Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Yeah. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Yeah. Yeah. Let me [Music] down. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Are you [Music] feeling? [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey, [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Okay, it is 6:00 p.m. We can go ahead and get the public comment listening session started. >> Okay, first we have Lolanda. Lolanda, go ahead. You have two minutes. >> As you all know, I am the proud mother of Kylen Lewis, whose name should still be spoken in the present tense and continue to resonate with each of you. Tonight, I don't lift my voice alone. I stand with the family of Ray John Belt Stubblefield and with every mother who has had to bury her child because of a system that continues to choose power over people and fear over humanity. When our sons are taken from us like this, our words are broken in a way that words will never be able to hold. The air changes. The morning were quieter. The laughter that once filled our homes become a tragic that we fight to hold on to. And yet through all that pain, we stand together in a promise that no other mother would ever have to walk this road alone. Rajan, mother, tonight I see you. I feel you. I know the ache that sits in your chest when the world keeps moving as if your child's life didn't matter. I know what it feels like to want justice and peace at the same time. To want accountability and healing even when both seems impossible. Through this council, our sons were not statistics. They were living, breathing black men who was loved, who dreamed, who deserved to grow old. Every time another family is forced to stand where we are standing, it is a reminder that this city has not yet done the soul work it must do to value black life. So tonight, we are not just asking for change. We are actively pursuing it, especially as this election approaches. We know our love is stronger than your silence and our unity is louder than your excuses. Rajan Kylin and every name that came before >> your time is up. >> Next is Median. Median, go ahead. You have two minutes. >> Rajan belt doublefield should be alive. Period. I was there when Kylin's family screamed for justice in a city that kept pretending not to hear them. I stood beside them when they were forced to turn their pain into purpose because Aurora refused to turn its power into protection. And now I am postured at the family's request to stand again because I was also there when Rajan Belt Sevil took his last breath. I didn't hear about it later. I saw it. I watched officer Matthew Neely bait Raj Jean into his own execution. I watched that officer move with the same aggression, the same bias, the same lack of humanity. I watched officer Matthew nearly murder Raj Jean Belt Sevil. And when I looked around, I saw the same thing I've seen before. A police chief who tries to make the officer a hero while criminalizing a man who has seemingly never been seen as human. And I can tell you what comes next. This council silenced defense, deflection, and denial. The system of the Aurora police keeps producing death while pretending to protect life. We have been civil yet called terrorists. We have prayed, we have testified, and still our people die. But I know that if we can feel, then we can fight and we will not stop. Sunberg, we will expose your racism. Verinsky, we will expose your deranged leadership. Pass, we will expose your incompetence. And for everyone that wants to sit in silence, we will not stop because we will come back when it is time for you to run again. Rajan belt stubblefield should be alive. Period. Justice for Rajan. Justice for Kylin and every other name that we've had a call behind a hashtag. Next is Aaron. Aaron, go ahead. You have two minutes. Good evening, council. I was recently at the gas station off Havana in Alama, the one where our community just lost another life. He may not have run in the same circles as some of us, but he was still ours. His life was taken just a few blocks from my home. And I'm tired. I'm tired of showing up to funerals and city council meetings as other celebrations and graduations. I'm tired of hearing about trust and training while families are planning burials. And I'm tired of watching those elected lead us to lead elected to lead us choose comfort over courage. The deaths of our people on a are on a steady repeat. But repetition without accountability is a choice. You have the power to stop this cycle. Yet time and again you protect the same system that keeps breaking us. You offer sympathy without substance. Reform without results. And silence with truth should live. We are not begging. We are organizing. We're knocking on doors, registering voters, and telling our neighbors exactly who stands for justice and who stands in the way of it. Because you cannot condemn this violence, you're condoning it. If you cannot stand with us in life, we will make sure you no longer represent us in leadership. Aurora deserves better. Thailand deserves better. Rajan deserved better. Bla1 deserves better. Cory deserved better. Jordell deserved better. If you only have the courage to hear one voice tonight, let it be mine. Until APD stops murdering our brothers and sisters, hold on. Until APD stops mother murdering our brothers and sisters and uncles, whether it's at a church, a school, or right here in these chambers, we will keep showing up, speaking up, and honoring our ancestors taken too soon. You have the power to stop it, or you can stay complacent with the status quo. The choice is yours, a Thank you. Kyla, you're next. You have two minutes. >> As you know, I am the proud brother of Kylin Lewis. And I've stood in this fight consistently. Not because I wanted to, not because your system has tried to steal the legacy of my brother. It's all because you tried to steal the legacy of my brother. And now my voice and my pain amplifi is amplified. And I stand by the family of Raj John Bel Stubblefield. another black man who's murdered by the same system as my brother was murdered by. I can't describe what it feels like to lose someone like that. It pains that will never leave or anything. I wake up, I go to sleep with it. I even breathe through it, but it it never stops burning. When I heard about Rajan, my heart uh just dropped. Not because I know this family's pain. Not because I know this pain of this family, but because I know the city's response before it even came. I knew would be lies, excuses, and silence. But most I know there would be another family joining this journey of pain. I'm trying to understand how a badge can keep killing our people and still keep defending uh keep defending body council. Aurora has a pattern. You all know it. You've seen it. You've heard you heard the cry. You heard us cry. But knowing and not acting makes it make you complicit. As a council, you can't say you care about the community while ignoring the cries of the people who make it. You can't stop. You can't keep talking about reform while your silence projects the same system broken that breaks our family apart. But just know that if you won't stand for us, we will stand with each other and we will make new leaders to stand to do and stand with us. Our brother's blood is on the city on the city's hands and Rajan's blood is now on there too. And until justice lives in Aurora >> Porsha, go ahead. You have two minutes. My name is Porsha Terrell Beavers and I'm here tonight as part of a community that has been crying out for far too long. Sure, you know, I stood with Laura Jones when Kylin Lewis was killed. Pardon me, murdered. I stood with Laura Jones when Kylin Lewis was murdered. I watched a mother grieve and a city look away. And now here we are again with another black son gone, murdered, another mother's heart shattered, another name we must say. Rajan Belt Stubblefield. This is not a coincidence. This is a pattern. A pattern of unchecked power within the Aurora Police Department. a pattern of silence from leadership and a pattern of complicity from this very council. Every time you refuse to condemn this violence, every time you choose comfort over accountability, you tell us exactly where you stand. We are done begging for change. We are organizing for it. We are done waiting for justice. We are building it. The same way we showed up for Kylin, we will show up for Rajan. The same way we unapologetically held space for the Lewis family, we will do the same here. And we will not stop until Aurora learns to value black life more than it values political safety. To the council members who continue to sit in silence or condone this behavior while our sons are murdered and die, understand this clearly. We are galvanizing our community to vote you out. Accountability is not anti- police. It is pro- community, pro- truth, and pro-life. So tonight, I stand for Kylin. I stand for >> Next is Anna. Anna, go ahead. You have two minutes. Um, I'd like to start with first that I um 100% agree with every speaker, with Miss Lebronda, with Median, with Porsche, with Kaa. Um, I'm here to show support for Rajan Belt Stubblefield. Um, I still stand with Kylin's family. When I first started going to the Aurora City Council meetings last year, my intention um was to raise awareness um to get justice and accountability for his death. And over a year later, we've gotten the exact opposite of that. Um APD continues to kill unarmed black men. There's no accountability. the city council members continue to lie, continue to paint us as the problem when in reality they're failed. Uh the mayor's failed leadership is truly the problem. The council members are the problem. And people can see through it all. And it it's really baffling to me how you guys continue with all your BS as if people can't see through it. As if people can't see your racism. people can't see your narcissism. It's unbelievable to me really that I'm sitting here over a year and a half later and it's only gotten worse. It's clear that this council doesn't care. It's clear that the mayor only cares about certain people in his community. It's clear that APD is going to continue murdering people with no accountability unless something is done by us, which is to stand up and keep speaking up. Um I think you guys thought we would give up by now. You thought we would go away, get tired. We are tired. We're tired of dealing with um people's lives being taken. >> Your lives Your lives, you know, protected And that was the last speaker. Uh we will uh this time is now 6:13. I think we'll reconvene in uh 7:23. Does that give you enough time, Katie? >> 623. >> I'm sorry. 6:23. >> Yes, that we'll reconvene at 6:23. Thanks everybody. [Music]