year after unrest in Aurora, officials and community members take a look at what has changed
Joel Juarez, the owner of a mixed martial arts studio in downtown Aurora, said he remembers the night of May 31, 2020, like a horror movie. He saw chaos, from people smashing windows to stealing as many items as they could hold in their hands to arguing with each other, all while a police car was on fire, he said.
Juarez raced to his business to see his storefront had been smashed during civil unrest stemming from the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
His was just one of an estimated 65 businesses that were looted and saw $3 million worth of damage during the unrest, according to Aurora officials.
What started as a peaceful demonstration outside the Aurora Police Department took a violent turn that evening when some wanted to continue a nonviolent protest while others demanded more aggressive tactics.
The more hostile group moved toward the downtown and people began looting businesses. A similar scenario took place the next day in Naperville.
After the plywood boards were put up to secure his business, Juarez said he remembers sitting in the dark for hours trying to sketch out and re-envision SumDong Martial Arts Academy. What seemed like a simple fix, a smashed storefront, actually required a lot more work. A lot of the glass fell into the heating and cooling vents on the floor, prompting a deep clean of the facility because young students at the academy practice martial arts barefoot.
While businesses such as Juarez’s struggled to get back on their feet, Aurora activists held peaceful protests and rallies, calling for changes to the training, complaint policies and other practices of the Aurora Police Department.
Two groups of activists drafted lists of written demands calling for transparency and changes to the process to file complaints against police officers, for civilian involvement in the officer disciplinary process,
changes to the gang database, working body cameras for officers and a requirement that the city’s police officers live in Aurora, among other demands.
Several new activist groups, like The People’s Coalition and The Grassroots Alliance, were created with the goal of fighting against economic and racial injustice.
For the past year after the unrest in Aurora, Mayor Richard Irvin has supported the police department, while also agreeing to look into changing some practices and policies.
In response, the Mayor’s Office started the CHANGE Initiative, which stands for Community Helping Aurora’s Necessary Growth and Empowerment, which was designed to look at police operations.
The city held several community listening sessions where police and city officials listened to what the community had
to say about the police and its training and use of force policies.
A number of recommendations and actions came from the sessions, and city officials focused on three major ones: creating a Civilian Review Board that would look at police operations, most notably complaints against police officers; implementing body cameras for officers; and looking at getting more diversity in the ranks of the police force.
The city did create the Civilian Review Board, and went about the process of buying, testing and implementing body cameras. The nine-member review board is holding its first meeting this month, and Irvin said last week the body cameras have been in partial operation since January.
Aurora Police Department spokesman Paris Lewbel said while the department had originally requested 275 cameras for officers that are assigned to neighborhood policing and investigative service bureaus, they have decided to equip all 305 sworn officers with body cameras. The department will be returning to the City Council in the near future with an updated proposal, he said.
As for recruiting more minority police officers, the city has looked at several programs, including developing a lateral hiring program that would bring in experienced officers from other police departments. By doing that, the city also could recruit more minority officers for the department, officials said.
While many have supported the city’s moves on police reform, others have said the programs don’t go far enough.
Some critics have said the Civilian Review Board should have more authority to independently investigate citizen complaints against police. City officials, including Irvin, said they gave the board as much authority as they could, considering state laws.
Irvin said last week the city has been “ahead of the curve” in responding to calls for police reform, and said he feels “great” about the new board.
“There are some in the community who will always have issues,” he said.
Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman wrote in a Facebook post in April that while it feels like there are two sides - those who support the police and those who wish to defund the police - she doesn’t believe that’s true.
Ziman wrote. “We should be continually striving to learn from the transgressions of others as well as assessing our own decisions and outcomes. None of this involves attaching blame or shame; it simply means that we honestly and objectively determine how we can be better. Always.”
Some people also said the city took too long to buy the body cameras for police officers, but Irvin and city staff members said the process of selecting, testing and equipping officers with body cameras takes time.
Activist and lawyer Sharonda Roberson said she does not feel the CHANGE Initiative was productive, but she is proud of the Civilian Review Board put in place after she and others wrote one of two demand letters to local elected and law enforcement officials asking for one.
“It’s a good start and now we have a base to build off of versus before when we had nothing,” Roberson said. “While it may seem small, I think great people were picked to be on the board and are going to keep the public up to date. Most change happens behind closed doors.”
She hopes in the future some members of the board are able to be elected by a community vote rather than appointed to the panel by the mayor, with the consent of the City Council.
Following the May 31 unrest Roberson helped found The People’s Coalition, organized a peace rally and created a Facebook group for Aurora residents to share concerns and ask for transparency regarding the complaint process against police officers in the city.
Now, she said many activists feel burned out from the work that has been done over the past year, as well as dealing with the pandemic. However, she says they have to continue applying pressure and working on issues not just locally but on a statewide basis as well.
“I have to know how to pace myself and know it’s not a race,” Roberson said.
“Many people want reform but still support law enforcement — both are possible and it’s not an either/or situation. We should be open to that.” — Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman, in an April Facebook post