Musical artists and state lawmakers will participate in a march and musical performance on Monday at Greenwood Village city hall, in response to the locality’s move to circumvent a key provision of the state’s new police accountability law.

Senate Bill 217, passed in June in the wake of racial justice protests worldwide, allows for civil suits against police officers for misconduct. The law also makes law enforcement employees personally responsible for paying up to $25,000 for any judgment against them. However, the Greenwood Village council passed a resolution pledging the city to indemnify officers.

Nathaniel Rateliff of Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats wrote to the city to say that the move “shockingly predetermined all future police abuse as justified to further shield bad officers from enforcement mechanisms created within SB20-217. Recently we have discussed plans to play at Fiddler’s Green, we write to you today to publicly announce that we will not play music there until Greenwood Village rescinds its recent resolution permitting police to act without accountability.”

Rateliff is among the musicians who will join the protest at 7:30 on Monday evening, along with Sen. Jeff Bridges, Rep. Meg Froelich and Rep. Leslie Herod, all Democrats. 

Herod, of Denver, engaged on Sunday with 18th Judicial District Attorney George Bruachler over Twitter, following a statement she made that called any police contact between Greenwood Village police and persons of color unsafe because of the resolution.

“Object to their resolution as loudly as you can, but to suggest POC are unsafe from GVPD is over the top,” wrote Brauchler. “SB 217 has existed for mere weeks and GVPD wasn’t endangering anyone, let alone POC prior to it. Your accusations are unfair and unsubstantiated.”

Herod countered that she was not attacking the police department, but rather, “this resolution condones violence with no accountability. That is dangerous. Period.”

While acknowledging that sentiment, Brauchler clarified that his issue was with Herod’s characterization of Greenwood Village’s police endangering Black people.