March Planned To Protest Police Who Confronted Black Man In Yard

BOULDER, CO -- A coalition of groups including the Boulder chapter of the NAACP, Boulder Parenting in Diversity, and the Boulder chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice will be organizing a march this Sunday to protest the actions of a police officer who confronted a black man who was picking up garbage in his own yard on Friday, March 1.

The march will begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, beginning at Naropa University, where the man was a student, and ending at the Boulder Police Department offices, according to a Facebook event page. The march organizers are asking for a zero-escalation, family-friendly atmosphere.

At approximately 8:30 a.m. on Friday March 1, a Boulder police officer observed a man sitting in a partially enclosed patio behind a "Private Property" sign in the 2300 block of Arapahoe Avenue. according to a press release from the police department. The officer approached the man to see if he was allowed to be on the property, according to the release, and the man stated that he both worked and lived in the building and presented the officer with his school identification card.

The officer detained the man for further questioning and radioed for additional assistance, reporting that the man was uncooperative and refused to put down a blunt object that was used to pick up trash, police say.

Police chief Greg Testa would later state during a city council meeting that one officer on the scene did have his gun out of its holster, although it was kept pointed to the ground, and he did not specify which officer it was. The officer who initiated the contact has not been named and is on paid administrative leave.

Police are currently conducting an internal investigation into the incident, with the results expected in 60–90 days.

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