Policy empowers the protesters

A new executive order outlines Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s response to immigration enforcement operations, including directing police to intervene and detain an ICE officer if they observe ICE using “excessive force”. This policy is setting up conflict.

Your mayor has no policy for dealing with protesters that intervene in an ICE operation and them using excessive actions or force. There is no statement of what constitutes a peaceful protest versus interfering, blocking vehicles, throwing items, blocking streets and facilities, etc. This policy empowers the protesters and so he is insuring there will be conflict. “Biden’s Open Border” polices (allowing in millions of unvetted illegal aliens) and Denver’s sanctuary city status is what can cause these issues.

How about Mayor Johnston look out for all the hard working Denverites who are just living their lives, going to work and following the law. (a small issue – a city nor state has authority over federal agents – however, they can choose to not cooperate).

Lindsay Clewe

Monument

Partisan politics

You don’t have to look far to see how our partisan (tribal) politics are undermining our future.

HB26-1243 would direct the CDPHE to develop evidence-based licensing guidelines, regulations, and an inspection schedule for high risk second and third trimester abortion facilities as they do for other high risk healthcare facilities in our state. We know of at least one death last year of an 18-year-old woman following a complicated 22-week abortion. How many more injuries and deaths do the women of Colorado need to endure before the state steps in to provide meaningful oversight?

Lawmakers from both parties seem genuinely concerned about the health and safety of women. However, because many on the State, Civic, Military and Veteran Affairs Committee hearing the bill find the bill’s sponsor’s views on other moral/political issues untenable, they refuse to endorse the legislation. They undermine their own credibility and moral clarity when they reject a bill because of the sponsor rather than the merits of the bill. And they place their own feelings above the public health concerns of the women of Colorado.

Voting for a good bill doesn’t mean that you are providing political support or endorsing its sponsor. It simply means you are fulfilling your obligation as an elected representative to always be guided by the best interests of Coloradans.

Tom Perille MD

Englewood

Something to escape from

Democratic Senators Nick Hinrichsen and Lisa Cutter, along with Democratic Representatives Lorena Garcia and Rebekah Stewart, have introduced SB26-097, “Decriminalize Adult Commercial Sexual Activity”. In plain English: decriminalize prostitution. Technically, this bill doesn’t actually legalize prostitution; the bill merely eliminates the consequences.

Why are four Colorado Democrats pretending to protect women by removing criminal consequences. Read Senator Hinrichsen’s statement: “I am convinced that the (current) outcomes for individuals who are involved in sex work are really harmful, and I think it’s doing a disservice to them — it’s doing a disservice to our communities. It’s not making us any safer.”

The National Institutes of Health and numerous other sources describe the actual outcomes of prostitution, which often involve violence, exploitation, trauma, and long-term physical and psychological damage. This “career” choice is not the result of optimal circumstances. Poverty, addiction, coercion, and childhood trauma – such as physical, sexual, and emotional abuse – often precede an entry into prostitution or “the commercial sex industry.” According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the vast majority of women involved in prostitution want to leave but believe it is their only choice for survival.

Prostitution is something to escape from, and renaming it as though it were a career choice denies that it degrades people into commodities. Decriminalizing prostitution does not remove these numerous disastrous outcomes.

Yet the Democratic Party in Colorado could conceivably pass this statute. Citizens of Colorado, email your representatives and senators and ask how reducing the consequences for prostitution keeps our communities safer and how this serves women. The Democratic Party claims to be pro-woman. There is no upside to prostitution for any woman, and “Adult Commercial Sexual Activity” will never appear on Job Fair brochures.

Joanna Stewart

Westminster