A call to action for our elected leaders in the state of Colorado. The time for change is now. We need fundamental change in the policing of black people, in the policing of people of color, in the policing of American citizens. We do not know what is happening behind closed congressional doors and police precincts, but publicly there is an absence of leadership in the effort to mend the centuries of wounds of racial inequality and injustice that have plagued our society.  

The United States of America's Declaration of Independence states: "But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

We need elected leaders in our states, cities, and police departments to first acknowledge that changes need to be made. We need to acknowledge that black lives are disproportionately the victims of police brutality. We need to acknowledge that due to fear and militarization of the police there is far too much violence involved in the protection of this country. We need to acknowledge our cognitive biases and our unconscious racial biases.

The time is now to act, to plan, to change. An in depth discussion is needed between, elected leaders, police, and their communities. This can be accomplished by the creation of  Racial Justice Task-Force by the Denver Police department. To be one of the first police departments to establish a task force to specifically work on the solutions to police brutality. This task force would pursue the following initiatives:

1. An analysis and audit of the current state of the police department in regards to training, militarization, and racial injustices. 
2. An overhaul in the training and education of new police officers. Working to extend the amount of training officers receive and the content that is taught in training. This must include education and information from People of Color. 
3.  Routine meetings with the police department from various community representativies from each precinct or district. 

There are many more initiatives to include, but the time to act and engage in discussion is now. We call on you Governor Jared Polis, Mayor Michael Hancock, Police Chief Paul Pazen, and the Colorado Department of Public Safety. The state of Colorado and the city of Denver must lead the country in the efforts to remove systemic racism from our communities and society!