It was encouraging to learn last week that Denver Mayor Michael Hancock will appeal a preposterous jury award to the instigators of street riots that thrashed and paralyzed downtown in the summer of 2020.

Nearly two years after law-abiding Denverites suffered through destructive “racial justice” riots that ran roughshod over their community, a federal jury added insult to injury by ordering the city pay $14 million to 12 plaintiffs. The suit alleges Denver police used “unnecessary force” – such as tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets – to contain the street unrest following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

If the jury award is not overturned, Denver taxpayers rightly will feel betrayed.

Of course, their resentment shouldn’t be directed at the many protesters who actually engaged peacefully in the wake of Floyd’s death. The ones who deserve the entire community’s scorn are the rabble rousers who piggybacked on the protests, turning them into a melee that served their fringe political agenda.

Families and small businesses around Capitol Hill still remember the nightmare that was summer 2020. Their reward? The likes of self-fancied “abolitionist” and “bail reformist” Elisabeth Epps walking away with $1.25 million of their taxpayer money. She’s the lead activist-plaintiff of this ACLU of Colorado-backed lawsuit – as she seeks a state legislative seat representing the very Capitol Hill and East Colfax district now engulfed in skyrocketing lawlessness that her fringe politics helped foster.

Disillusioned Denverites are right to be infuriated. Hefty sums could be pocketed by participants in the same riots that made innocent locals afraid to go outside. The rioters wanted conflict and would do anything to incite it, engaging in the timeless tactic of subverting peaceful demonstrations with violence to advance a radical, fringe agenda.

The buck should have stopped with city government at the highest levels. But leaders were slow to quash the tsunami of recklessness. As a result, Denver’s law enforcers were faced with a precarious predicament.

As Ed Obayashi, a California-based deputy sheriff and legal adviser, recently told The Gazette, anarchic protests by people intent on violence make such settlements inevitable: “It really goes south in an instant because there are individuals out there who want to cause chaos.”

As Denverites prepare to face the financial slap of a ridiculous jury award, let’s also not forget the 70-plus injured police. Where’s their tribute? And where are the payouts for the locals whose belongings and buildings were vandalized?

As a representative of the Denver Police Protective Association said, “if the… (DPD) hadn’t held the line for those five days, there would not be a downtown Denver.”

Residents besieged by the riots know that to be true. Their best hope now is that an appellate court restores common sense to the litigation and either sets aside the jury award or drastically scales it back.

Whatever improvements Denver police could use in preparedness and procedures for such chaotic events – as with any law enforcement agency – the jury verdict in this case was unjustifiable.

Denver Gazette editorial board