It was standing room only on Friday afternoon when Denver Mayor Michael Hancock led what he termed a “very frank” discussion about race relations and law enforcement at the History Colorado Center.

“Sometimes in our life, we don’t have an option whether we have tough conversations,” Hancock said, pointing out that the crowd of more than 200 had shown up on one of the busiest days of the holiday season.

The 90-minute discussion among community members, elected officials and city administrators was intended, Hancock said, to “follow up on some of the angst, the frustration, the opportunities” in the wake of three recent incidents where police shot or used a chokehold on unarmed African American men in suburban St. Louis, New York and Cleveland, and the protests that followed decisions not to charge any of the officers for the killings.

“These events have sparked conversations all over this country and demonstrations all over this country,” Hancock said, conversations he called “long overdue.”

Earlier that day, protestors converged on the State Capitol in an attempt to deliver a letter to Gov. John Hickenlooper but were denied entry, although Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia and state Sen. Lucia Guzman, D-Denver, met with them outside for a discussion. Protestors with signs and bullhorns also marched on the sidewalk outside Hancock’s forum.

Hancock said he plans to hold more community discussions after the first of the year and that a citywide summit will follow.

Declaring the forum a “safe zone,” where participants could feel free to speak their minds, Hancock asked why chanting “Hands up, don’t shoot!” and “I can’t breathe” – references to the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, in Missouri and New York, respectively – has turned into a nationwide movement.

Panelist Lisa Calderón, director of the city’s Community Re-entry Project and co-chair of the Denver chapter of the Colorado Latino Forum, touched on the policy of “broken-windows” policing, or the approach that aggressively handling the most minor infractions curbs lawlessness on a bigger scale.

“I pleaded with city government to not unleash ‘broken windows’ policing on our communities,” Calderón said. “What we’re seeing now, 10 years later, is the fruits of that inappropriate and not well-thought-out policy. What we’re seeing in the community is people fed up with being mistreated and being brutalized, with having these incidents caught on tape and not prosecuted,” she said, adding, “It isn’t just black and brown and Native – it’s across the spectrum of people who are demanding that we be treated with full and equal dignity.”

Park Hill-based pastor and community activist Anthony Grimes told the crowd that he recently visited Ferguson, Mo., and stood where Brown was killed, where his body lay on the ground for hours, and understood why residents there felt that justice hadn’t been served. The complicated issue, he added, is “very connected to (the) mass incarceration” of African American men.

“What is it about our society that has devalued under-represented people?” asked panelist Javon Brame, an official at the Community College of Aurora. “What is it about our society that does not value the lives of African Americans and Latinos and Native Americans?”

Nestor Meza-Zuniga, a community advocate and student at Metro State University of Denver, said that deep-seated racism is only part of the problem. “There’s also a double standard,” he said, when law enforcement officers get away with falsifying reports.

Panelist Estee Dechtman, a ninth-grader at the Denver School of the Arts and a member of the Mayor’s Youth Commission, said that it matters how young people and the police interact.

“I think it’s very important in school that we can build these relationships and not just see law enforcement to correct our behavior,” she said, “but also to come into our schools to support us so we can learn from them and use them as role models in our life.”

Denver Police Chief Robert White blamed the longstanding tension on poor communication and lack of respect between police and the communities they serve.

“When something happens,” he said, “it explodes because of that lack of respect.”

Failure to grapple with – and resolve – these tensions, White said, guarantees “that 20 years from now, there will be another mayor and another police chief sitting here having these discussions.”

Hancock also asked what role the media has played stoking tension – for instance, by focusing on violent responses to grand jury decisions, some in the crowd lamented – and what role personal responsibility plays.

“If you don’t like what you are seeing, or want to see more of it, you are not that busy,” said veteran broadcast journalist Gloria Neal. “Pick up the phone, let them know. If you don’t, you are part of the problem.”

Brame contended that personal responsibility is only part of the equation.

“I refuse to have a conversation about personal accountability without having a conversation about systemic accountability, because, when you look at American society, these are things that are ingrained in our system over two hundred years of slavery, the colonization and forcible removal of Native Americans from their land – these things are in our system, they are who we are as a country, and we have to acknowledge those things,” he said.

Several state lawmakers were among the crowd at the forum, including state Rep. Angela Williams, D-Denver, who praised the event’s organizers for kicking off what she hopes will be a fruitful, ongoing discussion.

“We are having some courageous conversations on how we’re going to build trust between our police and the community, moving forward,” Williams told The Colorado Statesman after the forum concluded. She added that she intends to be part of the conversation in the upcoming legislative session and will be a leading architect of reforms, along with state Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, who also attended the forum.

“We don’t have a specific agenda,” she said, “but we know there are some concerns we need to address at the state level to make sure we’re building trust between the police and the community.”

State Rep. Beth McCann, D-Denver, agreed that state lawmakers could have a hand in tackling the issues surrounding law enforcement and racial tensions.

“Some options include getting an independent police department to do an investigation, and possibly getting independent prosecutors,” McCann told The Statesman. “Also, possibly, moving the investigation into the attorney general’s office. Those are all things being discussed. I’m not convinced that any of them will actually change the results, but I think that we need to continue to have this discussion… It’s important who does the investigation, it’s important who analyzes it. But an independent prosecutor might not bring any more cases than the elected one in that jurisdiction, so there’s plusses and minuses.”

Acknowledging that “the word is kind of out” that she is planning a run for Denver district attorney – incumbent Mitch Morrissey faces term limits in 2016 – McCann said that it makes a difference who wields prosecutorial power, too.

“Leadership is at the top,” McCann said. “The top of the office sets a tone in how people are treated and how cases are evaluated and how decisions are made. Absolutely, the district attorney can make a big difference.”

Calling the discussion “a meaningful dialogue about race and policing,” state Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, told The Statesman that it had been difficult to hear a young African American audience member say she believed that police officers have an incentive to shoot black residents. (A fifth-grader drew gasps from the crowd – and a swift correction from White – when she said she thought cops were paid extra for killing.)

“One of the things I didn’t hear was about the burden of being black,” Fields said. “We heard a young girl talking about how police just want to kill us because they want to get home. That is about the burden of being black – we’re considered to be a threat. That’s why we teach our young men that there are certain things you need to do if you’re approached by the police: You need to be respectful, you need to comply, because, if you don’t, the outcome could not be that favorable to you. That hurt me to hear that young girl say she has a fear of the police. I think we have some work to do.”

– Ernest@coloradostatesman.com