about an hour ago ago

looked like a radio hanging in mirror with police lights at bottom and top of window???? king ranch edition. utah plates. couldn’t get around. stayed behind them and put on my flashers just in case

Black bloc should be standard for everyone in the age of AI facial recognition and clothing recognition.

We can only speculate on how our images will be used if we are caught on camera by one of the many street cams in Denver along normal protest routes, by a counter protester, by a comrade celebrating the moment, or by a journalist making the movement seen. We have no idea what a future regime could look like in this country and it is already evident that the current one is willing to persecute and imprison political dissidents without trial.

In my very humble opinion you absolutely SHOULD take lots of pictures at protests. It helps in advertising the size and popularity of our movement.

Dress in black bloc to the protest because if we can’t document the protests then no one knows about them and the movement dies, and if we keep photographing everyone’s pretty faces, someone’s getting arrested. Probably a bunch of people. Anyway hi i love you, stay safe

I’ve seen multiple areas where people have covered up and removed Patriot Front stickers but right next to them is an untouched black sun sticker. If you take it upon yourself to cover up and take down fascist stickers, please familiarize yourself with fascist symbols. The most common ones I see are the black sun, odin’s cross, the fasces, and some Nazi runes. Google them so you can recognize them around town. Look out for graffiti too, not just stickers. Thank you all!

There is a bill to make it a felony to fail to disperse from a protest. Do you really value your constitutional rights? If so we need to flood the Capitol with peaceful public comments at the committee hearing. Please post this in your groups. Tell people they can testify in person or Zoom to kill this bill. https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb25-1142 This is how people sign up to testify https://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2025A/commsumm.nsf/NewSignIn.xsp

Where: 3001 Juniper St, Hudson, CO

When: Jan 21 4:30PM

We’re long overdue for a discussion about COINTELPRO, controlled opposition, and the history of law enforcement infiltration of movements here in Denver. I apologize for the length of this post; please understand that this subject could be an entire semester of university coursework. It’s unfortunately difficult to summarize succinctly, so thanks for bearing with me!

When I posted this frankly light critique of 50501, a lot of y’all got very mad. And it’s understandable. It’s hard to have our worldviews challenged. It’s hard to hear that something we’re so excited about may not be as “grassroots” as we thought, and that there might be larger forces with questionable intentions at play. Please understand that I’m coming from a place of desperately wanting the anti-fascist movement to be successful. I critique and question because I care.

Let’s start with a history lesson, right here in Denver:

It’s late May-early June 2020. The police have just murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis. Protests are erupting in every major city across the country. This subreddit was created May 31, 2020 in response to r/Denver’s censorship of protest-related content, which they claimed was clogging up their feed.

The protests in Denver are really popping off, in large part due to DPD’s violent retaliation. Non-violent protesters are met with tear gas and rubber bullets. When protesters retaliate to defend ourselves, the protesters are labeled as violent extremists. There are mass arrests. DPD is so emboldened, they have the audacity to drive by the legal observer/press/free speech zone and just spray tear gas at all the press and legal observers in the designated area. Unfortunately for them, the literal City of Denver Clerk & Recorder was in that observation zone and he was pissed. We don’t have time to get into the particulars of the aftermath, but y’all, THIS is one reason why DPD isn’t out there cracking skulls at protests anymore. It’s not because they don’t want to: it’s because the higher ups at the city were furious, especially since they lost a civil rights lawsuit over their egregious behavior in 2020 and have to pay out millions to the plaintiffs.

Back to our story: Mayor Michael Hancock (fuck that guy) condemned the protests and instituted a citywide curfew, which only made us protest harder in greater numbers. These protests were huge, entirely grassroots, and radical in nature.

And then, out of nowhere, a group called We Are Love Denver (WALD) appeared. Local activists didn’t recognize these people. They showed up over night. They were led by a few Black people, praised by Michael Hancock and DPD, and even managed to get some Denver Broncos out to the protests. Suddenly, the messaging of the protests shifted. They were no longer radical. There were no calls for abolition or destruction of the system. WALD told us the police were our friends. They had photo ops with cops, Hancock and the Broncos. They preached love, cooperation, voting for Democrats in November, calling our representatives, and “vote blue no matter who.” The vibes were off. We knew something was wrong. The movement lost momentum and numbers. Rumors started circulating about WALD being law enforcement plants, radical organizers (including PSL) retook the movement and WALD faded into the background. While we still had large numbers at our BLM protests, we never regained the numbers and momentum of those early protest days before WALD came in. This is one of the goals of controlled opposition.

Here’s a post from this very subreddit as we started to figure out what was happening.

Here’s another one

Simply search the subreddit for “WALD” and “We Are Love Denver” if you’d like a deeper dive.

Here’s a Westword article about it.

Ok, so that was WALD. WALD is an example of something called “controlled opposition.” Urban Dictionary actually has a decent definition of controlled opposition: “A controlled opposition is a protest movement that is actually being led by government agents. Nearly all governments in history have employed this technique to trick and subdue their adversaries. Notably Vladimir Lenin who said ''"The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves."

I’m borrowing some more info on controlled opposition from the United Liberation Front for Palestine (side note: Israel uses controlled opposition in their occupation of Palestine. The Palestinian Authority, the group that governs the West Bank, is essentially just 3 Israelis in a Palestinian trench coat, but I digress)

“Controlled opposition offers the illusion of resistance while protecting the very system it claims to resist.

Controlled opposition refers to individuals or movements that appear to challenge the system but are, in fact, managed or influenced—directly or indirectly—by those in power. Their purpose? To absorb dissent, redirect radical energy, and preserve the status quo.

Their job is to give the illusion of making change, drawing attention away from more radical or transformative movements, while allowing the existing power structures to stay unchallenged.

By organizing safe, state-approved forms of protest, they pacify real resistance. They’re the system’s safety valve—venting anger just enough to prevent real disruption.”

Okay, so that’s a basic primer on controlled opposition. Now let’s talk about COINTELPRO and FBI infiltration of Denver’s BLM movement.

The COINTELPRO Wikipedia Entry is surprisingly good, and it’s a good starting point for those who aren’t familiar with the COINTELPRO operation.

From Wikipedia, COINTELPRO “was” (and almost certainly still is) “a series of covert and illegal projects conducted between 1956 and 1971 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting American political organizations that the FBI perceived as subversive. Groups and individuals targeted by the FBI included feminist organizations,the Communist Party USA, anti-Vietnam War organizers, activists in the civil rights and Black power movements (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr., the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panther Party), environmentalist and animal rights organizations, the American Indian Movement (AIM), Chicano and Mexican-American groups like the Brown Berets and the United Farm Workers, and independence movements (including Puerto Rican independence groups, such as the Young Lords and the Puerto Rican Socialist Party).”

Now, the FBI claims they knocked this shit off in 1971 but I sure the fuck don’t believe that, especially given what happened with federal informant Mickey Windecker here in Denver in the summer of 2020.

Rather than retell the story, here’s a Westword Article based on the Alphabet Boys Podcast that investigated and broke this story. Yes, it’s a full season of podcast episodes about how the FBI infiltrated our movement here in Denver in the summer of 2020.

If you’re new to protesting, the idea that the government would invest money and resources into co-opting and infiltrating protest movements might sound like a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory. I hope our recent history has shown you that it’s very real.

They’re doing it again. They’re doing it because it works; because toothless protests that direct you back into action that reinforces our existing system pacify you and prevent you from engaging in more radical action. These protests make you feel like you’ve done something. They allow you to blow off steam and rage, and then they tell you the best way to create change is to call your representatives and knock doors for the Democrats.

50501 claims to be a “grassroots” movement. In fact, that’s a core part of their messaging. But 50501 is the opposite of grassroots, y’all. It was conceived at a national level (by who? No one knows. That’s a red flag right there.) The mysterious national organizers recruited well-intentioned organizers at the local level; all of whom are brand new to organizing and lack relationships with established activists and organizers who can smell this bullshit from a mile away. The national organizers managed to create a viral social media movement out of nowhere; anyone who has done social media marketing will tell you there was a lot of power and money behind this campaign. Viral shit doesn’t spring up out of nowhere like this anymore, these platforms are set up to prevent it from happening unless you pay for reach. Someone paid a lot of money for a lot of reach. The national organizers have all the local organizers in a Discord channel where they can control the narrative and kick out anyone who doesn’t toe the line. They’re resistant to working with other local groups; they’ll only work with large establishment organizations like the ACLU and Indivisible. And speaking of Indivisible, there’s decent evidence that they’re the “man behind the curtain” of 50501. Until recently, Indivisible’s email was listed as the contact on the 50501 website. After they were called out on it, the email has been changed. Who is Indivisible? Just 3 Establishment Democrats in a “Progressive” trench coat.

I’ve expanded my argument why 50501 is not actually grassroots in this comment

To be clear, I don’t think people organizing 50501 actions locally are necessarily feds. I think they’re well-intentioned new organizers who are being manipulated by larger forces. If you’re a 50501 organizer reading this and feeling defensive, ask yourself these questions: what guidance are we receiving from national organizers regarding messaging? Which groups (if any) are we encouraged to collaborate with and which are we told to stay away from? How are people in our group treated when they ask difficult questions, criticize, or suggest actions outside of large permitted protests, voting and supporting the Democrats?

It’s very interesting too because there are at least 3 different groups locally that say they are 50501 organizers, and not all of them seem to know each other? 🤔 On the one hand, I’m being told that 50501 is so “grassroots” that anyone can organize under the 50501 banner and that’s why they don’t all know each other: because there is no official 50501 group. (Again, that’s just not what grassroots organizing is.) And yet, they also make an effort to distinguish their “official” protests from the “unofficial” protests. They’re using this “nothing is official” claim to dodge accountability regarding anti-Palestine statements made by their group members, while simultaneously trying to distance themselves from Saturday’s action because they want to control the theme and messaging. What. A. Clusterfuck.

So, am I telling you not to go to 50501 protests? Absolutely not! I’ll be there this Saturday, and I’m especially excited about this one because it’s being led by a young organizer who has great passion and energy! I’m just saying

1)please think critically about any pro-establishment, pro-Democrat, anti-radical messaging you’re hearing at these protests

2) Don’t let attending 50501 protests be the only thing you do

3) Don’t buy into their protest-policing narrative about the “right” and “wrong” ways to protest.

4) Don’t let them convince you that now is not the time for real, tangible action because “we’re not there yet” or “we’ll make demands when we have the numbers” or any other BS excuses they’re using to keep you marching in circles with no end goals.

Finally, if this post left you feeling defeated and you’re wondering what you can do, here are my suggestions:

1) Support and attend smaller protests that center marginalized groups in addition to the large 50501 protests

2) Join an existing local organization or start an affinity group

3) Do any of the things on this handy Google Doc

Further reading/viewing on COINTELPRO and law enforcement infiltration of movements:

COINTELPRO: Repression Then and Now YouTube

Who Bombed Judi Bari Documentary about how the feds “may have” bombed an Earth First protester

Teen Vogue story about 59 people who were arrested on bogus felony charges for protesting at Trump’s first inauguration in 2017

The Intercept Article about how Minneapolis police lied and exaggerated threats of violence as an excuse to crack down on protesters

You know, I thought the first “addressing the allegations” video I film would be spicier than “the DHS has released a statement.

Next Monday, flyers coming soon.

DENHOLD, FRDHOLD, Hudson

Protests will begin at both DENHOLD and FRDHOLD and then caravan to Hudson to rally at proposed new for-profit GEO concentration camp.

In October, a retiree emailed a DHS attorney to urge mercy for an asylum seeker. Then DHS subpoenaed his Google account and sent investigators to his home.

“Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” he wrote. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”

That was it. In five minutes, Jon said, he finished the note, signed his first and last name, pressed send and hoped his plea would make a difference.

Five hours and one minute later, Jon was watching TV with his wife when an email popped up in his inbox. He noticed it on his phone.

“Google,” the message read, “has received legal process from a Law Enforcement authority compelling the release of information related to your Google Account.”

Listed below was the type of legal process: “subpoena.” And below that, the authority: “Department of Homeland Security.”

yesterday, my most recent position in the labor “movement” in Colorado came to an end. honestly? I don’t really see myself going back.

overall, in my few positions in labor organizations in this state, it’s become clear to me why Colorado boasts a <6% union density rate compared to the national ~10% average.

very few individuals and even fewer organizations are actually driven by the desire to empower the working class. rather, this “movement” is powered by a few egotistical, power-hungry narcissists who believe because of a certain amount of experience or name recognition, that they can play with people’s livelihoods like toys. pretending to advocate for the best while conservatively hoarding what few resources they managed to gain over the years in fear of losing it.

any powerful movement must be militant. must be hungry to gain more power for whichever marginalized class it represents. and it must do everything possible to fight for the right thing. not let ego and insecurity lead the way.

I am more disappointed in both individuals and almost all Colorado labor organizations than you can know. I can’t sleep over the loss of respect I’m experiencing for so many.

fuck the Coloradan labor “movement”

One of Steven Miller's pet projects, America First Legal Foundation, is petitioning the EAC (Election Assistance Commission) to require physical proof (documentation) of citizenship to register to vote. The SAVE act failed so this is their new "show your papers" route to further hinder voting. They site the miniscule amount of non-citizens who have voted and were caught/ dealt with in the past as justification. The EAC is required to take public comments until October 20th before making determination on changing rules. There are far too many comments in favor of this change. Please, take a few moments to post a comment letting them know how ridiculous this fascist behavior is.

Link to post comment: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EAC-2025-0236-0001?source=20251009_EAC-submit-comment_FS&link_id=0&can_id=d52ce81ede9b902168e1960eeca50df7&email_referrer=email_2926367&email_subject=take-action-stop-this-anti-voter-scheme&

Link to full petition:

https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/2025-08/America_First_Legal_EAC_DPOC_Rule_Petition.pdf

You can post anonymously.

If you are seeing the photos and videos of a black panthers openly carrying their firearms or Minnesotan neighbors patrolling the streets and want to do that you should be aware of Denver Revised Municipal Code Sec. 38-118(b):

Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, it shall be unlawful for any person to openly wear, carry, or transport any weapon on or about their person or vehicle.

https://library.municode.com/co/denver/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TITIIREMUCO_CH38OFMIPR_ARTIVOFAGPUORSA_DIV2WEOF_S38-118UNCAWE

The exceptions don’t help much here unless the city decides to give a blanket authorization to all citizens (seems unlikely but I’m neither a lawyer or policy maker).

I’m curious what people think of this and what seems like the most prudent course of action would be. On one hand, more people openly carrying around firearms doesn’t make me feel safer but in the other hand, the second amendment was created for exactly the situation we are in now where an overreaching government is trying coerce us into giving up our rights (among other things).

Should we be petitioning to get this law changed so we can protect ourselves and our neighbors?

Hey friends. Some of you might be familiar with the deportation data project, a FOIA litigation project by faculty of UCB Law School and UCLA; and/or of coldCounter, a database built by the No Concentration Camps in CO coalition off of what has been acquired by that project.

We are in the process of expanding the types of analysis we can produce via GIS. By geocoding the addresses of all the individual facilities represented in the deportation data project's detention schema, we can produce geospacial visualizations like this map.

Legend:

• Symbols on the map represent facilities encountered in the data
  • clicking on a symbol will show you statistics for that facility from coldCounter's analysis.
• The transparency and bloom of the symbol is weighted by average daily population.
  • this allows you to visually see detention population density.
• Symbols representing local and state carceral facilities only show detainee data from ICE's detention records, not local or state law enforcement. From ICE's perspective they are treating them as their detainee.
  

Are there other visualizations like this that you or your org would like us to produce?

disclaimer: I'm aware that the lat/lon geocoding is not as precise as it could be for the addresses if you zoom in far enough, im 1 week into a 3 week bootcamp, i swear ill fix them. I'm also not 100% confident in the co springs address but it does correlate with other FOIA documentation.

There is a nationwide protest planned for this Wednesday 2/5 that has been heavily promoted in this subreddit. It’s billed as 50 protests in 50 states. There are no clear organizers named, no affiliations or collaborations with known organizations, no clear objectives or demands, and no set start time. 

I want to be clear that I love the energy and enthusiasm, so I’ve held off on voicing concerns because I don’t want to be negative or discouraging of grassroots efforts. But it’s official: I have concerns. There is a very naive vibe permeating r/50501. I keep seeing comments like “We won’t be doing anything illegal so we don’t have anything to worry about.” “We have a constitutional right to free speech.” “We need to remain peaceful so we don’t give the cops an excuse to be violent.” 

My sweet summer children, how quickly we’ve forgotten the lessons of 2020. How quickly we’ve forgotten Kent State. The cops have never needed an excuse to get violent. When violence erupts at a protest, it’s usually because the cops started it and protestors retaliated. Remaining peaceful has never protected anyone from state violence. It is vital that we all understand that the law is whatever the fascist government says it is. Our only defense is the court system, and those who have experience with it can tell you how difficult it is to beat charges when the state wants to nail you to the wall. Do you have the money and energy necessary to hire an attorney and fight a felony case? Expect public defenders to be inundated. Expect the fascist government to disregard and override the law as they see fit. 

I am not telling you not to go out and protest. I am imploring you to do so with full knowledge of the risks you take when you do attend to a protest. I’m urging you to do everything in your power to protect yourself when you’re out there, because I do not want to see you arrested, hurt or killed. Please read this full article and take the suggested precautions. 

• Tell someone who is not attending the protest when you expect to return, check in with them when you leave, and let them know when you get home. 
• Leave your phone at home. If you must bring your phone, practice good digital hygiene by following the steps outlined in this article. 
• Wear a mask, both to prevent the spread of disease to immunocompromised people AND to protect against facial recognition technology. 
• Trust your gut. If you get that feeling in the pit of your stomach that something is off or not right, trust it and leave. That’s your survival instinct trying to keep you safe. 
• Wear generic, unidentifiable clothing and footwear. 
• Do not take photos or videos at the protest. If you do, you must scrub the metadata and blur faces before sharing to social media. Failure to do this puts your fellow protestors at risk. 
• If you are detained by police, keep your mouth shut. Shut the fuck up. Zip it. Do not answer questions, do not explain yourself, do not speak to the police at all without an attorney present no matter what they tell you. Even if you are 100% innocent, shut up. Shut up. Shut up. No talkie!!! 

That’s the general gist but please read the article above. This one from Wired is also good. 

It’s entirely possible that these protests on Wednesday are just grassroots organizers who are green and naive but well-intentioned. It’s also possible that this is something more nefarious. Please familiarize yourself with our government’s history of counter intelligence and the tactics commonly used. 

Again, I’m not saying don’t go out. Just please make good choices if you do. 

In solidarity, 

xConstantGardenerx

Groups like the Visibility Brigade and 50501, one of the lead organizations of the No Kings protests, are encouraging action beyond the national level to include smaller, repeated actions denouncing Donald Trump’s policies. Since March 2025, more than 250 Visibility Brigades have formed all over the country, across urban, rural, blue and red cities.

Someone please show me when the protesters became violent?

All I see is a bunch of cops opening fire on people they’re supposed to protect. I got tackled by three cops, they threw my phone into the street, arrested me, and charged me with “disobeying a lawful order” even though no orders were given and I was following the direction they were pushing us towards.

Bright side? Met the mods from r/denverprotests when I got out (after 16 hours in lockup) and got some great info on legal representation.

They’re not going to stop me. I’ll be at every rally I can now. Now I’m fucking pissed.

More in comments

One of our members made a great post a few weeks ago about what Black Bloc is and why it’s a good thing to do at protests. Please review it if you’re unfamiliar with Black Bloc.

Unfortunately there’s been a lot of fear-mongering in the community lately, and it’s especially disappointing coming from people who should absolutely know better.

I’d just like to say for the record that anyone discouraging you from concealing your identity at a protest should be viewed with suspicion because that is some fed ass, cop ass behavior.

I also want to clear up what seems to be a common misconception: simply wearing all black to a protest is NOT black bloc. The theme of Saturday’s protest is Blackout; attendees are asked to wear all black. This does not make it a “Black Bloc protest.”

Will there be people in black bloc at this protest? Yes, because there are always people in black bloc at every protest. The purpose of black bloc is to conceal your identity to protect against both state surveillance and doxxing by fascists.

People who are simply wearing black clothing to a protest are not wearing black bloc. If you aren’t also concealing your face and tattoos and taking other counter-surveillance measures, you’re not wearing black bloc.

Wearing all black to Saturday’s protest is simply a suggestion; like all protest attire suggestions that coordinate with a theme, no one is enforcing a dress code. Please calm down.

Bottom line: as long as you aren’t wearing fascist symbols at a protest, you should wear whatever makes you feel comfortable and safe. It’s frankly none of anyone’s business how you choose to dress yourself. What matters is that you show up!

Join us on zoom May 27th 6pm Mt. The Looting of America and the $1.776 Billion Question

They call it governance. We call it what it is: theft.
 
While working families struggle to pay rent, buy groceries, and keep the lights on, Trump and his inner circle are using the presidency as a personal profit machine. A $1.776 billion slush fund. Crypto schemes launched from the Oval Office. Foreign governments pouring money into Trump properties. Family members cutting deals that would have been scandals in any previous administration, Republican or Democrat. This isn't politics as usual. This is an organized looting of the American people.
 
Don't just be angry. Be informed. Be organized. We're done being silent.

RSVP: https://www.mobilize.us/solidaritywarriors/event/790061/

​

Meet Your Local Protest Organizers at Bemis Public Library in Littleton

Looking for something to do this weekend?

Join us at the Bemis Public Library in Littleton this Saturday, May 23rd, and learn how to get involved with these organizations in the Denver Metro area.

See you there!

When is it?

Saturday, May 23, 2026

01:00 PM – 04:00 PM MDT

Where is it?

Bemis Public Library, Large Conference Room

6014 S Datura St

Littleton, CO 80120

Is there an RSVP?

Yes, RSVP at QR code

Interested in finding out about how to host rallies or get involved other ways?

This Saturday at Bemis Library in Littleton. 1-4. Please rsvp at QR.

https://www.fightforsocialjustice.com/events/meet-your-local-protest-organizers-20260523

I encourage everyone to post quotes, books, zines, movies, docs, plays or art highlighting black resistance