Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.


Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Marijuana: After Denver Votes to Legalize It, Cops Arrest Even More

On Tuesday evening SAFER launched Operation Chickenlooper, which involved the SAFER Chicken (volunteer Kayvan Khalatbari in a full-body chicken suit) strutting around the front of the mayor's first campaign forum holding a sign reading, "Hey, Mayor Chickenlooper! What's so scary about marijuana?" SAFER staff and volunteers also put flyers in every attendees hands explaining the situation and asking them if they really wanted their "buck buck bucks" spent arresting adults for marijuana possession. At the end of the event, we were able to get the chicken inside so we could get a photo of it with the mayor, which would later appear in full size and color in the Colorado Statesman, the state's primary political newspaper. The photo somehow found its way into the Denver Daily News and onto a number of blogs. You can also check out this story in the Drug War Chronicle for another take on the story and another pretty funny photo.

The next day, we announced the SAFER Chicken would be appearing again at the mayor's second forum, which led to the NBC and ABC affiliates coming out to get some shots. The hilarious ABC story is now available on YouTube. The stunt also led to a classic story in the Rocky Mountain News that included a nice large photo. We also managed to snap this one as the mayor tried to sneak out of the building! He also snuck in through a backdoor -- what a chicken!
Stop The Drug War

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

He probably just didn't want to waste an hour of his valuable time re-stating the blatantly obvious reason for enforcing the law on marijuana possession with a half-wit in a chicken suit.