On Tuesday, a Florida police records consultant dropped a scathing audit report at city hall, detailing how more than 2,000 police reports have gone essentially untouched, allowing murderers and molesters to continue pillaging the city unabated.
There’s no proof of that.
City managers backpedaled from the numbers later in the day, but not before Denver TV stations pushed unchallenged headlines that Wilson’s police department was responsible for inexcusable malfeasance.
There’s no proof of that, either.
The only part of the growing drama is that conservative Republicans on the Aurora City Council have worked diligently to undermine Wilson in a clear effort to stop critical police reform in the city.
The public deserves clear, credible answers and not more political kabuki.
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A critical piece of the story being left untold, is that the man who is the CEO of the Florida audit company, Ed Claughton, has made clear his lack of objectivity. He posts regularly on social media criticism for Black Lives Matter, police reform, liberals, President Joe Biden, vaccination mandates, those who protest police brutality, and of course, schools that teach history he doesn’t approve of.
Does any of this sound familiar?
It’s important to note that city council members were far from unanimous in their responses to the Chief’s firing. Mayor Mike Coffman tried to have it both ways when he said, “Given the challenges that we had when she came on, I think she was the right person for the right time at that time. Given the fact that we have rising crime, given the fact that there was a lack of urgency in her leadership, and resolving the problem certainly caused me to support the city manager’s decision.” Other responses:
“I think Vanessa was in a tough position because she had lost the morale of her department, and when you lead an organization the size of Aurora’s, it’s very hard to lead when you’ve lost the rank and file (officers),” said Council member Curtis Gardner.
However, he said he did not think the problem was entirely her fault and that some of the reported crisis of confidence within the organization was caused by external factors.
“To me, there isn’t sufficient evidence that she should no longer be the police chief,” Gardner said, but he acknowledged the decision was ultimately Twombly’s to make.
Council member Allison Coombs echoed said she was “disappointed” by Twombly’s decision to fire the chief, which she said would undermine ongoing efforts to reform the department.
“This tells the worst actors in our police department that the city management is not in charge, and the City Council is not in charge, and instead, they are,” she said.
Coombs accused new council members of working behind the scenes to orchestrate the firing of the chief.
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Set up to fail
Activists and others had more to say about it. Lindsay Minter, a member of Aurora’s Community Police Task Force, said that Wilson was “set up to fail.”
State senator Rhonda Fields (D-Aurora), one of the cosponsors of Colorado’s sweeping 2020 police reform bill, had this to say, “I am disappointed by (the Aurora government’s) actions in firing Chief Wilson, who proudly protected our community for 26 years, and rose to become the first woman to serve as Chief of Police,” she said. “The city’s action shows that restoring public trust and holding police officers accountable still is not a priority for our community. This termination was deeply flawed, and I hope the city reconsiders this shameful and disruptive decision.”
“I’m furious about the fact that it’s even come to this,” said Topazz McBride, a pastor at Restoration Christian Fellowship in Aurora who has been involved in the city’s police reform committee.
Colorado state lawmakers from Aurora released a joint statement Wednesday, April 6, saying Wilson’s firing “will set back the critical and long overdue efforts currently underway in Aurora to ensure accountability and integrity in our police department.”
U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat who represents Aurora, said Wilson’s firing was a setback.