DENVER – Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in downtown Denver on Wednesday for another round of demonstrations after the death of George Floyd.
They lay on their stomachs with their hands behind their backs for nearly nine minutes outside the Colorado Capitol. Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into the handcuffed black man’s neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock joined the group and clapped as protesters chanted, “Black lives matter.” Hancock, who is black, thanked those who have been demonstrating peacefully and locked arms with protesters during a march through downtown.
Denver and cities across the country have been roiled by sometimes violent protests since Floyd’s death last week. The latest gathering came after two relatively peaceful nights of demonstrations in Denver as the call for police reform shifted in part to proposed changes in the law.
Majority Democrats in Colorado’s Legislature introduced a measure Wednesday that would allow people to sue individual police officers accused of misconduct. Now, Colorado law provides immunity to officers acting in an individual capacity, and cities use taxpayer money to pay attorneys’ fees and settlements reached in misconduct cases.
The bill also would require officers to wear body cameras, compile civilian demographic data in use-of-force cases and create a database of officers who have been fired in a bid to prevent them from being rehired by other law enforcement agencies. The demographic data would be used in an annual report released to the public.
During a virtual community meeting held to address concerns about Denver police as the protesters marched, chief Paul Pazen said he backed requiring officers to intervene if another officer was using excessive force, pointing to the inaction of the three Minneapolis officers who watched officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee to Floyd’s neck.
“If anyone would have said stop, if anyone would have said enough, then we wouldn’t know George Floyd’s name,” he said.
Pazen said the department was still investigating a driver who was seen speeding up and then apparently trying to run over a man after he fell off the hood of the driver’s vehicle during Denver’s first protest on Thursday.
A cellphone video shot by protester Anabel Escobar, 29, showed the vehicle speed away as other protesters chased it.
