NAACP Boulder County says city’s accusations of “unethical” and “unacceptable” behavior are very misleading

From left to right: NAACP Boulder County Criminal Justice Chair Darren O’ Connor, president Annett James, and vice president Jude Landsmann.

The NAACP Boulder County branch has been at odds with the City of Boulder for over a year now, due to the city’s consideration and subsequent hiring of Stephen Redfearn as Police Chief.

Redfearn worked at the Aurora Police Department for over two decades, and was a captain at the time of 23-year-old Elijah McClain’s murder.

Redfearn initially took over as interim chief late last year, and was recently promoted to the position permanently.

In response to this promotion, NAACP Boulder County issued a press release two Fridays ago – Oct. 11 – condemning the city’s decision. In that press release, they accused Redfearn of being “demonstrably anti-Black” and exhibiting “an undeniable lack of cultural competency.” They also included a transcript of an interaction between Redfearn and NAACP members during a July 25, 2024 meeting.

A few days later, on Wed. Oct. 16, the City of Boulder responded to that press release through their own release. I’ll read excerpts from that release later on in today’s show – that press release included accusations toward the NAACP of acting “unethical” and “unacceptable” through allegedly illegally recording conversations, threatening the city manager with that recording if she were to hire Redfearn permanently, and making homophobic remarks toward Redfearn – who is openly gay.

To gain more insight into the contentious back-and-forth between the City and the NAACP Boulder branch, KGNU’s Jackie Sedley sat down with three representatives of the branch: Darren O’Connor, the NAACP Boulder’s criminal justice chair; Annett James, their president; and Jude Landsmann, their vice president.

Darren started off the conversation with some context about Stephen Redfearn’s presence in Colorado, beginning with the Aurora Police Department and now with the Boulder Police Department.

Listen:

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    FOR GRACE Jackie Sedley

KGNU’s Jackie Sedley reached out to the City of Boulder, but have yet to receive a response. They made it clear via their press release that the City, nor Chief Redfearn, will respond in any media interviews about the situation at this time.

In place of an interview, Sedley read excerpts from their press release on the air. You can find links to their press release, as well as NAACP Boulder County’s press release, below.

NAACP Boulder County’s press release

City of Boulder’s press release

Audio recording of July 25, 2024 meeting between NAACP Boulder County members and City of Boulder officials

*Correction: The initial introduction said that Stephen Redfearn was a Police Chief at the Aurora Police Department at the time of Elijah McClain’s murder. He was actually a captain at the time, and never served as their Police Chief.

Transcript:

Jackie Sedley: The NAACP Boulder County branch has been at odds with the city of Boulder for over a year now due to the city’s consideration and subsequent hiring of Stephen Redfearn as police chief. Redfearn worked at the Aurora Police Department for over two decades at the time of 23-year-old Elijah McClain’s murder. 

Redfearn initially took over as interim chief at the Boulder Police Department late last year and was recently promoted to the position permanently.  In response to this promotion, NAACP Boulder County issued a press release two Fridays ago, October 11th, condemning the city’s decision.  In that press release, they accused Redfearn of being demonstrably anti-Black and exhibiting an undeniable lack of cultural competency. 

They also included a transcript of an interaction between Redfearn and NAACP members during a July 25th meeting.  On October 16th of last week, a few days after that initial press release from the NAACP, the city of Boulder responded through their own release.  I’ll read excerpts from that release later on in today’s show.

That press release included accusations toward the NAACP Boulder County of acting unethical and unacceptable, through allegedly illegally recording conversations, threatening the city manager with that recording if she were to hire Redfearn permanently, and making homophobic remarks toward Redfearn, who is openly gay. 

To gain more insight into the contentious back and forth between the city and the NAACP Boulder branch, I sat down with three representatives of the branch. Darren O’Connor, the NAACP Boulder’s Criminal Justice Chair, Annett James, their President, and Jude Landsmann, their Vice President. Darren started off the conversation with some context about Stephen Redfearn’s presence in Colorado, beginning with the Aurora Police Department, and now with the Boulder Police Department.

***

Daren O’Connor: So, just over a year ago, we learned through the Elijah McClain trial where the Attorney General’s office was taking the officers from Aurora Police Department to court for his murder, we learned Stephen Redfearn, who was an APD officer, up until and after Elijah McClain was murdered, testifying in that case about the police in Aurora, and we learned that he had changed the call logs, regarding why the police showed up to investigate the activities of Elijah, he changed the call logs from suspicious person to assault on an officer and by then it was clear that what he did was falsify the call logs, and so we did research on Redfearn, learned that he had shot a black man in Denver after chasing him out of his jurisdiction, there were two or three other Denver officers in pursuit with him, but he’s the one who shot this man. 

And then we just continued to learn very troubling things for the black and entire community about people’s safety, with him carrying a badge and a gun and being in leadership, the Boulder Police Department, and so we came out with a statement saying that we thought he should resign. We thought Maris Harold should resign for even daring to hire him. And, uh, from that point on, we have been, unfortunately, in some conflict with city leadership, who looks at these same facts and, and claims that stating these facts are us misleading the public about him. And, fortunately, we have been able to get our view out, but, but there are very conflicting views between the city and us and most recently we put out a press release and the city put out a rebuttal press release that we’re here to talk about and hopefully a lot of listeners are informed on this, but it’s our pleasure to be here to to illuminate more on this topic. 

Sedley: Thank you for that background, Darren, for listeners that weren’t informed on Stephen Redfearn, the current Boulder Police Chief’s history and the subsequent relationship and interactions that NAACP Boulder County has developed with the city. So, moving forward into the press release, I know that there was a lot of information, including a transcript from a meeting. I know that that transcript was a lot of what led to the city response and criticism. If you wanted to start with a description of that press release either with quotes from the press release or just an explanation on the events that led to that press release. 

Jude Landsmann: I wanted to talk about the city’s shock and dismay at the press release and the transcript release, which they are making all kinds of accusations about and I just want to clarify for the public and the community that it is legal, it was legal. We have done nothing illegal and the city has dealt with the organization very unethically in the past and currently by presenting misinformation, consistently presenting misinformation about the organization and this idea that we are somehow not in line with the mission of the NAACP national, of whom we are a branch in good standing. The mission quite often has to do with systemic inequities. So it is curious  that the city, and Nuria Rivera Vanda, made statements to the press to try and discredit us, racist strategy number one, try and divide the community, racist strategy number two, by somehow pitting the NAACP Boulder County against the LGBTQ community, which is ridiculous for anyone who knows us and unethically misrepresenting the facts in an imbalanced power situation. People assume the city manager is telling the truth.

Sedley: I wanted to touch on some more of the specific details now that we have an understanding of that response, specifically related to the allegations from the city that NAACP Boulder County secretly recorded a meeting without participants knowledge, that you attempted to use this illicit recording coercively to influence the decision of hiring Chief Redfearn, and As you mentioned, the attempt to bring the trust of the LGBTQ community into the fold, how did that get included?

So that’s a three-parter, kind of talking about the recording, talking about using the recording, allegedly coercively, and then how the LGBTQ community comes into this conversation.  

O’Connor: I’ll take at least some of that. In terms of recording, Colorado is what’s called a one party consent state. Anyone can record so long as they are present in a room, and so, you know, the allegation that, we secretly recorded them, somebody that was there, present, legally recorded, and what I would say is thank goodness, we did because some of the accusations, which goes to the trying to divide the NAACP and the LGBTQ community, I think if you listen to what was actually said, compared to the very misleading way the city manager characterized it, thank God we recorded it because people can hear for themselves and make their own judgment call. And what I would say is, even if you don’t like what you hear, compare and contrast it to how it was characterized, and you’ll see the lies or hear the lies. And in terms of trying to coerce her, it’s been published what we shared with regard to that we would release the recording and, and we said, look, the truth is said, it will set you free.

And if you choose to hire this awful police officer that you witnessed being anti-Black in this meeting, if you’re going to dare to select this guy who’s clearly dangerous to the Black and greater community, then maybe it will help you make that decision knowing that we’re going to share with the community his anti-Blackness. 

Landsmann: If one listens to the entire context of the transcript, and this is addressed in our press release as well, that the city is putting out a narrative that Stephen Redfearn cannot possibly be biased against the black community because of his understanding and experience, as a gay man, it is not an accurate narrative, in my opinion, and in the opinion of the organization, it has nothing to do with anti black sentiment that has shown up repeatedly, and this seeming devaluing of Elijah McClain’s murder and death as if it’s old news. And not only did Stephen Redfearn change the call log, and refuses to be transparent or accountable for it. But he participated in the vigil oppressing the individuals who were participating in trying to honor Elijah McClain, which says something. 

O’Connor: The city is using one of the oldest, most racist strategies in the book, which is to divide communities so that we can’t be as effective by working together, and I would hope that everyone in the community, but especially members of the LGBTQ community, will listen to what I actually said, and you know, If you, if you do that, what you’ll hear is that I express that everyone has the right to love whoever they want. I use some crass language talking about how I speak to homophobic people when I confront them. And it was crass language because when I’m dealing with someone like that, it seems effective and it has been effective. And you know, if there’s, if there’s people upset by that, fine, but if they’re going to let the language that I was using in support of the LGBTQ community, including even Stephen Redfearn, as much as I don’t care for him as a person I stand for his right to love whoever he wants. I guess I would just encourage people to listen to it and again compare and contrast to how the city manager misstated what I said to make it as, I don’t know, as salacious as possible and, and to try and divide people. 

Sedley: Is the transcript available to the public in full? Where can listeners find that? 

O’Connor: Right now it’s on our Facebook page. We’re working on putting it on our website. Uh, website.

Sedley: A reminder to listeners, you’re tuned  in to listener supported KGNU. This is the Morning Magazine and I, Jackie Sedley, am having a conversation with three representatives of NAACP Boulder County, Darren O’Connor, Annett James and Jude Landsmann.

We’re talking about a series of press releases, one by NAACP Boulder County and one in response to that press release from the City of Boulder about Stephen Redfearn, the current police chief of the Boulder Police Department. Annett, moving to you now. I’d like to give you the opportunity to speak on this entire conversation, specifically the transcript in the NAACP Boulder County Press release of your interaction with Stephen Redfearn and the subsequent response from the city, as well as the differing perspectives, for lack of a better phrase, between the city and you as one of the individuals involved.

Annett James: I would say that the whole thing, the release of the transcript, as well as the conversation and what has come out in the media afterwards, it’s all an attempt to hide just how anti-Black, how ill tempered Redfearn is for this job. So that’s the whole thing, the concern that I would argue that the city manager had, and she couldn’t say, she can’t say that this was done, uh, behind her back or was hearsay. She was in the room. As a matter of fact, I was sitting between the city manager and Redfearn, and I, Redfearn was to my left, the city manager was to my right, and she witnessed just how poorly this person, just the character of, of, of this man is just, was so, ill suited to leading anything, and certainly not a police department.

He was speaking. I turned to look at him. He, I was just looking at him. I was shocked. He stopped mid sentence, looked at her, turned beet red, and started screaming that I was smirking at him. He said, she’s smirking at me. She’s smirking at me. I was taken aback. I was like, now you’re policing my face.  And unfortunately, these are the things, and I said it, that get black people killed when interacting with the police. You didn’t know what my facial, how I process information, if my face looks a certain way and why, why don’t I have the right to do that? I’m processing information, you’re saying what you’re saying, I’m not showing you enough deference. A black face isn’t making you feel warm and fuzzy, so therefore it’s a threat? This cannot, this is so awful to me. Why of – the murder of Elijah McClain has to be certainly one of the most egregious murders and just lack of care of policing on a black person in our state. So why would we want someone who was a deputy on duty in our community? And we don’t know how many other officers we have from that same department also in the city of Boulder.

So it is our obligation as an organization to speak out against these things. But it is me as a person, a black woman living in this community for over 40 years. I care about this. I care about the young people on the hill who come to this community to be students. Some who’ve grown up here. It feels like terror. I mean, this is what terror looks like, and they have license to do so. And Nuria watched all of this. She watched it happen. And then within days was speaking to council claiming that Redfearn had some extraordinary, wonderful ability to be the next chief of police. It is, it is without character. It is without the ability to assess and hire qualified people in our community and we’re going to speak out about it. We can do everything we can to have people, especially in policing who are qualified, who understand what it takes to be, um, for public safety. 

Sedley: The meeting that was transcribed was from July 25th of this year. Why release it now? What was behind that decision to now make it public? 

O’Connor: Like we said to the city manager, we were all in that room. We all witnessed how culturally incompetent Steven Redfearn was in that moment, just as he has  shown to be in his professional actions that we’ve talked about.  And we told her, look, we know the truth. You know the truth. And if you’re going to tell the entirety of the city of Boulder, that he’s the right person for the job. If you’re going to say that he’s culturally competent, then we will release the truth.

James: And I’d like to just speak to this whole thing about having recorded a conversation. We’re known, the NAACP records pretty much everything that we do, and we didn’t go into this meeting with some idea of gotcha, and you know, I really didn’t have high expectations for what would come out of that meeting.

I was actually surprised that it was so obviously on display,  um, who this man truly is. and that he was doing it in front of his boss. So I think that we’re really happy that we did record it, but it wasn’t designed or planned in that kind of a way. The first thing I was told when I took on president of the organization here, is to never meet with police alone, that you need to have a witness. And that’s true, right? We can see that in policing. If they were such a great, trusted entity, they wouldn’t have to wear body worn cameras, right? Why do they do that? Why is that necessary? So it is important because there is an imbalance of power. And, you know, if you have any questions, we’re more than happy to answer them. We’re not out to get any one individual, but we’re out for making sure that everyone has a right to live here, and to live without terra and our city manager is just done a poor job, just to put it out there. You know she says the buck stops with her and if it does stop with you, then I don’t understand how you hire this is a very, very, very bad hire. 

Sedley: All right. Anything else that you’d like to add? I feel like we covered a wide range of topics, but if there’s anything that you didn’t mention or that I didn’t ask that you’d like to touch on, please do so. 

Landsmann: I want to clarify one thing. Redfearn was a commanding officer, that’s why he could change the call log. And the continual sort of outrage is why? Why would he land here? Why would an ex-career Aurora officer of a notoriously brutal, thuggish police department, still under consent decree and in violation of it, why would he land in Boulder of all places? Why would there be such a concerted effort? To place him in this position here, it’s, it’s very, it, it should be a question. No matter which side you fall on, it’s worth a curiosity.  

O’Connor: Yes, one thing I would add, if you listen to the recording, you’ll hear, Steve Redfearn has so many times said, with regard to Elijah McClain, he says, I was the one who raised this to a critical incident so that the review team would investigate it. And, and, he has claimed that that’s why there was a, uh, Elijah McClain trial, uh, a trial against the officers who murdered him. The reality is, it was protesters who pushed the governor, who pushed the AG to, uh, investigate and bring charges. And the reality is, and you can hear it in the recording ’cause I confront Redfearn to say that critical incident review team exonerated the officers, that that investigation from start to end was to protect the police as it always is. And, and he admits that. Yes, they, they exonerated those officers. He admits that, okay, yes, that’s not why. The AG’s office took the department and the officers to trial and to the point of a consent decree. So he likes to take a lot of responsibility for having done the right thing and when you actually dig in, and as Jude has talked about, look at the entire timeline, look at his actions. He’s never been a champion for equity and safety, and he does not deserve this position. 

Sedley: All right, Darren, Annett, and Jude. Thank you so much for sitting down with me today. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for having us.

***

That was my conversation with three members of NAACP Boulder County: Criminal Justice Chair Darren O’Connor, President Annett James, and Vice President Jude Landsmann. This conversation was shortened to fit into our Morning Magazine segment. You can hear the full conversation on KGNU.org. I reached out to the City of Boulder, but have yet to receive a response. They made it clear via their press release that neither the City nor Chief Redfearn will participate in any media interviews about the situation at this time. 

So in place of an interview, I’ll read a couple of paragraphs from their press release. Once again, this is from the City of Boulder, and the City of Boulder’s manager, Nuria Riviera-Vandermyde. 

“I am a firm believer in engaging authentically with community members and organizations who bring perspectives of racial and social justice to our collective work. I take the pursuit of equity and justice extremely seriously, particularly for our Black and Latino community members and other historically and currently marginalized groups of people. I have devoted most of my professional life to working in local government so that I might be part of finding the solutions to deep public problems such as systemic racism and more accountable policing. 

I welcome constructive criticism and different perspectives, and I realize that part of being city manager means I will sometimes make decisions that do not make everyone happy.  What I cannot tolerate is unethical behavior by people who purport to stand for progressive community values, but then act in intentional ways that break trust, undermine public processes, and distract us from our collective mission of making Boulder a more equitable, safe, and thriving city. 

My concern about the underhanded conduct of the Boulder County Chapter’s leadership led me in early September to file a complaint with the NAACP at the national level. I am hopeful that the organization that I hold in the deepest regard will take appropriate action soon.”

They ended their statement by saying that their written message “reflects the city’s effort to set the record straight. My hope is that the national NAACP organization, which has fought tirelessly and admirably for racial justice for years, addresses this unethical conduct by a chapter bearing its name. It is truly unfortunate that trust has been broken in this way.” 

You can go to kgnu.org (linked above) to read the City of Boulder’s press release in full, as well as the NAACP Boulder County Branch’s initial press release. 

The nearly two and a half hour recording, brought up by the NAACP members several times in the interview you just heard, will also be linked on KGNU.org (linked above).

Picture of Jackie Sedley

Jackie Sedley

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