Boulder Weekly 9.30.21

F r e e E v e r y T h u r s d a y F o r 2 8 Ye a r s / w w w. b o u l d e r w e e k l y. c o m / S e p t e m b e r 3 0 - O c t o b e r 6 , 2 0 2 1

How a shadowy group became a powerful force in Boulder politics by Shay Castle

Safe, full capacity dining, and outdoor patio.

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news:

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How a shadowy group became a powerful force in Boulder politics

by Shay Castle

Specialized training provides law enforcement tools to interact with people with disabilities

by Jodi Hausen

adventure:

Local climber joins an all-Black cohort to make history and push for diversity in the outoors on the world’s tallest peak

by Griffin Paul

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buzz:

Indie-pop collective MICHELLE rejects your stereotypes

by Angela K. Evans

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nibbles:

Ignore recipes and cook what tastes good to you to avoid the everyday hassles of making dinner

by John Lehndorff

departments 5

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The Anderson Files: Did a CU prof almost spark an American coup d’etat?

Letters: Signed, sealed, delivered, your views Events: What to do when there’s ‘nothing’ to do...

Film: ‘Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films’ is an essential set Astrology: by Rob Brezsny Savage Love: Figuratively pissed Beer: Märzen in Boulder County Taste of the Week: Breakfast burrito @ Blue Corn Taco Cannabis Corner: Josiah Hesse tackles cannabis use in athletics in ‘Runner’s High’ Weed Between the Lines: NDAA passes House with cannabis banking amendment

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Publisher, Fran Zankowski Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief, Brendan Joel Kelley Managing Editor, Caitlin Rockett News Editor, Will Brendza Food Editor, John Lehndorff Contributing Editor, Angela K. Evans Contributing Writers: Peter Alexander, Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Jim Hightower, Jodi Hausen, Karlie Huckels, Dave Kirby, John Lehndorff, Sara McCrea, Rico Moore, Amanda Moutinho, Katie Rhodes, Leland Rucker, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Tom Winter, Gary Zeidner SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Carter Ferryman Advertising Coordinator, Corey Basciano Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar PRODUCTION Art Director, Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman CIRCULATION TEAM Dave Hastie, Dan Hill, George LaRoe, Jeffrey Lohrius, Elizabeth Ouslie, Rick Slama BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer

September 30, 2021 Volume XXIX, Number 8 As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism, and thought-provoking opinion writing.

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Did a CU prof almost spark an American coup d’etat?

by Dave Anderson

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n August 2020, John Eastman published an op-ed in Newsweek suggesting that Kamala Harris might be unqualified to be vice president because her parents weren’t U.S. citizens when she was born. Harris was definitely born in Oakland, California but Eastman has a very fringe view of the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship clause. Trump and his campaign surrogates used this racist “birtherism” to attack her. However, many legal scholars of various political stripes were outraged by Eastman’s claims.

We found out that Eastman was a visiting CU Boulder scholar of conservative thought and policy. He was on leave from Chapman University where he was a tenured constitutional law professor.

On January 6, Eastman was a speaker at Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on the National Mall.

“We know there was fraud,” Eastman told the crowd that would soon become a violent mob storming the U.S. Capitol. “We know that dead people voted.”

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Eastman had penned an elaborate memo for Trump on how to overturn the election. But according to election officials of both parties, the 2020 election was free and fair. Joe Biden won both the popular and Electoral College vote. It wasn’t even close.

On January 4, Trump, Pence and Eastman met in the White House. Trump urged Pence to listen to Eastman. Pence was ambivalent but was under a great deal of pressure to obey Trump. He consulted a number of prominent conservative Republicans who didn’t think much of the seditious memo.

“This was a coup conducted by the president—against his own vice president and the Congress,” Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a member of the January 6 committee, told Greg Sargent of the Washington Post. “We are actively investigating both the organization of the bloody insurrection and the planning of the coup against American democracy. Both of them were attacks on the constitutional order.”

In The Atlantic, Adam Serwer outlined Trump’s brazen public acts: “1. Trump tried to pressure secretaries of state to not certify. see ANDERSON FILES Page 6

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CORRECTIONS: “Annexed by emergency vote,” published on 9/9/21, contained the following errors: Councilwoman Mirabai Nagle’s last name was misspelled; two councilmembers were recused and one was absent at the meeting where the annexation agreement was discussed point-by-point; and the Charter Section referred to

by Mayor Sam Weaver was Section 50, Emergency measures subject to referendum. Boulder Weekly regrets the errors.

BEDROOMS INITIATIVE IS AN AMAZING STEP I’m a Boulder homeowner and I support a yes vote on Ballot Question 300, Bedrooms Are For People.

Ending Boulder’s outdated, discriminatory occupancy laws will cost the city nothing, does not require new development, and will decriminalize what’s already happening across the city. Boulder has an ongoing legacy of exclusionary housing, through zoning and restrictive ordinances, and we can see the residual impacts of that in our community today: school enrollment is on the decline, Boulder’s population hovers at around 88% white, which is NOT reflective of the county, the state, or the country’s ethnic diversity, according to a 2014 study on intercounty commute patterns, greater than half of Boulder county’s low-income workers drive into the county to work.

As to school enrollment: families need to be able to envision building a life here and raising their kids here.

As to our demographics: Black, indigenous, and people of color need to feel that they are welcome here, that there is space for them.

And as to our forced commuting patterns: workers should have an option to live where they work, especially if we are going to continue being a jobs center. On that note, even as this summer’s horrible, cloudy, hazy fire days recede, we’ll still be dealing with terrible air quality because of those forced commuting patterns and ozone.

I’m not suggesting that the Bedrooms Are For People measure will solve all of these deeply ingrained 6

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issues, but it’s going to help. It’ll do that by giving people more options and more flexibility than they have right now by decriminalizing something that should never have been prosecutable. That’s an amazing step for Boulder, for equity, and, frankly, for property rights. Vote yes on Ballot Question 300, Bedrooms Are For People.

Katie Farnan/Boulder BEDROOMS ARE FOR PROFIT Draconian. My pulse quickened; my stomach soured. This sounds bad; we must do something . . . action is required.

Continuing to read the recent Guest Opinion (Read: “Reforming city limits,” Boulder Weekly, 9/9/21) on the topic of Bedrooms are for People (BAFP), I learn of owners who can afford to live in Boulder because they rent out rooms. I learn of warm, deep and enduring relationships that have been built between owners and renters. I re-read the Opinion several times, seeking, yet failing, to find the draconian part. If anything, this Opinion is a testament to how the current regulations support Boulder’s rental market. Since it is, by testimony of this Opinion, working and seemingly well, why does BAFP propose an increase occupancy limits?

Perhaps an answer to that question is something else I learned from this Opinion. I learn that rental properties are priced “per bedroom”.

That means the more bedrooms, the more a landlord can charge. Current regulations cap the occupancy at 3 or 4 renters, depending on the zoning.

By increasing limits, BAFP gives landlords what they want—higher occupancy limits equals more tenants and more tenants equals more income. Huzzah, great news if you’re a landlord! With higher income potential, investors can easily outbid families for properties. Project forward a few years and it’s easy to see that more families will be living in another zip code. But there’s a silver lining . . . there will be fewer families to file those annoying noise, trash, and conduct complaints. Party on! see LETTERS Page 7 SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

ANDERSON FILES from Page 5

2. Trump tried to pressure state leg- to democracy is still there. “You could islatures to overturn the results. look at 2020 as the nadir of American 3. Trump tried to get the courts to democratic processes, or you could look overturn the results. at it as a dress rehearsal,” argues Rick 4. Trump tried to pressure Mike Hasan, a professor of law at UC Irvine Pence to overturn the results. where he is the co-director of the Fair 5. When all else failed, Trump tried Elections and Free Speech Center. to get a mob to overturn the results.”

He told Politico, “The rhetoric is Serwer asks, “Imagine if Pence had so overheated that I think it provides gone along with Eastman’s absurd plan the basis for millions of people to and a mob had been present at the accept an actual stolen election as Capitol to help enpayback for the force the decision falsely claimed and menace lawearlier ‘stolen’ elecmakers who tried tion. People are to oppose it—then going to be more what?” willing to cheat if but In an analysis they think they’ve the threat to democracy for Media Matters, been cheated Eric Kleefeld out of their just is still there. “You could details how look at 2020 as the nadir desserts.” right-wing media He is alarmed of American democratic outlets (such as at not only the voter Fox News and suppression bills processes, or . . . as a Newsmax) served passed in Repubdress rehearsal.” as a platform to lican-dominated spread lies and states but “election propaganda during subversion” which each of Serwer’s five steps. He argues, “is not about making it harder for people “Without that right-wing information to vote, but about manipulating the bubble, Trump’s coup could never have outcome of the election so that the loser even been attempted.” is declared the winner or put in power.”

Matt Gertz of Media Matters The Brennan Center for Justice has reports that the ABC, CBS, and found that “state legislatures across the NBC morning and evening news nation have taken steps to strip election broadcasts have virtually ignored officials of the power to run, count, and the Eastman coup memo. CNN and certify elections, consolidating power MSNBC have covered the story in their own hands over processes inextensively but the national networks tended to be free of partisan or political have larger audiences. Interestingly, interference.” the only national network broadSenate Democrats have introduced casts to mention the memo were the “The Freedom to Vote Act” which late-night variety shows hosted by deals with these attacks on democracy.

Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, It is a good beginning.

This opinion column does not necessarand Seth Meyers.

A coup was thwarted but the threat ily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

A COUP WAS THWARTED

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

LETTERS from Page 6

Voters need not fall for BAFP’s false claims. Nor should they fold when BAFP’s dog whistle of heartless treatment of renters is hurled.

Look beyond the headline; consider the (intended or unintended) consequences. We can work together to make a more affordable and inclusive Boulder while rebuilding our neighborhoods. The journey begins with BAFP’s defeat.

Stuart Walker/Boulder

low and some even below the FAA guideline of 1,000 feet. Many of the planes are not transiting. They circle overhead numerous times.

Glider planes being towed, circle several times before releasing. And other sources of recreational airplane traffic circling our skies all day have made Boulder unlivable for us now.

We are leaving! I cannot believe the governing authorities along with our politicians have allowed the quality of life in Boulder to be degraded like this. There is a Facebook group Quiet Skies Boulder that charts the amount of air traffic in our area and it’s astounding. One person charted 4,600 planes flying over her home in

one month. That’s 150 per day! We have come to realize that the handful of people with lots of money who own planes have priority over over the 360,000 residents of Boulder County. Their pleasure supersedes our peace and quiet. Adios Boulder, we are heading to Crestone.

David Segal/Boulder

BACK OFF BOOSTERS! The standard operating procedure of the medical establishment in the U.S. has been to ignore the poor, half-ass and ho-hum, the middle class, and fall over itself to over-serve the rich. I’d hoped the COVID vaccines would escape this pattern.

Alas! It’s not to be. Here we are, not a year out from when the first doses not given in clinical trials were released, and we’re chittering about “boosters.” When I was a child, there was a rule at the table that no one got seconds until all who wanted food got firsts. The same should apply here.

Not only does having nations left behind allow more variants of COVID to thrive (and possibly beat the vaccine), over-vaccinating can cause its own problems. Between the “if some is good, more must be better” mentality, and the grout-counting, profit-dancing, buck-sucking, I wonder that the medical establishment can “lish” its “estabs”!

The manufacturers know that the U.S. pays more for meds than any other country, except maybe Israel. A “booster” in the arm of a U.S. citizen racks up more bottom-line fat than any shots in Canada or Europe, what to speak of, say, Nicaragua, Nepal, or Nigeria. Pocket first, even in a pandemic. Shameful!

Lora Hansen-Beard/Boulder AIRPLANE NOISE! We’ve lived in Boulder for 30 years and I don’t recall it ever being this bad. We understand that Boulder Municipal and Rocky Mountain Metro in Broomfield have grown exponentially in recent years with flight school students practicing takeoffs and landings all day between the two airports. Most of them fly BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

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WHO IS SAFER BOULDER?

How a shadowy group became a powerful force in Boulder politics

by Shay Castle, in partnership with Boulder Beat

AS

tents proliferated in Boulder’s parks and public spaces, residents reacted to the trash, drug use, and the uncomfortable sight of American inequality laid bare by pressing for government action: a flurry of investment in shelter and services or else a crackdown on socalled urban camping—in some places, both at once.

The rising homelessness crisis has captured attention in the Front Range and beyond like never before.

In Boulder, the seemingly unshrinkable population of people living unsheltered led to the formation of a new political bloc, including two groups endorsing candidates for city council in this fall’s election.

Safer Boulder appeared mid-pandemic with a popular petition asking for the prompt removal of unhoused individuals and an increase in police patrols. More than 9,000 people have signed to date.

To supporters, Safer Boulder was a voice of the silent majority, residents who felt the degradation of their city was being ignored by those in power.

In their opponents’ view, the members of Safer Boulder were bigoted and largely privileged homeowners who do not care what happens to unhoused people—so long as they go away.

To the public, though, Safer Boulder has remained largely unknown, a shadowy group associated with one petition and a singular goal: Get unhoused people off city land.

Last fall, communications between a dozen members of Safer Boulder were published by a group that infiltrated Safer Boulder’s Slack using a fake identity to express sympathy with Safer Boulder’s aims. Slack is a centralized online workspace that allows individuals to post direct and group messages.

Though a portion of the leaked documents have been in wide circulation and the subject of a conversation among the city’s political class, Boulder Weekly and Boulder Beat are reporting on the leaks in their entirety for the first time. What they reveal are Safer 8

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Boulder’s broader ambitions and efforts that predate the widely circulated petition. Members have secured spots on sanctioned city groups, been invited to speak on panels, and founded new political organizations.

A prominent Safer Boulder member, Steve Rosenblum, is running for city council this year, and earned the endorsement of a half-dozen current and former elected officials and a key political group that has been a dominant force in Boulder

for more than 40 years.

Safer Boulder members exposed in the leaks insist the Slack workspace was not for political organizing, but rather a way for like-minded community members to gather and discuss their concerns. They view the chats as private communications of ordinary citizens and report being harassed, threatened, and intimidated by fellow Boulderites for things they wrote.

Every member of Safer Boulder named on the Safer Leaks site was emailed for comment at email addresses included in a leaked directory. Additional messages were sent to 11 members who posted in the group’s Slack.

Five people identified in the leaked documents as Safer Boulder members active in the Slack confirmed that they wrote messages attributed to them; two others have neither confirmed nor disputed their authenticity. One has denied involvement and disputed the leaks as “fraudulent.” The identities of Safer Boulder members named in this story were verified using multiple, independent sources. Individuals who have not been confirmed as authors of posts are referred to by the names associated with active Slack accounts in the Safer Boulder workspace.

Most individuals who were named publicly as members of Safer Boulder did not participate in the Slack chats. Four such persons who replied to requests for comment said they were unaware of its existence but confirmed they had signed on to an email list, Facebook, or Nextdoor group because they have similar concerns about encampments.

What Safer Boulder members share—even with those with whom they vehemently disagree—is a realization that the current system serving unhoused individuals is not adequate to prevent people from living on the streets. Beyond the hateful rhetoric, deep resentment, and rejection of evidence-based practices are citizens weary of continued homelessness, hardened by a city celebrating success while hundreds remain on the streets.

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Wrote one user: “My compassion has suffered a slow and painful death these past few years.”

THE PETITION

Safer Boulder first emerged as the backers of a Change.org petition seeking to address rising crime “drug use . . . and environmental damage in our public places.” Not much was known about the group behind the petition: No organizers were listed for the petition, and Safer’s official website does not name leaders or provide contact information. It has not registered as an official committee with the city; any individual and group can endorse candidates for city council, but groups that solicit contributions and spend money on behalf of a candidate or issue during election season must register with the city and disclose certain information such as organizing officers, donors, spending, etc.

But leaked documents show they were known to those in power. Members had been meeting with elected officials since 2019, when they evaluated city council candidates for sympathy to their cause.

Among their assessments: • Rachel Friend “is a great listener . . . However, she seems to be in line with the addition of a lot of services.”

• Junie Joseph would be “difficult to work with on these issues.”

• Bob Yates “comes across as reasonable” but is a “100% politician . . . I would always double guess whatever he says.”

• Mark Wallach is “completely on board with us . . . The only candidate that straight out said crime is a problem, the transient population is a problem, and the needle program is a problem . . . But he is also realistic and pointed out that some solutions have been deemed unconstitutional.”

• Adam Swetlik had “a unique perspective” from his work as a bouncer downtown who worked with police often, but also initially supported decriminalizing homelessness. “It will be on us to convince him of what he should do,” members wrote. “He suggests if we want to help him help us, ‘the squeaky wheel gets the oil.’”

Two council members and one candidate confirmed these meetings.

As the COVID-19 pandemic worsened economic conditions and temporarily lessened enforcement of the camping ban, homelessness took center stage in city council discussions, bringing more attention to the issue.

Safer Boulder sought allies in business owners and the public at large. Throughout 2020, members distributed flyers throughout the downtown area, directing people to the petition, paid for 500 postcards to do the same and delivered binders of information and photos to council members’ homes. They also continued to meet with elected officials, including regular communication with Yates, who won re-election in 2019 with a record number of votes.

Council members frequently meet with residents and various interest groups; Yates is particularly responsive and accessible to the larger community.

Yet Safer Boulder seemed to be given deferential BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

treatment, nabbing a slide to themselves in an official presentation to city council during a July 2020 update on homelessness. The group’s requests were presented alongside recommendations from the city’s own housing and human rights groups.

Elevation of political groups to official presentations, while not entirely unprecedented, is rare enough that it drew questions from council and the community.

“Why did we give Safer Boulder their own slide that was equivalent to [board] recommendations?” Councilmember Friend asked. “And especially since there were other community groups writing in. I was sort of confused to see that slide.”

“That was a request by one of the council members to put that up there,” responded Housing and Human Services Director Kurt Firnhaber. “We had different requests by different council members.”

Safer Boulder’s website encourages residents to run for boards and commissions or city council. Planning Board member Jorge Boone was included in a leaked email directory and list of active Slack users.

He did not post in any of the leaked messages, but other members claimed him as one of their own.

Boone said his interest in the board was not influenced by Safer Boulder. In response to emailed questions, Boone wrote that his sympathies align with the aims stated in the public petition—“the rise of crime in the city and in particular the extreme level of meth and heroin addiction in our city and in our public space”—but his involvement was limited to signing up for an email list.

“I was not involved (or frankly even aware) of any of the Slack message board,” he wrote.

While Safer Boulder’s leadership worked at weaving themselves into city politics, the group also ingratiated itself with the Boulder Police Department. Multiple food deliveries were made to police headquarters, funded by members of the group. (The quantity and total cost are unknown.)

Members obsessively documented crime—the topic had its own dedicated channel on the Slack— listening to the police scanner and pulling arrest records. They were critical of police reform and those who endorse it, questioning the idea that racial bias exists in local policing and extolling the virtues of broken windows policing, a theory that intervening in lesser crimes (such as vandalism) reduces serious crime. The strategy has been criticized as disproportionately harmful to people of color.

Brooke Harrison, identified in the leaks as an active Safer Boulder member, also sits on the police chief ’s Community Dialogue and Engagement panel.

Harrison’s name was included in the list of member email addresses, and an account with the same name posted frequently in Slack, updating the group about the panel’s meetings. “[Boulder Police Chief ] Maris [Herold] would like community support as she moves forward with her plan to rigidly adhere to a protocol to remove

WROTE ONE USER: “MY COMPASSION HAS SUFFERED A SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH THESE PAST FEW YEARS.”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

camps,” Harrison wrote on Friday, August 7, referencing the previous day’s meeting of the panel. “The biggest hurdle to enforcement in BPD’s and the group’s opinion is City Council. They need to be very clear in their support of BPD’s action and in their support of the camping ban. The residents of Boulder need to overcome the very vocal minority.”

On July 5, 2020, Harrison wrote “BPD has asked we oppose Bill 217,” referring to police reform legislation brought forward in the Colorado Senate that, among other things, made it easier to sue individual officers in civil court. (Senate Bill 217 was signed into law last summer).

Harrison did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Other members claimed to meet with Herold informally, reporting back that “Herold is ‘on board’ and strategizing” and that the chief confirmed the group’s suspicion that unhoused persons living in encampments “are criminals, mainly from out of town not the economically unfortunate, otherwise law abiding resident.”

Through a department spokesperson, Chief Herold said she “doesn’t recall that she made any of the [above] statements verbatim, but she was opposed to SB 217 as it was written and worked with legislators, community members, victim advocacy groups and prosecutors to get amendments included in it.”

The community panel is informed about “current laws” and other items of interest to policing and community safety “that will impact them or things that are not helpful,” Herold said. But members were not directed to take any particular position, she said in a brief interview.

“What they do with it is what they do with it.”

Herold said she was unfamiliar with the group Safer Boulder.

THE LEAK

The first glimpse at who was behind Safer Boulder came in fall 2020. Screenshots of a private Slack group were posted on a website, Safer Leaks, and shared locally around various social media platforms.

More than 40 alleged members were named, including a dozen who appeared to routinely post to Safer Boulder’s Slack workspace.

Safer Leaks focused on the harshest aspects of the chats, from gleeful recognition of the vulnerability of unhoused persons to calls for and celebrations of harm. Active participants in the group’s Slack were l

SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

called out on individual pages, with selective screenshots highlighting the worst of their posts.

Craig Brooks joked that perhaps unsheltered people would be eaten by bears or mountain lions; suggested that Safer Boulder “raid” encampments at night, and expressed a desire for camps to be cleared with fire hoses.

“Not like they can call the police for help,” Brooks wrote. “They are pretty vulnerable if you think about it.”

Through an attorney, Brooks responded that he was not part of the group’s political organizing efforts and that his involvement with Safer Boulder was “only as an online chat participant.”

“He has no connections to city council members, elected officials, big wigs in the police department, he’s had no part in drafting their policy proposals,” said Dan Ernst, counsel for Brooks. “Whereas they actually are an organized group who meet and who are running a candidate [for city council] he’s not part of that. He’s not part of their election campaign. He hasn’t even been involved in conversing with these people for over a year.

“His participation was intended to be private communication and venting among confidantes—the type of thing that you would do in a living room or cafe, when those were available. They weren’t during the COVID. This was just, you know, his place to vent.”

Brooks contributed pictures of unhoused individuals—which he called “photos . . . of human trash”— to a Slack channel titled Photos. Images from this channel were compiled and distributed to city council members, according to leaked Slack messages and elected officials.

The Safer Leaks website allows anyone to download every purportedly leaked screenshot and document, more than 1,000 in all. Every item in that archive was reviewed for this article.

What the leaks reveal about the group is in sharp contrast to its public image. On Safer Boulder’s website, Brooke Harrison wrote that “Safer Boulder’s concern is not only for housed residents and visitors, but for the unhoused, who are disproportionately victimized.”

In the Slack conversations, Safer Boulder members reject many evidence-backed interventions. Members expressed deep skepticism of and/or opposition to a housing-first approach to homelessness, in which housing is used to stabilize individuals before attempting to tackle their other needs such as mental illness, addiction, physical health concerns or job training. Boulder County and other communities use Housing First as part of a continuum of services; the practice is supported by data and experts as more effective than treatment-first approaches in reversing long-term homelessness.

This rejection of housing-first principles appears to stem from a deep resentment of anyone getting see SAFER Page 10

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SAFER from Page 9

help for free—particularly a population they view as “entitled criminals” and “methheads,” according to leaked documents.

As Todd Root wrote, “free housing is an insult to non-criminals trying to get by.”

There is an accepted need within Safer Boulder for better drug addiction and mental health treatment. Many members want treatment and/or employment mandated to receive housing, in direct contradiction of housing first principles.

The roots of addiction are oft-discussed in the Slack chats, with no consensus and little compassion, seen more as a personal failing than a medical condition or result of trauma. Recovering addicts are revered; those still in the grips of addiction are reviled, mocked and feared. Photos of individuals in various states of consciousness or crisis were met with jokes or disgust, as were images of encampments.

Leslie Chandler, who posted some of the photos, wrote in response to emailed questions that those pictures “and comments I made were displaying my frustration around the situation in our town where clearly mentally ill and/or substance addicted individuals aren’t receiving the services they need . . . and are rather wandering the streets. This is not good for them or our community.

“My comments were on a private Slack channel used for candid comments around the very frustrating topic of crime and safety issues facing Boulder. It is almost impossible to speak openly about this topic without being labeled negatively. My comments were taken out of context and given a narrative that is not accurate.”

Many members are incredulous of residents who advocate for more services or protections for the unhoused. They are categorized as disingenuous hypocrites or idiotic, virtue-signalling “do-gooding moron(s)” who want the unhoused to remain homeless.

Protestors of encampment removals are “ignoramuses who attempt to gin up hate and aggression.”

Even the nonprofit agencies providing services are accused of profiting off homelessness. TGTHR, a nonprofit assisting unhoused youths who have aged out of the foster system, is lambasted frequently, referred to as “Aggression Homes” and “Detention Homes” (TGTHR was formerly known as Attention Homes) and its clients as drug users and “young upand-coming criminals.”

“Sometimes I think the ‘10-year plan to end homelessness’ was actually a ‘10-year plan to establish homeless services as a profitable industry with as little accountability as possible,’” wrote Todd Root. “Taking care of the homeless is big business here in Boulder.”

Root did not respond to emailed requests for comment for this story.

Safe Access For Everyone (SAFE), a local group of activists/advocates for unhoused residents which has come under fire for its own methods and messaging, is a favorite target in the posts, ridiculed for

elected officials Wallach and Yates; a half-dozen former city council members lent their names as well, as did former Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett. Rosenblum also scored a coveted endorsement from PLAN-Boulder, a longtime presence in Boulder politics that has backed the majority of council members for several decades, as well as many members of boards, commissions and citizen working groups.

Forward Boulder, a newly formed political group, also endorsed Rosenblum. Rosenblum donated to Forward’s unofficial candidate committee, according to campaign finance records, as did eight other Safer Boulder members named in the leaks.

Like Safer Boulder, Forward’s website does not name its leaders or organizers. Official city filings show that one of Forward’s founding officers is Ekrem, who was on a leaked list of Safer Boulder Slack members. An email with his name was also included on a member directory. He did not contribute to any of the leaked posts.

In response to emailed questions, an unnamed representative of Forward Boulder wrote that Ekrem’s involvement in Safer Boulder was limited to “joining a Google list.”

Boulder Progressives, a political organization that is backing a group of candidates opposed to Rosenblum and the other Forward-endorsed candidates, sent an email to followers highlighting the Safer Leaks website, and dedicated a page on its own website to Rosenblum’s leaked Slack posts. Rosenblum, through his attorney Garnett, is suing Boulder Progressives, its leadership, and two other politically active individuals for amplifying the Safer Leaks blog; the leaker is also named in the suit, as John Doe. Rosenblum and Roth were more measured than other members on the Safer Boulder Slack. Their contributions to the Slack chat mainly consisted of support for police, criticisms of homeless services and affordable housing, and general discussions of encampments, policies and politics.

At times, Rosenblum pushed back on some of the more disturbing rhetoric. He once warned a member against painting “with too broad a brush.” But most of his remonstrations appeared aimed at public perception of the language itself, rather than the ideology behind it.

“Please be forceful but careful with your rhetoric,” he wrote after a Safer Boulder affiliate posted to Facebook comparing unhoused people to an infestation of rats. “The aim is persuasion. With respect, I would recommend avoiding loaded terms like ‘infestation’ when referring to homeless camps.”

In response to questions, Rosenblum said, “I didn’t view it as my role to constantly police people’s language, even though I attempted to. I wanted to use my time more productively.”

Roth responded, “Safer Boulder is a grassroots community group created by residents and business

“WHEN WE DECIDED TO INFILTRATE,” THE LEAKERS SAID, “IT WAS JUST TO SEE WHAT WAS GOING ON BEHIND THE SCENES. ONCE WE SAW, WE DECIDED TO LET THE COMMUNITY KNOW . . . ”

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handing out tents and survival gear and criticizing police action against unhoused people.

“It is a cover for a Marxist agenda,” wrote a user with the display name Jillian Lloyd. “I do not believe that SAFE members care about the wellbeing of campers one bit. They are exploiting them.”

This user responded to an emailed request for comment with a cease-and-desist notice and threat of legal action.

“I am not a member of Safer Boulder,” she wrote. “The statements you falsely attribute to me, as claimed by an anonymous, unnamed source, are libelous and ridiculous.”

The request for comment was sent to an email address associated with a Slack account under the name Jillian Lloyd that posted to the Slack numerous times. The email address includes the full first and last name Jillian Lloyd.

There was acknowledgement in the documents that some unhoused individuals are victims of bad circumstances or economic conditions, but such admissions were few and far between. There was no explicit discussion in leaked materials of how broad enforcement actions impact these “harmless homeless” versus individuals Safer Boulder members viewed as more deserving of police action and jail time.

“They too suffer when the worst among them are not filtered out,” Root wrote. “(Really they suffer the most.)”

“We could support them better if the bad actors were handled differently,” the Lloyd account responded.

THE CANDIDATE

Safer Leaks did not garner too much attention outside of political insiders. The leaks did not receive media coverage at the time, and even those few who were paying attention soon moved on.

Then, in July, Steve Rosenblum announced his candidacy for city council, picking Safer Boulder chair Shari Roth as his campaign manager. Campaign finance records show that Roth and 11 other people named as members in the leaks donated to Rosenblum’s campaign; many also contributed financially to other candidates backed by the same groups that are supporting Rosenblum.

Rosenblum’s candidacy was soon endorsed by

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

owners from all walks of life who are concerned about public safety in our town. Like all community groups, we reach out to city council members, the police chief, city staff and other decision-makers to educate, express concerns, and suggest approaches that might help reduce crime in Boulder.

“Safer Boulder is a loosely organized group of like-minded people on Next Door . . . This Slack group was a seemingly private social communication platform, not a place to set group agendas or policy . . . Safer Boulder has never been formally organized or had leadership structure . . . We are private citizens that have the accorded protections . . . Individual Slack posts do NOT reflect collective group opinions, values or ideology.

“Intimidation of groups like ours, through manipulating private communications, innuendo and doxxing is an effort to shut down public discussion of key issues.”

THE MOLE

Safer Boulder members were aware that their ideas may not be well received outside the confines of their Slack. They were keen to keep their identities a secret; desires to submit op-eds to the Daily Camera were quelled by others pointing out that names were required.

Members may well have remained anonymous were it not for the leaks.

A person who belongs to a cohort claiming responsibility for the leaks agreed to speak for this story on condition of anonymity. They are sympathetic to the plight of unhoused individuals and have previous experience infiltrating and exposing neo-Nazis and white supremacists, they said.

Using a fake identity and AI-generated profile picture, the leakers were invited to join the Safer Boulder Slack after expressing support for the group’s aims and volunteering to help.

“The contributors to the Slack channel were not vetted,” Rosenblum wrote in an emailed response to questions. “All were welcome.”

Harrison, in a September 13 post on Safer Boulder’s website, wrote, “Almost anyone who expressed interest in the organization was admitted.”

“When we decided to infiltrate,” the leakers said, “it was just to see what was going on behind the scenes. Once we saw, we decided to let the community know and other activists and unhoused folks know what their real motivations are and how they actually relate to unhoused folks.”

There was a private channel within the Slack workspace the leakers were not able to access, but they began taking screenshots of everything else that was available, they said, eventually securing hundreds of images. They lost access to the Slack workspace after the Safer Leaks website was published on October 6, 2020.

An archive of the leaks was also forced to switch servers, leakers said, after being suspended for violations of the terms of service “such as abuse of rights of others; sharing and/or importing illegal data; or system abuse,” the notification read.

There were missteps by the leakers. One individual was wrongly identified (that person declined to

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

comment for this story) and Rosenblum was incorrectly linked to a Reddit account whose real author seemed to share many traits with Rosenblum that led leakers to believe it was him. The Reddit author and Rosenblum are both from Brooklyn, made references to real estate investing, shared similar views on unhoused residents and admiration for broken windows policing, and participated in many of the same leisure and recreation activities, the leakers said.

This information was removed from the Safer Leaks website after probing from a reporter. A deeper look at the Reddit account revealed that its author moved to Boulder many years ago; Rosenblum is a relatively recent transplant.

“I have a lot of guilt about that,” they said. “It’s really important to be accurate.”

The leakers stand by their actions. Private information such as email addresses and phone numbers was not posted in the curated Safer Leaks. (That information is contained in the archive of the full leaks, linked on the website.) Posting of private information on social media—often known as doxxing—occurred independently of the Safer Leaks effort.

The Safer Leaks website “was inspired by” sites that exposed leaked communications of far-right and white supremacist groups, with individual pages for alleged members that connect them to businesses they own or their places of employment. Most of Safer Boulder’s members were readily identifiable, having used their full first and last names in the Slack channel. Some shared personal details that made verification easy for the leakers; voter records and LinkedIns were used for confirmation.

Leaking the communications was essential, they asserted, to show that the public presentation of Safer Boulder was not representative of their true beliefs about unhoused individuals—attitudes they view as dangerous.

“A big part of fascism, classically, is fantasizing about a mythologized past in which your community was great and blaming that fall from grace on degenerates,” they said. “I’m not saying they are fascists, but I see similar rhetoric.”

Nor do they believe Safer Boulder members are the only ones who hold such views.

“Their agenda has pretty much been enacted in the city council. They were talking about how the police should be able to take a tent whenever they see it. Now they can. I think largely, they’ve been quite successful because the sort of powers-that-be align with their interests.”

over jail reform, but they were joined by voices from around the state.

And Safer Boulder is far from alone in its calls for more criminalization of homelessness (though they dispute that characterization). According to the Slack discussion, members compared notes and gleaned information from similar groups in Austin and Seattle, where rising homelessness has also inspired backlash.

Members spoke about “amassing an army” and representing “the 99%” with their calls for enforcement.

“These people talk about giving a voice to the voiceless—Hell, that’s what WE do,” the Lloyd account wrote.

It’s unclear if the majority of Boulder supports such policies. Extensive polling has not been done.

There is but one survey to point to, commissioned by a former city councilwoman earlier this year. It found that more respondents (56%) strongly or somewhat supported allowing camps to remain than those who (35%) strongly or somewhat wanted camps to be removed.

Cary Paul, who did not participate in the Slack, wrote in response to emailed questions, “My intention is to try to let the city leaders know that there are folks who are not bleeding heart liberals for the homeless, and we live here and are not interested in attracting the homeless but rather interested in having good quality of life for those of us that invest in living here.”

Frustration with persistent homelessness is understandable, said Steve Berg, vice president for programs and policy with the National Alliance to End Homelessness. It is a solvable problem that is being allowed to continue through inadequate or inefficient investment of resources, or barriers to access.

However, “that’s a reason to be frustrated with the community leaders,” he said, “not homeless people.”

The proof of whether or not a given system is working is not in the amount of money spent, Berg said, but in the results. Are people using the services that are available? Are there fewer people living unhoused and unsheltered? Are they accessing housing more quickly? Are they staying housed?

“What we know about what works to get people off the streets and into housing has been used and made to work in enough different communities that we can say pretty confidently what’s needed,” Berg said. “Arresting people is not what’s needed. That doesn’t work anywhere.”

Boulder issues tickets for violations of the camping and tent bans. Unpaid tickets are considered a failure to appear, or FTA. After three FTAs, a warrant for arrest is issued.

Using the cops and courts to address homelessness “has the opposite effect,” Berg said. “It makes cooperation less likely. You’re not going to deter people.”

“The idea that the homeless people are going to go away . . . They can’t just choose not to be homeless.”

THE ISSUE

Safer Boulder members believe they have tapped into a vein that runs beyond the halls of power. To some degree, they are right: City council was inundated with emails and calls to remove encampments (though the scope and source of such reports remains unknown).

Businesses also rallied against the rising crime they (rightly or wrongly) attributed to homelessness, testifying before state lawmakers against legislation that would have put fewer people behind bars for non-violent offenses. An alliance of business owners and police made Boulder the epicenter of a fight l

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— Shay Castle is owner and publisher of BoulderBeat.news. She has been a Boulder-area journalist for nine years, and her work has appeared in Colorado Newsline, Daily Camera, Colorado Sun, and the New York Times, among others.

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Learning when to be hands-off

Specialized training provides law enforcement tools to interact with people with disabilities

by Jodi Hausen

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hen 73-year-old Karen Garner was arrested for shoplifting last year in Loveland, police officers threw her to the ground and handcuffed her, dislocating her shoulder and breaking a bone in her arm. Garner, who in a bodycam video repeatedly told police she had planned to pay for the items she’d taken, has dementia and an impaired ability to communicate and comprehend language. The city of Loveland settled a federal lawsuit on September 8, agreeing to pay Garner $3 million.

This sort of scenario happens all too often to people like Garner with invisible or non-apparent disabilities such as deafness or autism.

But with better law enforcement training, it could happen less often.

Ali Thompson, a former detective with the Boulder County Sheriff ’s Office and current state investigator, created a curriculum that uses actual bodycam video to better prepare officers to respond to situations involving people like Garner with disabilities. Thompson has two children with special needs—one is essentially nonverbal—so she has firsthand experience with both law enforcement and disability. She recently founded Pulse Line Collaborative Training to share the lessons she’s learned over the years.

“The cops don’t understand the disability world and people with disabilities don’t understand cops,” she says. If there is no imminent threat to safety, officers should remain hands-off. If the person they are trying to interact with doesn’t comply, [the police] need to figure out why.

“We have to teach [officers] to communicate better with people who communicate differently than they do or whose brains work differently than theirs,” she adds. “As cops, we need to understand that if they run, it’s because they think we’re going to kill them. I respect that they are scared of us but it breaks my heart because all the cops I know went into [law enforcement] because they want to help people.”

And though this sort of training isn’t new—several Colorado law enforcement agencies, including the Boulder County Sheriff ’s Department, have been addressing the issue for years—it will be mandatory for all law enforcement officers starting in July 2022. Introduced by State Representative Meg Froelich (D-Greenwood Village), the new law BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

passed in the last legislative session with moderate bipartisan support with all Democratic and half of all Republican senators voting for it. It creates a 12-person commission composed of representatives from the disability community, law enforcement, and the state attorney general’s office who will be tasked with examining current training protocols and recommending standards for future curricula.

Froelich says law enforcement supported the bill though it was generated by advocates for people with autism, Alzheimer’s, and those who are deaf

anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or bipolar disorder, says Jennifer Eastman, director of Community Living Policy in Maryland’s Department of Disabilities.

Maryland is thought to have been the first state to mandate disability-awareness training for police in 2015 and several other states have followed suit.

State legislators in the state formed the Ethan Saylor Alliance in 2014 to create a curriculum after the state’s Police Correctional Training Commission adopted such training requirements. Ethan Saylor was killed by off-duty police COURTESY PULSE LINE officers working security jobs when Saylor, who had Down syndrome, refused to leave a movie theater.

Patti Saylor, Ethan’s mother, was instrumental in the alliance’s foundation with intentions to integrate people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, known as self-advocates, into the scenario-based training for law enforcement.

Law enforcement officers do receive de-escalation training but too often the courses offer only an hour or two on disability issues, if at all, says Leigh Ann Davis, who runs the National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability.

“Just like we expect them to understand things around racial bias, they need to understand disability and biases against people with disor hard of hearing. The bill intentionally omitted abilities—what are the assumptions we’re making legislators from the commission, she adds. about people with disabilities,” she says. “Because if “We really wanted to give the disability comyou don’t understand the context of people’s lives, munity a seat at the table,” she says. “To give them then it’s real hard to understand them. We have to a voice.” start with listening and understanding the commuAbout 1 in 6 children in the U.S. are diagnosed nity rather than taking a managerial response.” with a developmental disability including autism, The Maryland alliance’s curriculum integrates cerebral palsy, Tourette syndrome, Down syndrome, self-advocate educators to play roles in live scenarfetal alcohol syndrome, or intellectual disabilities. ios with one core principle being that “All people, People with developmental disabilities are seven including people with disabilities, want to feel safe, times more likely to have interactions with law understood and included in their communities.” enforcement than the general population, according The program seeks to meet six core objectives to the Organization for Autism Research. “People including recognizing signs that a person has a with disabilities are more likely to experience vicdisability, using effective communication methods timization, be arrested, be charged with a crime and with that person, and educating officers about the serve longer prison sentences once convicted than resources available for people in crisis. The idea is to those without disabilities,” according to advocacy resolve incidents before they escalate into violence organization The Arc’s National Center on Crimior worse and to get people to appropriate treatment nal Justice and Disability. rather than arresting them and taking them to jail.

And many people with developmental disabilThese concepts require a shift in traditional ities have co-occurring psychiatric issues such as see TRAINING Page 14 l

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COURTESY PIKES PEAK EQUAL ACCESS

TRAINING from Page 13

policing from asserting immediate control of a subject to using what Boulder County Undersheriff Tommy Sloan refers to as discretionary time—taking a few moments to assess a situation before rushing in if there is no imminent safety threat. It requires officers to slow down to determine the underlying issues of a particular person and the circumstances that led up to the situation to which they were called and then to use a variety of techniques to de-escalate it.

But police “don’t always get to control the narrative,” Sloan says. Often the incident for which officers were called has already happened or is in progress which makes taking that discretionary time more challenging and potentially more dangerous, says Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock. “Every cop is always late,” he says he tells his officers. But that’s why it’s important to “spend more time understanding what’s led up to that situation” by asking questions, listening, and observing. Officers should be asking themselves, “What should we be concerned with here and what can I do to diffuse this situation?” he says.

Fifty Douglas County officers recently took Thompson’s Pulse Line eighthour course, and more classes are scheduled. Boulder County expects to hire Thompson to do the same for its department next year.

“It starts with how you respond,” says Douglas County Deputy Chad Davey, who was in Thompson’s training. “If you are able to recognize the different indicators [of a disability], it changes how you respond to it, the way you communicate. In most of these cases, time is on our side.”

“Ninety-five percent of their job is talking to people,” says former patrol deputy Cocha Heyden, now Douglas County Sheriff ’s public information officer. Heyden has been in law enforcement for 30 years and says she always felt more comfortable speaking with people rather than using force to control a situation. “I’m not a fighter,” she says. “I really feel that I’ve been more effective talking to people. At the end of it, we want to go home safe, we want the person to go home safe. We just want the situation to end peacefully.”

Lisa Schoenbrodt, professor of speech-language-hearing sciences, and Leah Katherine Saal, associate professor of literacy, both at Loyola University in Maryland, published a study earlier this year to assess the effectiveness of Maryland’s training programs. Although the study had statistically limited results—due, in part, to COVID-19 restrictions—after taking the class, trainees reported they had a better understanding of people with disabilities and their rights, and they had learned techniques to better communicate with them.

As required by all Douglas County deputies, Davey had also previously taken Crisis Intervention Team training or CIT, a 40-hour course designed to teach first responders and others how to respond to people having a mental health crisis. The longer CIT course allows for hands-on scenario practice and has similarities to the disability training, though it’s specifically geared to mental illness concerns. It gives officers insights and tools to handle unusual situations in a less aggressive manner than they might have previously done.

A 2018 study aiming to measure the effectiveness of CIT after 10 years of 14

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use in Colorado analyzed 6,353 incidents involving people in a mental health crisis, including reports of substance abuse, psychiatric illness, violence risk, and/or threats of suicide. The report, though limited, “showed encouraging results . . . even in the presence of lethal weapons, and showed promise for the nonviolent resolution of crisis calls.” People experiencing extreme mental health issues were more likely to be taken to an appropriate treatment facility rather than being arrested and put in jail. SWAT teams were less likely to be deployed in these situations since their presence often further agitates someone experiencing the effects of mental illness—the same could be said of a person with an intellectual or developmental disability. Injuries to subjects and officers and the use of force were also found to have fallen, albeit minimally.

Although Thompson recognizes the benefits of live scenario-based training but her program is limited to eight hours, she chose to use bodycam videos that she stops midstream and discusses the situation with students asking them how they might respond. So it’s more streamlined than CIT, Davey says, but it is still very interactive, and Thompson really pushes people to be involved in the conversation. “It’s the best way to broadcast that information to the class given the time constraints,” he adds.

Getting officers trained COURTESY PULSE LINE can be challenging though, particularly for smaller departments that can’t afford, from safety or financial perspectives, to take officers off shifts to attend an eight-hour training—let alone 40 hours. Davey previously worked for the Teller County Sheriff ’s Office, which is much smaller than Douglas County. He’d requested to take CIT, but it just wasn’t feasible, he says, due to the burden it would place on the department and his coworkers.

Thompson is actively seeking grant funding so she can offer the Pulse Line disability training at no- or low-cost to those departments. If a national bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) passes, Colorado law enforcement could be at the front of the line to receive training grants through the Safe Interactions Act. Boulder County’s deputies are trained well beyond Colorado’s core minimum standards. Sloan says his department’s culture has changed over the years due, in part, to twice-weekly mini-training sessions in which community members, including people with disabilities, are invited to speak to deputies about various topics.

About a year ago, for example, three officers and a game warden responded to a suicidal man way up in the mountains, Sloan says. The officers stopped on the road before approaching the situation and devised a game plan. When the man started throwing small explosive devices at officers, they didn’t panic and instead shot him in the belly with a bean bag. The incident ended with no injuries. To people looking on, it would have seemed dramatic, Sloan says. “But to [the officers] it was ‘That’s how you’re supposed to do it.’”

He adds, “We’ve always had mental health issues in the community. But we used to say they’re just crazy. Now deputies say, ‘That person may be affected by schizophrenia.’”

Though law enforcement attitudes are beginning to change, it will likely take time before there’s a complete shift in the culture. Colorado has more than 8,000 law enforcement officers in a state that spans more than 100,000 square miles, much of it in rugged mountainous terrain. But for Boulder County Undersheriff Sloan, whose department is admittedly well-placed financially and well-staffed, it’s a built-in expectation.

This sort of training, he says, “makes for a good deputy, it protects our liability and it’s the right thing to do.”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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FULL CIRCLE EVEREST EXPEDITION TEAM on the Summit of (Tahoma) Mount Rainier in the summer of 2021. (left to right) BACK: Demond Mullins, Fred Campbell, Phil Henderson, MIDDLE: Eddie Taylor, Manoa Ainuu, Abby Dione, FRONT: Rosemary Saal.

Everest, equity, and inclusion

Local climber joins an all-Black cohort to make history and push for diversity in the outdoors on the world’s tallest peak

by Commander Robert Edwin Peary, and the North Pole.

by Griffin Paul

D

espite nearly a decade of experience, Eddie Taylor still gets mistaken for a novice rock climber— and it’s got nothing to do with his skill.

“People are just not used to seeing Black people out climbing,” says Taylor, a resident of the Boulder area for 13 years. If you’ve ever visited the granite domes of Boulder Canyon or the immense Flatiron slabs, you know he’s right. Watching him effortlessly float across a tapestry of vertical terrain in the early morning light spilling into Eldorado Canyon, it’s plain to see that Taylor is no beginner. It’s also no surprise that Taylor has his sights set much higher than the imposing sandstone cliffs of Eldo. He wants to show that climbing—and experiencing the outdoors in general—is as much a space for the Black community as it is for anyone else.

In the spring of 2022, Taylor will travel to the Himalayas as part of the Full Circle Everest Expedition (FCEE) with an all-Black cohort of climbers. Their goal is to make history by becoming the first all-Black team to summit the highest mountain on the planet.

Led by Phil Henderson, an experienced mountaineer and 30-year veteran of the outdoor industry, the team has built its expedition around far more than attaining a summit. It’s an effort to steer the narrative of mountaineering, climbing, and simply enjoying the outdoors to one that is more inclusive for future generations. It’s about showing that the outdoors is a space for everyone.

It’s about elevating and inviting new faces into the mix.

For Taylor, what has been a highly rewarding but purely personal pursuit for the last nine years has turned into As of April 2020, Mount Everest had been summited more than 10,000 times by some 5,788 individuals. The number of Black summiteers is no more than 10, a staggering disparity in representation. Unfortunately, a quick image search of the words “rock climbing” or “mountaineering” online reinforces a similar discrepancy. In its efforts, the to inspire a new and diverse generation of dreamers and outdoor enthusiasts when the images they see in print and on a screen have people that look like them.

Telling Black stories is the key When he’s not linking pitches around Boulder,

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

ican to summit Denali, North America’s

Taylor teaches high school science in Lafayette, where he’s also head coach of the track and field team. He derives fulfillment from having a direct impact in the classroom, but finds equal joy in helping students succeed out on the track, even if that same triumph has eluded them in the classroom.

Taylor grew up participating in organized sports came to Boulder in 2008 to attend CU, he walked onto the track team and competed in the decathlon. Climbing wasn’t even on his radar. It wasn’t until after graduating from CU that he tried it. Goal oriented and having found a new outdoor venue to apply himself, it didn’t take long for Taylor to get hooked. With visits to the summit of Denali (20,310 feet) and Aconcagua (22,867 feet), the highest peaks in the Americas, as well as the second highest in Africa, Mount Kenya (17,057 feet), Taylor has developed a knack for getting the job done in ski boots, crampons and rock shoes.

Out on the patio of a Lafayette coffeehouse, Taylor chuckles as he recalls his original impression of climbing was “like when you hike up Mount Everest or something.”

Ironic, considering that’s exactly where it’s taking him next spring.

The legacy of Taylor’s expedition with Full Circle will tell its own narrative, but it also carries the weight of stories about Black explorers and mountaineers who have gone unknown for generations. With such underrepresentation in the outdoors, especially in mountaineering, accomplishments by Black individuals are poorly Beckwourth, Matthew Henson, Charles Crenchaw and Sophia Danenberg are few names of historic Black adventurers you probably haven’t heard of.

Beckwourth was a freed slave and pioneer of the American West. He discovered a low mountain pass on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada which settlers used on their way to California during the Gold Rush and that now bears his name.

Henson participated in the 1909 Arctic Expedition led l

dedicated to Crenchaw is displayed in the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum in Golden. on the summit of Mount Everest. Known as Sagarmatha on the Nepali side and on Earth occurred in 1953. It took 53 more years, until May 19, 2006, for Danenberg to make history and reach the top.

Doing the work Another central focus of the Full Circle Everest Expedition is community-building and connection. The Sherpa people are ancestral stewards of the Khumbu region at the foot of Everest on the Nepal side of the mountain. Henderson, the lead on the Full Circle Everest Expedition, has a long history with the region.

He’s dedicated significant time contributing to the local communities, training Sherpa climbers and hiring local outfitters. The team operates on the belief that in visiting the Khumbu region and attempting to climb the mountain that is central to the Sherpa way of life and religion, it’s important to reciprocate and build a relationship.

The Full Circle Everest Expedition is asking the Boulder community for help in this relationship building through a GoFundMe to support the immense financial demands of such a massive trip. Aside from the physical and mental challenge of summit day, Taylor says that gathering financial backing is the other hardest part of the endeavor. The first four weeks of the campaign raised over $50,000 from more than 200 individual donors. They are steadily climbing toward a fundraising goal of $75,000 by October 1.

With their sights set on making history on the world’s tallest peak, the Full Circle Everest Expedition also takes aim at an even bigger objective.

“This expedition will showcase the tenacity and strength of these climbers,” the FCEE website reads, “and highlight the barriers that continue to exist for Black communities in accessing the outdoors.”

To donate follow along, or learn more about the Full Circle Expedition, visit fullcircleeverest.com

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ON THE BILL:

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here seems to be a cultural (maybe generational) shift happening: Musicians are forsaking the rigidity and structure of a single genre in favor of mixing and matching different influences, styles, and content. New York sextet MICHELLE—composed of singers Sofia D’Angelo, Layla Ku, Emma Lee and Jamee Lockard, as well as producers Julian Kaufman (also bass) and Charlie Kilgore (drums)—is no exception. The group has been described as pan-genre, genre-bending, and genre fluid.

“Genres were created to really separate Black artists from white artists and you can still see that in Billboard [charts] today,” D’Angelo says.

MICHELLE is more a product of the fluidity that comes from combining the diverse influences of six different people into one sound.

“We were just, like, really influenced by music that we grew up listening to. And like, however we can describe it, whether it’s R&B, whether it’s pop, whether it’s rock‘n’roll, whether it’s alternative, whether it’s punk, whether it’s electronic, experimental noise, like whatever descriptions we use for it is whatever,” D’Angelo says.

“We make the music that we’re feeling that day.

And then the descriptor comes afterwards,” Lockard adds.

Indie-pop seems the most apt catchall, however, as each MICHELLE song is designed to be catchy and vocal forward, with an emphasis on layered organic harmonies, songcraft, and DIY production full of synthesizers and percussion.

The group’s name is an homage to beloved female musicians who perform using a mononym. It’s also a way of unifying a group of musicians as something larger than any one individual. “MICHELLE is a little bit of all of us, but also at the same time, MICHELLE is like existence outside of any of us individually,” Kilgore says, admitting that no one really expected anything to come from the group’s first release, HEATWAVE, in 2018.

“We didn’t think this was going to be a band,” he says. “We just needed a name to release it under.”

“What would you have named it?” Kauffman asks directly. “Do you have any good band names?”

MICHELLE opening for Arlo Parks.

7 p.m. Tuesday October 5, Globe Hall, 4483 Logan Street, Denver.

The right kind of noise

music, even if unintentionally at first.

“That representation matters to us, but it also wasn’t necessarily in the forefront when creating the group, which I think is important too,” Lee says. “It wasn’t like, ‘Let’s do this thing.’ It was more just people coming together and then realizing we have this thing in common, and we have the opportunity to write songs or create art about it.”

From 2021’s single “FYO”: I never asked you who I was / I’m not myself enough (you’ll never look like me) / Don’t look like anyone (are your eyes open? Can you see?) / I never asked you who I was You say I’m one thing or another / And your words, they suffocate and smother / Why do I turn to you to tell me who I am?

Lockard, who wrote “FYO” with Lee, Kilgore and Kauffman, says growing up she often felt caught between two worlds—at times a part of both, other times rejected by both. As half-Korean American, she struggled with her racial identity, especially as she shuffled between different public schools and never saw herself represented in any sort of media. But the feelings presented in “FYO” are more open-ended than that.

“There are lots of people who feel this way,” Lockard says.

MICHELLE’s sophomore release, AFTER DINNER WE TALK DREAMS, due January 28, was written in a year of turmoil—from racial injustice protests to political upheaval to the seemingly never-ending COVID-19 pandemic. And the group has used their social media accounts and platform as a way of talking to their fanbase about the world we’re living in, and the ways we all can contribute to its healing.

“We wanted to have the noise that we were making be the right kind of noise and not just, ‘Listen to our song, listen to our song,” Lee says. “We’re real people who have all experienced oppression in some way, shape or form, and therefore have empathy for other injustices that we may or may not relate to or may or may not be affected by.”

Indie-pop collective MICHELLE rejects your stereotypes

by Angela K. Evans

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

All native New Yorkers, the individual members of MICHELLE met each other by chance, orbiting similar music and art circles in high school and into college.

“The high schools in New York, everyone kind of knows everyone. And if you don’t know someone, you know someone who knows them,” Kilgore says.

But it was the producing duo Kauffman and Kilgore who first solicited some 16 musicians to participate in the project that would become MICHELLE. The idea was to create an album about summer in New York City in two weeks through a sort of intensive writing camp. It was admittedly a bit daunting for some.

“Definitely when we were all invited to the project that Charlie and Julian were interested in making, I remember wondering what to write about with a group of strangers,” Lee says.

But none of the writing is done with the group as a whole; instead, two or three people branch off and write together, abandoning the chaos of six personalities, ideas, and thoughts for an easier collaboration.

In the early days, MICHELLE was more of a collective, a side project for young people with busy lives. Some were still in school, others were working different jobs, most were trying to write with other people, and a few had their own bands. They were separate individuals coming together for the sole purpose of MICHELLE. At times, 10 people performed under the mononym, other times only two.

Then came a record deal, and the group really solidified into a sextet, bringing the compassion, self-awareness, and perspectives as mostly queer and “mixed-race femme POC” to the foreground of the l

SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

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E VENTS

EVENTS

If your organization is planning an event of any kind, please email the managing editor at crockett@boulderweekly.com

Boulder Ballet Fall Concert

7:30 p.m. Friday, October 1, Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. Price: $20-$54.50.

Boulder Ballet’s opening performance of the 2021/22 season will explore the wide range of creative styles by some of today’s foremost choreographers. From American modern dance in Paul Taylor’s mesmerizing Airs to Christopher Wheeldon’s intricate partnering work in The American, Boulder Ballet continues to challenge limitations and boundaries in artwork. The company will also premiere renowned choreographer Amy Seiwert’s The Devil Ties My Tongue.

Author Talk: Phoebe S. K. Young—’Camping Grounds’

Third Annual Fundraising Gala—A Barbecue Benefit For Boulder Pregnancy Resource Center

5:30 p.m. Thursday, September 30, Wiens Corporate Hangar at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, 11824 Corporate Way, The Boulder Pregnancy Resource Center, a Boulder-based or unexpected pregnancy, is hosting its third annual gala fundraising event in-person. It includes a barbecue dinner and dessert bar, complimentary wine and beer, inspiring stories, and special entertainment.

Tickets can be purchased at boulderpregnancyresourcecenter.com

6:30 p.m. Thursday, September 30, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl Street, Boulder. Price: $5, boulderbookstore.net In Camping Grounds, Phoebe S. K. Young takes a closer look at the history of camping since of this American tradition and its links to core beliefs about nature and national belonging. In her research, Young rediscovers unexpected and interwoven histories of sleeping outside. These entwined stories show how Americans camp to claim a place in the American republic and why the outdoors is critical to how we relate to nature, the nation, and each other.

Comedy Underground with Luke Gaston

8 p.m. Friday, October 1, The Louisville Underground, 640 Luke Gaston will lead this night of laughs featuring three local comedians. David Rodriguez has been featured on NPR, Just For Laughs, and many other festivals and clubs across the country.

Gabby Gutierrez-Reed has been in the 2018 and 2019 Longmont Laughfest, and hosts a comedy open mic every Thursday at The White Whale Room. Korey David is a psychedelic-loving ex-Mormon who works out his angst on stage.

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E VEN T S

EVENTS

Arts in the Open presents ‘Dracula: The Death of Nosferatu’

Boulder County Women’s March

10 a.m. Saturday, October 2, Boulder Courthouse, 1333 Pearl Street, Boulder; 11:30 a.m. Roosevelt Park, Longmont.

On Saturday, October 2, thousands of women in every state—including here in Colorado—will mobilize and march in response to legislation in Texas and Mississippi that limit women’s reproductive choice. The marches have been organized in order to send a message to the Supreme Court that is scheduled to reconvene on October 4. Attend one of two Boulder County marches. Join YMCA Boulder County in mobilizing and defending reproductive rights by registering at: map.womensmarch.com

Saturdays and Sundays through October 31, Chautauqua Park, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder.

Price: $15-$20.

Enjoy a moderate hike while you hear a version of the Gothic classic about the romantic monster from the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass. Old professor Van Helsing has come to the aid of his friend and student, Dr. Seward, at Whitby Asylum in England. Mina Murray is suffering from a mysterious ailment which threatens to postpone her marriage to Jonathan Harker. Van Helsing has come fresh case. Very soon the beast joins them, and he is most serious about his plans friends. Once hikers arrive at a scene location, they can sit back, relax and watch a scene from the production. Once the scene is complete, you’ll move on to the next location.

Fall Cabaret at Frequent Flyers

7 and 9 p.m. Saturday, October 2, Frequent Flyers Aerial Dance, 3022 E. Sterling Circle, Suite 150, Boulder.

Price: $30-$45—$30 admission to cabaret; $15 optional wine tasting.

Frequent Flyers’ Fall Cabaret showcases the talents of the amazing faculty and performers in its home studio with 45-minute performances on aerial silks,

along with a FFP performer in the tasting room. Then head across the parking lot to Studio 1 for one of the cabarets. A portion of the proceeds supports Frequent Flyers.

Limited seating for the wine tastings to preserve safety.

Movie Night: Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Dreams’

6:30 p.m. Thursday, September 30, R Gallery and Art Bar, 2027 Broadway, Boulder. Free.

Comprised of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. Join in for a

Boulder Premiere of ‘Stoke the Fire’

6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Thursday, September 30, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street, Boulder. Tickets are $20 each, $15 with student ID, and only $10 for ages 16 and under at the early show.

Teton Gravity Research is returning to the Boulder Theater for the winter Stoke The Fire. Whether you choose to come to the family-friendly early show or party at the late show, it’s sure to be a great night. As always, there will be a ton of prize giveaways from partners at Sierra Nevada, YETI, The North Face, Atomic, Volkl and others. Plus, everyone in attendance will have a shot at the tour grand prizes: a trip to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, an epic prize pack from Sierra Nevada, plus gear from YETI, Atomic and more.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events

SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

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EVENTS

EVENTS from Page 23

CONCERTS THE CALIFORNIA HONEYDROPS/PHOTO BY JEROME BRUNET

JUST ANNOUNCED FRI. OCT 1

OCT 28 ....................................................................................... LOUD LUXURY DEC 31 .................................................................................................... CRUMB

GREAT DIVIDE BREWING CO PRESENTS

MIPSO

THU. SEP 30

ANNA TIVEL SAT. OCT 2 PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS: TRAILBLAZER TOUR

TSURUDA + CHEE + ESSEKS SUN. OCT 3 88.5 KGNU PRESENTS

JULIAN LAGE WED. OCT 6

TETON GRAVITY RESEARCH PRESENTS: STOKE THE FIRE FRI. OCT 1 ROOSTER & PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENT: DAYMAKER TOUR

FLAMINGOSIS IAN EWING

MON. OCT 4 DISTORTION AND BLUE HEARTS!

BOB MOULD BAND

88.5 KGNU PRESENTS

BRASSTRACKS TOBI

THU. OCT 7

STRICTLY PRESENTS:

MOST GUTTER, WILDCARD, AUGUST LIGHT SAT. OCT 9

SLOW CAVES

THU. OCT 7

PAT METHENY SIDE-EYE W/ JAMES FRANCIES & JOE DYSON SAT. OCT 9

VERTICAL FUSION PRESENTS: HADES’ CIRCUS SUN. OCT 10

PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

NEW MEDIA TOURING PRESENTS

THE SPONGES & MUZZY BEARR

CHRIS FLEMING: TRICKY TRICKY

SUN. OCT 10

ROOSTER & PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENT

SHOVELS & ROPE “THE BARE BONES TOUR” FRI. OCT 15 PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

SHLUMP

ONHELL, PASHMONIX

THU. OCT 14

MALAA

MON. OCT 18 107.9 KBPI PRESENTS: THE HUN TOUR

THE HU THE HAUNT

TUE. OCT 19 THE CELTIC CONNECTION, 88.5 KGNU & BOULDER WEEKLY PRESENT: THE HOME FROM HOME TOUR

SAT. OCT 16

THE HIGH KINGS

PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

SAT. OCT 23

MIZE

JOHN HIATT & THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND

CHAMPAGNE DRIP TUE. OCT 19

97.3 KBCO PRESENTS

SUN. OCT 24

WHITNEY

105.5 THE COLORADO SOUND PRESENTS

DAR WILLIAMS

RENEE REED

HEATHER MALONEY

THU. OCT 21

TUE. OCT 26

BACK 2 BUSINESS FEAT.

HARVE B2B KAEGI, BATHROOM BREAK, PŠM TYŸ B2B GANO, RYNE B2B TREUTH, SPYDA B2B BALEK

97.3 KBCO PRESENTS

THE DEL MCCOURY BAND FRI. OCT 29 ROOSTER & PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENT: SOME CREATURE TOUR

FRI. OCT 22

GETTER

PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

SAT. OCT 30

WRECKNO

97.3 KBCO & BELL’S BREWERY PRESENT: AN EVENING WITH

THE MOTET

MEGAN HAMILTON

HALLOWEEN 2021

SAT. OCT 23

SUN. OCT 31

AQUEOUS

ROOSTER & PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENT: SWIMMING WITH THE CLOUDS TOUR

SUN. OCT 24

BIRDTALKER LONAS

SAT. OCT 30

WHETHAN

NOV 2 .................................................................................. YUNG GRAVY NOV 6 ........................................................................ BOOMBOX CARTEL NOV 17 ....................................................................................... CARIBOU NOV 18 ............................................................................. BRETT DENNEN NOV 19 ....................................................... THE LAST WALTZ REVISITED

SATSANG

TIM SNIDER AND WOLFGANG TIMBER OCT 31 ............................................................................. JUSTIN MARTIN NOV 5 ....................................................................................... LAWRENCE NOV 6 ....................................................................................... BOY PABLO NOV 7 .................................................................................... SIERRA HULL NOV 10 ............................................................................... BOOKA SHADE

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Thursday, September 30

Tyler Childers with Margo Price, John R. Miller (Americana). 6:30 p.m.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Tickets: $49.95.

BuffStreet on the Hill (various bands). 6 p.m. Hill Parking Lot at 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, Boulder. Free.

The Johnny O Band (blues and funk). 8 p.m. The Louisville Underground, 640 Main Street, Louisville. Tickets: $10.00 to $15.00 —table Seating for 2 guests and 4 guests available

Friday, October 1

Rancid & Dropkick Murphys (punk). 6 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street, Denver. Tickets: $49.99-$60.

RL Grime (drum and bass). 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street, Denver. Tickets: $35.75-$150.

Taken! (covers). 6 p.m. Bootstrap Brewing Company, 142 Pratt St, Longmont.

Free.

Bill Kopper Erik Deutsch album release quartet (jazz). 7 p.m. Caffè Sole, 637 S. Broadway Street, Boulder. Suggested cover: $15.

Mipso with Anna Tivel (string band). 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $15-$20.

Flamingosis with Ian Ewing (R&B/soul). 9 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $18-$20.

Saturday, October 2

6 p.m. Bootstrap Brewing Company, 142 Pratt Street, Longmont. Free.

311 with Iration, Iya Terra (rock/ska). 6 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Tickets: starting from $59.95.

The California Honeydrops (blues). 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street, Denver. Tickets: $32.50.

Bill Kopper Erik Deutsch album release quartet (jazz). 7 p.m. Caffè Sole, 637 S. Broadway Street, Boulder. Suggested cover: $15.

That Eighties Band (covers). 8 p.m. Dickens Opera House, 300 Main Street, Longmont. Tickets: $23.

Tsuruda + Chee + Esseks (hip-hop/avant-garde electronic). 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $20-$25.

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SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

LEON BRIDGES/PHOTO COURTESY MICK MANAGEMENT

Sunday, October 3

Parkway Drive (metalcore). 6:45 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street, Denver. Tickets: $32.50.

Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange) with The Tallest Man on Earth, Bonny Light Horseman (folk). 7 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $42.50-$75.

Bill Kopper Erik Deutsch album release quartet (jazz). 7 p.m. Caffè Sole, 637 S. Broadway Street, Boulder. Suggested cover: $15.

Julian Lage (jazz guitar). 7:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $21-$23.

Monday, October 4

BRASSTRACKS/PHOTO BY JUSTINE VANDERPOOL

Leon Bridges (soul). 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street, Denver. $60.95$135.

Bob Mould Band with Slow Caves (alternative rock). 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $25-$30.

Tuesday, October 5

Heilung (experimental folk). 7 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Tickets: $48.50-$79.50.

Dead Can Dance (art rock). 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street, Denver. $50-$100.

Wednesday, October 6

Brasstracks with TOBi (R&B/hip-hop). 9 p.m. The Fox Theatre, 1135 13th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $20-$25.

Leon Bridges with Abraham Alexander (soul). 7 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Tickets: $69.50$99.50.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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‘Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films’ is an essential set

by Michael J. Casey ON THE BILL: Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films. Available now wherever Blu-rays are sold.

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e was a filmmaker, an actor, a novelist, a playwright, and a revolutionary. He made one of the most profitable and overlooked independent films of all time. He was Melvin Van Peebles, a titan of American filmmaking, and he died on September 21, 2021, at the age of 89. Thankfully, the work remains and is now available via The Criterion Collection’s latest Blu-ray box set, Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films.

Born in Chicago in 1932, Van Peebles' artistic career started in San Francisco with the publication of his first book, The Big Heart, in 1957. Drawing on his experiences as a cable car driver, The Big Heart earned Van Peebles some attention but cost him his job: His supervisor didn't think Black employees should be literate. So Van Peebles, at the suggestion of an acquaintance, turned to filmmaking.

He made a couple of silent shorts around San Francisco, nothing spectacular but on par with other experimental short films of the time. And they got Van Peebles noticed, specifically COURTESY CRITERION COLLECTION from Henri Langlois and Mary Meerson of the Cinémathèque Française. They invited Van Peebles to Paris for a screening of his films, which were received enthusiastically but failed to net Van Peebles any money. So, he started begging on the streets, learned French, kept writing, and scraped enough together to turn one of his novels into a feature film: The Story of the ThreeDay Pass. The year was 1968, and the appetite for independent films was worldwide, and the Three-Day Pass was accepted into the San Francisco International Film Festival.

That’s where a Hollywood producer mistook Van Peebles for a French auteur and offered him a deal at Columbia Pictures.

The script Columbia handed to Van Peebles would become Watermelon Man, a comedy about a white bigot transformed into a Black man overnight. Columbia wanted Jack Lemmon or Alan Arkin for the part. The fact that Lemmon or Arkin would play the majority of the movie in blackface was of little concern to the studio.

But it was a problem for Van Peebles. So he cast Godfrey Cambridge, put him in whiteface for the first 10 minutes of the movie, changed the ending, and gave Watermelon Man a political edge it wouldn’t have had without his hand. The film isn’t a total success—it’s clunky and sophomoric at times—but Van Peebles’ voice comes through loud and clear. It’s like a warm-up act for the work to follow.

And what followed was 1971’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Van Peebles wrote, directed, starred, edited, scored, and came up with the marketing campaign. Van Peebles made Sweetback for about $150,000 and almost went blind doing it. The movie went on to gross $15 million, and that’s not counting the receipts exhibitors squirreled away because they figured Van Peebles was too green or too stupid to go looking for them.

That same year, Van Peebles turned to the stage, brought Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death to Broadway, and earned seven Tony nominations. He followed that with Don’t Play Us Cheap!, which netted Van Peebles one more Tony nomination. In 1973, Van Peebles adapted it into a movie.

Don’t Play Us Cheap!, along with Sweetback, Watermelon Man, and Three-Day Pass, have all been collected and restored for Criterion’s set. The movies are great, but the real coup de grâce of Criterion’s collection is the plethora of interviews either with Van Peebles or about Van Peebles.

One of the best comes from Van Peebles’ son, Mario, a filmmaker in his own right. For Mario, Melvin Van Peebles was a bumblebee because a bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly. It’s not aerodynamically sound. But the bumblebee doesn’t know it shouldn’t be able to fly, so it does. And Melvin Van Peebles didn’t know he couldn’t be a revolutionary filmmaker, theater director, and novelist, so he was.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

BY ROB BREZSNY ARIES

LIBRA

“The best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.” If that strategy appeals to you, the next eight weeks will be an excellent time to put it to maximum use.

You’re entering a phase when you can have an especially beneficial effect on people you care for. You’ll be at peak power to help them unleash dormant potentials and access untapped resources.

As gifts, I have collected six useful mini-oracles for you to meditate on during the rest of 2021. They’re all authored by Libran aphorist Yahia Lababidi. 1. Hope is more patient than despair and so outlasts it. 2. Miracles are proud creatures; they will not reveal themselves to those who do not believe.

3. A good listener is one who helps us overhear ourselves.

4. One definition of success might be refining our appetites, while deepening our hunger. 5. With enigmatic clarity, life gives us a different answer each time we ask her the same question. 6. Temptation: seeds we are forbidden to water, that are showered with rain.

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: Aries author Steve Maraboli says,

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: It’s a good time to ruminate about things you wish could be part of your life but aren’t. You will be wise to develop a more conscious relationship with wistful fantasies about impossible dreams. Here’s one reason why this is true: You might realize that some seemingly impossible dreams aren’t so impossible. To get in the mood for this fun exercise, meditate on a sample reverie: “I wish I could spend a whole day discovering new music to love. I wish I owned a horse and a boat and a vintage brown and orange striped bohemian cardigan sweater from the 1970s. I wish I knew the names of all the flowers. I wish I felt more at ease about revealing my hidden beauty. I wish I could figure out how to eliminate unnecessary stress from my life.”

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: Happy Birthday sometime soon, Libra!

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: Pioneering psychologist Carl Jung wrote,

“I must also have a dark side if I am to be whole.” But it’s important to add that some dark sides tend to be destructive and demoralizing, while other dark sides are fertile and interesting. Most of us have a share of each. My reading of the planetary omens suggests that you Scorpios now have extra power to upgrade your relationship with the fertile and interesting aspects of your dark side. I hope you will take advantage! You have a ripe opportunity to deepen and expand your wholeness.

SAGITTARIUS

calls her husband Robert Currie the “Randomizer.” His role in her life as a creative artist is to make quirky recommendations that help her avoid being too predictable. He sends her off in directions she wouldn’t have imagined by herself.

Here’s an example: At one point in her career, Carson confessed she was bored with her writing. The Randomizer suggested, “Let’s put dancers into it.” In response, she repurposed the sonnets she had been working on into a live theatrical performance featuring many dancers. I think you would benefit from having a Randomizer in your life during the coming weeks. Know anyone who could serve? If not, look for one. Or be your own Randomizer.

a complicated person with many mysterious emotions and convoluted thoughts. And yet, he once wrote that life occasionally brought him “boundless simplicity and joy.” I find it amazing he could ever welcome such a state. Kudos to him! How about you, dear Sagittarius? Are you capable of recognizing when boundless simplicity and joy are hovering in your vicinity, ready for you to seize them? If so, be extra alert in the next two weeks. I expect there’ll be a visitation or two. Maybe even three or four.

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: If you so desired, you could travel to Munich, Germany and eat beer-flavored ice cream. Or you could go to Rehoboth, Delaware and get bacon-flavored ice cream. If you were in Taiwan, you could enjoy pineapple shrimp ice cream, and if you were in London, you could sample haggis-flavored ice cream, made from sheep innards. But my advice right now is to stick with old reliables like chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream— which are still delicious even if they’re not exotic. What’s my reasoning? In general, the astrological aspects suggest that during the coming weeks, you’re most likely to thrive on trustworthy standbys and experiences you know and trust.

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: Celebrated novelist Jane Austen (1775–

1817) wrote, “Sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could find no language to describe them in.”

People who aren’t as articulate as Austen experience that problem even more often than she did. But the good news, Leo, is that in the coming weeks, you’ll be extra skillful at expressing your feelings and thoughts—even those that in the past have been difficult to put into words. I invite you to take maximum advantage of this grace period.

Communicate with hearty poise and gleeful abandon.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: “When you know what’s important, it’s a

lot easier to ignore what’s not,” writes author and life coach Marie Forleo. Let’s make her thought the basis of your work and play in the coming weeks. Get vibrantly clear on what is of supreme value to you, which influences bring out the best in you, and which people make it easy for you to be yourself. Then compose a second list of trivial situations that are of minor interest, influences that make you feel numb, and people who don’t fully appreciate you. Next, Virgo, formulate long-term plans to phase out the things in the second list as you increasingly emphasize your involvement in the pleasures named in the first list.

All credit cards accepted No text messages

SCORPIO

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Poet, essayist, and translator Anne Carson

Call 720.253.4710

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: Sagittarian poet Rainer Maria Rilke was

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: Baltasar Gracián was not a 21st-century

New Age self-help teacher. He was a 17th-century Jesuit philosopher born under the sign of serious, diligent Capricorn. I hope you will be extra receptive to his advice in the coming weeks. He wrote, “Know your key qualities, your outstanding gifts. Cultivate them. Redouble their use.” Among the key qualities he gave as examples were disciplined discernment and resilient courage. I bring his thoughts to your attention because the coming weeks will be a rousing time to heed his counsel. It’s time for you to identify and celebrate and give abundant expression to your key qualities.

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: After studying the genes that create feathers in birds, scientists found that humans have all the necessary genes to grow feathers. (I read about it in National Geographic magazine.) So why don’t we grow feathers, then? Well, it’s complicated. Basically, the feather-making genes are not fully activated. Who knows? Maybe someday, there’ll be technology that enables us to switch on those genes and sprout plumage.

I bet my Aquarian friend Jessie, whose body has 30 tattoos and 17 piercings, would take advantage. In the coming weeks, it might be fun for you to imagine having bird-like qualities. You’re entering a high-flying phase—a time for ascension, expansion, soaring, and seeing the big picture from lofty vantage points.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: Are there sensual and erotic acts you’ve never tried and are curious about? Are there experimental approaches on the frontier of your desires that would be intriguing to consider? Might there be lusty experiences you’ve barely imagined or don’t know about—but that could be fun to play with? According to my analysis of the astrological omens, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to explore such possibilities. Be safe and prudent, of course. Don’t be irresponsible or careless. But also be willing to expand your notions of your sexuality.

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SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

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SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

videotape it for him.

I’m in hell. I haven’t had a private piss nobody has

BY DAN SAVAGE Dear Dan: I’m worried this may be above your pay grade. LOL. My boyfriend

—Unrelenting Requirements Inducing Nervous Exhaustion entirely on me.

single time he gets angry.

Dear URINE: You don’t wanna break up your family over this, URINE, but I sure do. To be perfectly frank, I’d like to break up your boyfriend’s skull over ROMAN ROBINSON

relationship were terrifying

I’m not advocating violence.

It’s just that after reading your your boyfriend upside the skull breaks into a thousand

he still insists that I must hold it in for as long as possible

in all night. It has gotten to the point where

bathroom after shoving a human out of my vagina in full view of 10 adults I did not

I don’t think your question is above my pay grade—what you need to do seems obvious to me and will, no doubt, be obvious to everyone who reads your letter—I nevertheless called in a couple of experts.

Dr. Ian Fields is a urogynecologist who bladder conditions. I shared your letter with him to get his expert opinion on the risks you’re taking with your physical health, URINE, but before Dr. Fields would address the health risks you’ve been bullied into running, he wanted to address the elephant in the bathroom and the bedroom and the delivery room.

“Let’s call this behavior what it is:

abuse,” said Dr. Fields. “This woman needs to get out of this controlling and abusive relationship.” I am in complete agreement with Dr. Fields, URINE: you’re not indulging a kinky boyfriend, you’re being terrorized (your own words) by an abusive boyfriend.

Leave him.

“In terms of health risks, there are many,” Dr. Fields continued. “Keeping large amounts of urine in your bladder is a set up for recurrent urinary tract infections. These infections can track upwards to the kidneys in some cases and cause an infection in the kidney called pyelonephritis. Recurrent bouts of pyelonephritis can lead to permalose your kidneys—once they lose function, it doesn’t return.”

Destroying your kidneys isn’t the only health risk you’re running, URINE. “Keeping large amounts of urine in the bladder can lead to a bladder stretch injury and may lead to long-standing urinary retention—or the inability to empty the bladder—which may or may not recover over time,” said Dr. Fields.

“The bladder is a pretty hearty muscle and can recover from many insults but repeated damage like this could do irreparable harm. In addition, these insults could lead to overactive bladder and with time, to urgent urinary incontinence, that is, leakage that you cannot control when you get the urge to go to the bathroom.”

So, URINE, the health risks you’re running to avoid your boyfriend’s anger cannot

for her physical health and safety raises the bar to physical abuse in my opinion.”

Myers frequently works with individuals around sex and intimacy, URINE, but she would not work with you—alone or as a couple—with the goal of saving this relationship.

“Working with this reader on how to compromise or communicate better regarding this issue would amount to facilitating the continuation of an abusive relationship,” said Myers. “My advice to her is to begin gathering resources, telling safe people, and planning a safe exit. Once she’s safely out of the relationship, therapy can help her avoid getting into another abusive relationship.”

Which is not to say this is your fault, URINE. Your boyfriend manipulated you with his anger and leveraged your own your partner pee every time she pees, it’s unrealistic and unfair and unworkable to demand that your partner allow you to watch them every single time they take a piss.

There’s nothing LOL about any of this, URINE, and I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear. Yours is one of those letters that makes me wish I had a time machine so I could take you back to the one kid ago, back when your boyfriend you to leave him before things escalated

talk about the emotional and psychological on you.

“If this woman came to me for individual therapy, I would be compelled to point out to her that her boyfriend is physically and emotionally abusing her,” said therapist Marissa Myers, LCP. “Getting ‘uncomfortably are examples of manipulative behaviors abusers use to make sure their victims know who’s in charge. The disregard this man has

your kid and don’t regret having that baby, URINE, you can’t let your desire to keep your child’s home intact prevent you from escaping the hell your boyfriend has made of your life. Take Myers’ advice: Make a plan, lean on supportive friends, take your kid, and get away from this man before your kidneys explode. visit savage.love.

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JOHN LEHNDORFF

Cook here now

Ignore recipes and cook what tastes good to you to avoid the everyday hassles of making dinner

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

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hile-cumin steam wafted up from the creamy broth, vegeA BOWL OF beef tables, and beef when I sat down to eat. My TV dinner— green chile, cocopaired with toasted corn tortillas, a lager, and a new show, nut milk, and potaWhat We Do in the Shadows, was everything I needed that to stew. (Photo by evening.

John Lehndorff) Less than an hour earlier I had no idea what I’d cook—I just knew I was hungry with little energy, mood, or time to make anything after a long day. I needed easy, but not restaurant-delivery easy.

I didn’t look at “quick & easy” recipes or search cooking videos on TikTok. Instead, I practiced a culinary meditation technique developed over time.

To make food in the moment, you have to relax and empty the noise from your brain temporarily as you stand in the middle of the kitchen. I wall-off the mental crap in the living room like a puppy. Leaning on the open door, I start by contemplating the glow from the open fridge, scanning the condiments on the door, the cheeses, pickles, and the bins of vegetables I’d forgotten about.

I’m hoping the ingredients will speak to me, and, if they do get chatty, that it’s in English.

Focus shifts to the freezer jammed with bags of vegetables and cut, cubed, and ground meat and seafood plus fruit and sauces. The light’s been out for months, forcing a tactile rummage that helps me say “no” to chicken, pork, and shrimp pieces, and “yes” to steak strips frozen loose in a bag.

Protein decided, a seasoning scheme needed to pop out. Supplies in my pantry mean I can guide it toward Italian, Indian, and many other cuisines. My stellar lineup of starches—the gnocchi, rice, grits, tortellini, millet, and farro—just sat there on the shelf while the canned roasted whole green chilies and boxed vegetable broth beeped across my scanner.

At this aha! mation—a Yukon Jack potato, a carrot, and a piece of sweet red pepper came to mind.

Into a wide, deep saucepan over medium-high heat went some olive oil and fast-cooking, chip-thin slices of potato tumbled with quickly chopped fresh veggies. A forkful of chopped garlic from a jar was added with frozen chopped onions and sweet kernel corn stocked for just such an occasion. Convenience is not a crime. It’s survival.

Coconut milk from a can and boxed broth started to create the sauce with beef added

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Oktoberfest 2021 Märzen in Boulder County

O

ne of the miracles of beer is that it can be made year-round. Unlike wine and cider, beer isn’t beholden to a harvest. But that doesn’t mean brewers are ignorant of such activities. Your local watering hole will often feature a brew or two to complement the season, even a holiday. And if you’re a dedicated drinker, then you know the fall/winter calendar by now: Fresh hop beers in September, gourd brews

by Michael J. Casey blue- and white-checkered tents. Hell, maybe it’s the sight of men and women in lederhosen and dirndls. Whatever it is, Oktoberfest brings out autumnal drinkers in ways fresh hop IPAs and pumpkin ales never could.

A brief history of Oktoberfest

It was the marriage of future Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese on October 12, 1810 that laid the foundation for

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sive boost to the local economy, despite a few cancellations due to Napoleon, cholera, world wars, and COVID. Per tradition, Oktoberfest kicks off at 10:45 a.m. on the third Saturday in September and lasts for roughly 17 days. Pre-pandemic, seven million people would trek to Munich to partake in the festivities. If you’re a dedicated beer drinker, it ought to be on your bucket list.

What’s in a name?

Those seven million might not be in Munich this year, but the beer you will always have with you. Though many labels sport the name “Oktoberfest,” using its more stylistic moniker: Märzen (German for March, the month it’s traditionally brewed in). Consensus points to Gabriel Sedlmayer II as the inventor of Märzen in 1840. He and his buddy Anton Dreher picked up cutting-edge malt kilning methods from British brewers and brought them back to Eastern Europe to concoct two new beers, Märzen and Vienna Lager. Both alike in dignity and technique, Märzen utilizes Munich malts—which gives the drink a cookie-like quality—while Dreher’s Vienna Lager uses Vienna malts, which medium body beers with low to medium bitterness and keep to the 5.5-6.3 percent alcohol by volume range.

in October and November, and plenty of spiced winter warmers for December and January.

But few capture drinkers’ hearts quite like a classic Oktoberfest beer. Maybe it’s the impressive heft of a stein loaded with foamy, amber-hued liquid. Maybe it’s the delight of drinking under large

Oktoberfest. All of Munich was invited to celebrate the nuptials. Horses were run, and beer was drunk—this is Bavaria we’re talking about. The people loved it. So much so that the following year they decided to throw another party to commemorate the event. Oktoberfest was born. The annual event became a mas-

What about the hops?

Malt is the main characteristic of Märzen, but American brewers love their hops. If you’re heading out to the liquor drop a couple of classics in the basket— Spaten for sure, Paulaner if you’re feeling fancy—for comparison’s sake. Paulaner Oktoberfest Märzen uses Herkules and

Hallertau Mittelfrüh (the traditional German hop), while Spaten uses Hallertau and Tettnanger. Both beers go spectacularly well with roast chicken, grilled sausage, and freshly baked pretzels dunked in sweet and spicy mustard.

Filling out your six-pack

The menu is set, and Spaten and Paulaner are in the basket. There are dozens more Oktoberfests and Märzens to choose from. You could grab another from Germany (Ayinger Oktober FestMärzen), a national staple (Samuel Adams OctoberFest), maybe even an Oktoberfest-inspired ale (Crystal Springs’ Oktoberfest). That one you’ve got to try: The nose is nutty toast with a bit of bright citrus, a touch of tea, and some sweet malt. Pick one up at all your better liquor stores. And while you’re there, here are three more Boulder County brews to round out your Oktoberfest experience.

Left Hand Brewing’s Oktoberfest— Brewed with Munich malts and CTZ and Mt. Hood hops, Left Hand’s Oktoberfest pours a beautiful clear honey gold, has a biscuit and caramel. It’s a well balanced fall slugger.

Wibby Brewing’s Wibtoberfest—Wibby’s Oktoberfest produces a darker amber color, a full head of foam, and strong lacing down the glass. An indication that Wibby’s take leans heavier on the hop components, which deliver in the nose don’t worry, Wibtoberfest still has roasted malts to spare.

Avery Brewing’s The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest Lager—Most Oktoberfests are brewed for sessionability. Avery says nuts to that; all you need is one. Clocking in at 8 percent ABV, The Kaiser is a bold and beasty brew featuring sweet caramel, toast, and hop spiciness.

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Send information about local food events and festivals to: Nibbles@BoulderWeekly.com

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Making exercise pleasurable

him to the Colfax Marathon in 2015, where he found he wasn’t the only stoner in the crowd.

“My eye catches a nearby trash can and I notice something peculiar,” Hesse writes in Runner’s High.

tackled his PTSD with a regimen of running stoned with a pair of goats.

“I also learned that anywhere between 70 to 90 percent of professional athletes are using cannabis regularly,” Hesse says. Kenyon Martin, former power forward for the Denver Nuggets, told Bleacher Report he estimates some 85 percent of the NBA uses cannabis.

Martellus Bennett, former tight end of the Dallas Cowboys, puts the number around 90 percent for the NFL. Just last year, following pressure from the players’ union, carded bottles of Advil, and running salts is a collection Major League Baseball agreed to remove cannabis from of wrappers belonging to a different kind of supplement. its list of prohibited substances.

Then there are the ultrarunners, like Avery Collike honey and lime, and treats like mints, cookies, and lins, who is the only endurance runner sponsored by gummies, they also have the acronyms THC and CBD. a cannabis company, The Farm in Boulder. (Collins, it GLENN ROSS should be noted, has been turned down by other sponsors because of his connection to cannabis.) Hesse takes a run with Collins and his girlfriend, fellow ultrarunner Sabrina Stanley. Both are serious competitors, the kinds of athletes Hesse avoided for most of his life—and they changed his perspective.

“Maybe these aren’t the homophobic meatheads that kicked my ass in high school,” Hesse says. “Maybe I have something to learn from listening to people who really love competition. I have kind of a hangup about competition coming from the arts world—it’s always bad for you, we should have no competition. And hearing people give a poetic, eloquent description of a competitive mind state opened my mind.”

Exercise activates the endocannabinoid system, a complex cell-signaling system that plays a role in regulating sleep, mood, appeIt’s a discreet, seemingly innocuous detail—but it lets tite and memory. This system is there and working even consumers know that they’re about to ingest a substance if you don’t use cannabis—but weed sure can help. that has divided our country for nearly a century.

“Exercise should be as pleasurable as food, sleep “At that moment, I’m shocked to see these at a or sex,” Hesse says. “It’s something that’s just in us. marathon.”

It seems so intriguing to me that you don’t have to The race was a catalyst for Runner’s High. His reconvince anyone to eat sugar or to sleep or to have search led him to athletic stoners across the globe, from an orgasm . . . So it was intriguing to me why so many the British cyclist who biked 20,000 miles while getting Americans do not feel the runner’s high. Cannabis high every two hours, to the “glitter-drenched aerobics could be a key to opening up that door and making exercise as pleasurable as any of these other hedoJane Fonda class” in Portland, to the Iraqi War vet who nistic activities.”

Josiah Hesse tackles cannabis use in athletics in ‘Runner’s High’

by Caitlin Rockett

G

rowing up in Northern Iowa, artistic, bisexual, and throttled by religious fundamentalism, Josiah Hesse had no interest in sports.

and athletes because I just saw athletes as the homophobic, meathead jocks that kicked my ass in high school,” he says over the phone from his home in Denver, where he’s lived since 2004. “So I was always like, well, that’s a world I’m not going to enter.” tion book, Runner’s High, a look at how athletes of all stripes are using cannabis to treat pain, go deeper, and train harder. But sports is just the medium by which Hesse addresses the larger issue of ongoing Reefer Madness: how East Coast publishers responded in anger to the pitch for Runner’s High; how we can tell children that pot makes them lazy, then tell athletes that pot is a “performance enhancing drug.”

“I keep getting jarred by how much of a bubble I live in in Denver,” Hesse says, “and how much of America is really still living in Nancy Reagan’s America and have no idea on someone’s life, that it could help them with something like physical activity, that it can be a source of energy.”

Hesse turned to running several years ago to treat his ongoing anxiety and depression, but found the impact on his joints too painful to take much solace in the activity.

Luckily, edibles with consistent doses were coming into the market.

“When I incorporated edibles with my run, it was a completely different experience,” he says. “I felt lighter, I felt a sense of joy. I didn’t feel as much pain in my body. I felt a huge passion for running itself.”

And so his love affair with running began, leading

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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A matter of national defense?

House vote on this legislation. However, while revisions of it have been passed by Congress three times, the SAFE Banking Act has yet to make it past the Senate.

Should it pass (either as a standalone bill or riding on the NDAA), the Safe Banking Act would make it possible for banks to accept funds from cannabis businesses in legal states. It would also make it possible for cannabis businesses to access regular banking services like loans and credit—neither of which are currently available to state-legal cannabis businesses.

Rogers (R-AL), support the SAFE Banking Act as a standalone bill, but question the method of tying it to the NDAA. “I think what [Perlmutter is] trying to accomplish is admirable and should be accomplished,” Rogers said.

“But not in the National Defense Authorization Act.” Others, like Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), have said they’ll do whatever they can to block a banking bill like the SAFE Banking Act. Shortly after Booker

system in our country by keeping bad actors like foreign cartels out of the cannabis industry,” Representative Perlmutter said as he stood before the House on the Wednesday prior to the vote. “But most importantly, this amendment will reduce the risk of violent crime in our communities. By dealing in all cash, these businesses and their employees become targets for robberies, assaults, burglaries and more.”

By framing the issue through the lens of drug cartels on American streets and local businesses be-

get rich and not do something about the people who are languishing with criminal convictions” is unacceptable, he said at a press conference. “I will lay myself down to do everything I can to stop an easy banking bill that’s going to allow all these corporations to make a lot more money off of this, as opposed to focusing on the

U.S. Defense Bill passes House vote with cannabis banking amendment—but even in a Democratic -controlled Senate, it faces a hard road

by Will Brendza

T

he U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday, September 23 to approve the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2022 by a vote of 316-113. But this time there was a rather unusual amendment attached to the typically-military-centric budget bill: an amendment that would shield banks from federal prosecution (or retribution) if they worked with state-legal cannabis businesses.

One day ahead of that vote, Colorado Representative Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) took to the House podium to present Amendment No. 1, which was a verbatim reprint of his Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act. “I offer this amendment that is identical to the SAFE Banking Act, the House passed by a vote of 321 to 101 in April,” Perlmuter said. “By bringing cash into the the funds and the account holders to rigorous anti-money laundering [requirements].” attached to a defense spending bill. And for many, it’s raising the question: When did cannabis banking become an issue of national security?

The answer lies within the premise of Perlmutterr’s SAFE Banking Act, which, from its inception, has aimed to reduce the amount of cash held by cannabis companies and increase safety by making the full range of First introduced in the House in 2019, the SAFE Banking Act has been voted on as a standalone bill

by Congress twice before, and attached to other bills

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crimes, Perlmutter argued that cannabis banking legislation is immediately necessary. And passing it on the back of the NDAA was the fastest way to achieve that.

He told Marijuana Moment: “The fact that it deals with cartels and national security, on top of the need for the public safety piece of this thing, I think that we’ll be able to convince the conference committee and the conferees generally to keep it in [the NDAA].”

However, not all in Congress think Perlmutter’s tactic is the correct one. Some, like Representative Mike

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introduced their own draft bill for cannabis legalization in July, Booker made his stance on cannabis banking bills very clear.

aspect.”

So, while the NDAA has passed the House with the SAFE Banking Act attached, it may still face opposition when it arrives in the Senate. It may have bipartisan support as a standalone bill, but attached to the NDAA it’s unclear whether it will have the necessary support to pass—even in a Democratic-controlled Senate.

Perlmutter remains hopeful, though. He sees this NDAA as the shuttle that could carry much-needed cannabis banking reform through the Senate and onto the president’s desk.

“Obviously, we still have to do some work to make sure that it remains part of the NDAA as the House and the Senate go to conference. But I think that it will.”

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