January 23, 2014
www.metnews.org
Volume 36, Issue 18
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TheMetropolitan MetNews MLK Peace Award ceremony Faculty and community recognized at Peace Breakfast •3 Charleszine Nelson wins a MLK Peace Award Photo by Trevor L Davis • tdavis84@msudenver.edu
Rants+Raves Members of the Romero Theater Troupe perform a piece about police and racial profiling during the “Unmasking Mass Incarceration” event Jan. 20. The community event was held in the Baerresen Ballroom in the Tivoli on Auraria Campus. Photo by Philip Poston • pposton1@msudenver.edu
Driving home a brutal point “Legend of Hercules” mythically terrible • 10
MetSports A Mile High from Down Under
One-on-one with Mitch McCarron • 12
Coalition demands police accountability Kelli Heitstuman-Tomko ktomko@msudenver.edu Activists gathered Jan. 20 in the Tivoli to discuss mass incarceration, police brutality and racial discrimination. The Colorado Progressive Coalition hosted the event “Unmasking Mass Incarceration” Jan. 20 in the Tivoli’s Baerresen Ballroom. The event featured a performance by the Romero Theater Troupe, a group of actors with a passion for social justice, as well as focus groups to discuss possible solutions to the issues of overflowing prisons, ineffective drug policies and a seemingly endless “schools to prisons” pipeline. “America, even though we’re a modern democracy considered by many to be one of the greatest countries in the world, is the
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number one jailer of our own people in the world,” said Art Way, Colorado senior drug policy manager of the Drug Policy Alliance in his opening remarks. “We are five percent of the world’s population. We incarcerate 20 to 25 percent of the world’s prisoners, and we don’t do this by accident. This takes some effort.” Way went on to ask if people actually thought Americans were more evil and violent than citizen of other countries, and to question the merits of mass incarceration. “Even if you believe, for some strange reason, that we’re more violent than anyone else in the world and we deserve this system of mass incarceration, ask yourself how incarceration is going to help,” Way said. The Romero Theater Troupe performed a reenactment of the 2009 beating of CCD stu-
MSU Denver
dent Alex Landau after he had been pulled over for making an illegal left-hand turn. The officers involved claimed that the beating came after Landau attempted to grab Officer Tiffany Middleton’s gun. The case ended with a $795,000 settlement paid to Landau, but with the decision that the officers involved had acted appropriately and would not face discipline in the matter. However, one of the officers, Randy Murr, was fired for a separate 2009 beating incident, and another officer, Ricky Nixon, was fired for another beating case but was later reinstated. Landau participated in the troupe’s performance, reading a narration as others reenacted the beating. continued on page 3>>
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