{"id":51604,"date":"2020-09-09T12:10:53","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T18:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/peace-marchers-and-patriot-riders-converge-at-cortez-city-hall\/"},"modified":"2020-09-09T18:10:53","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T18:10:53","slug":"peace-marchers-and-patriot-riders-converge-at-cortez-city-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/peace-marchers-and-patriot-riders-converge-at-cortez-city-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace marchers and Patriot riders converge at Cortez City Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Dozens
Dozens of the Montezuma County Patriots showed up Tuesday night for a Cortez City Council discussion about the group\u2019s Saturday morning rides, held downtown on Main Street, which coincide with the Walk for Justice and Peace.<\/span>Emily Hayes\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Members of the Walk for Justice and Peace and the Montezuma County Patriots attended a Cortez City Council meeting Tuesday night to address an incident that occurred on Saturday during their demonstrations on Main Street, and to clarify their groups\u2019 messages.<\/p>\n

A man who claimed to be with the Walk for Peace and Justice obstructed motorcycles in the Freedom Ride on Saturday morning, Sept. 5, and bent the flag of one rider, who momentarily lost control of the bike.<\/p>\n

Police detained the man, which is \u201cstandard for these kinds of calls,\u201d said Cortez Police Chief Vern Knuckles. The man was then uncuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car. He was released to his mother because of \u201cunderlying issues with the individual,\u201d Knuckles said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation was dealt with appropriately,\u201d Knuckles said, adding that Montezuma County Patriots \u201cdid what they were supposed to do\u201d by calling police.<\/p>\n

Participants in the Freedom Ride restrained the man while waiting for police to arrive, Knuckles said. The Cortez Police Department has turned the case over to the 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office for possible charges.<\/p>\n

Dawn Robertson, a co-organizer of the Walk for Justice and Peace, said the man joined the group once before but not that morning.<\/p>\n

She expressed her \u201cdeep sorrow and concern\u201d for the incident and said she has \u201czero tolerance for that kind of behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis person is not welcome to walk with us,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

She clarified the difference between the Black Lives Matter nonprofit organization and the black lives matter movement, emphasizing that the Walk for Justice and Peace supports the movement, which addresses a \u201cconstellation of issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Robertson, the walk is a personal initiative and something she does in her spare time to help town residents organize their voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI curate the walk from 8:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.,\u201d Robertson said, adding that the man\u2019s actions do not represent the core message of the walks.<\/p>\n

Robertson has been called the N-word during Saturday morning rallies and told to go home, but she said Tuesday she can distinguish between the core message of the Freedom Ride and the verbal attacks from people she identified as onlookers.<\/p>\n

The Cortez resident said she would be glad to join in a discussion with Montezuma County Patriots.<\/p>\n

A person in the audience asked Robertson where she was from and if she came to Cortez to organize the protests.<\/p>\n

Robertson said she moved to Cortez to volunteer with AmeriCorps, a nonprofit organization that hires volunteers to fulfill community needs in fields like health care and education. Robertson is working in the city\u2019s schools through AmeriCorps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no part of me that is against the police force,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

Mayor Mike Lavey said he hoped that by bringing the groups together, they might start a dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are misunderstandings between the two groups, which causes conflict,\u201d Lavey said. The two groups \u201cprobably won\u2019t come to 100% agreement,\u201d but it would be a chance for them to express their concerns and motivations for demonstrating, he said.<\/p>\n

A dialogue might help find \u201ccommon ground\u201d and prevent future confrontation, Lavey said.<\/p>\n

\"Tiffany
Tiffany Ghere, organizer of the Montezuma County Patriots rides, said that she would not partake in a discussion with members of the Walk for Justice and Peace until the Cortez City Council understood her group&#x2019;s message. She invited councilors to join them on a Saturday ride.<\/span>Emily Hayes\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Tiffany Ghere, organizer of the weekly Freedom Ride, said she would not join a discussion until City Council understood her group\u2019s message. She invited councilors to join them on a ride.<\/p>\n

Councilor David Rainey said the Patriots\u2019 honking horns and revving engines have disrupted businesses on Main Street. The mayor\u2019s office has received complaints, but he said the rides could continue as long as they were not \u201coffensive to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghere rebutted Rainey\u2019s statement, asking if by that reasoning, the Justice and Peace group would take down its Black Lives Matter flag because it offends her.<\/p>\n

For Ghere, putting a race in front of \u201clives matter\u201d degrades others and \u201ccreates a seed of division within the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care if my Trump flag, American flag or Confederate flag is offensive,\u201d she said, adding that she has First Amendment right to free speech and expression.<\/p>\n

She added that much of the honking was done by bystanders and onlookers, who are not under her control.<\/p>\n

Dozens of Montezuma County Patriots attended the City Council meeting to support the rides and express concerns about the Walk for Justice and Peace. They declined to change the time of their ride, which coincides with the peace walk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a right to have our voice heard,\u201d Ghere said.<\/p>\n

But Fred Blackburn, a resident of Montezuma County, said he was concerned about deepening divisions between family, friends and residents, as well as the disruption and risk of violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care which side is doing it, I would support the police in enforcing the law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lindsey Beal, another county resident, said she fears Patriot riders bring guns to their rides.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an intimidation factor,\u201d Beal said.<\/p>\n

Amanda Winter, a Montezuma County Patriot, said many of them carry guns, and that doesn\u2019t change for the Freedom Ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are gun owners, but we are responsible gun owners,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have guns all the time; it\u2019s not just something we decided to bring to the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The Montezuma County Patriots expressed their support for law enforcement and respect for members of the military and veterans at the Cortez City Council meeting on Tuesday.<\/span>Emily Hayes\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Public comment ran for almost two hours, from about 7:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Each community member was given four minutes to speak, but many spoke several times as they responded to other comments.<\/p>\n

Mayor Pro-Tem Rachel Medina said at the end of the meeting that both groups showed \u201cpeople don\u2019t want to get pigeonholed\u201d based on their beliefs or identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresidents come and go, but we will still be here as a community,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can\u2019t just assume things based on the surface, and we all want to be treated fairly and kindly.\u201d<\/p>\n

ehayes@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cortez mayor invites dialogue between groups<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51604"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}