Transforming Public Safety with Christopher La Fleur

Over the past few years, the entire U.S., and in fact the entire world, has been taking a turn toward being more inclusive, more intersectional, and more intentional. As such, local artist and entrepreneur Christopher La Fleur, founder of Diversity Arts Foundation, is taking a stand, specifically when it comes to his work with the city of Aurora. Now, he is refusing to work with the city on a proposed art festival and pulling his involvement with Aurora Pride, a group he helped to found. We caught up with La Fleur to talk about his decision and why he’s holding off on any collaboration with the city of Aurora.

What is your background and connection to Aurora?
My connection to Aurora is, I grew up there. I was living there up until middle school, and then we moved even further away to a rural part of the state. So, it is a very deeply personal connection for me. And growing up, I saw not only all the diversity but all of the struggle in the community as well. One hundred and sixty-five languages are spoken at Aurora Public Schools, and it is incredibly diverse state.

You were an original founder of Aurora Pride, and you’re not involved now. What motivated that decision?
The board of Aurora Pride voted to allow the Aurora police to participate in our event and to recruit at our event, as long as they were able to show up in plain clothes and demonstrate that they had no lethal weapons on site, really to provide assurances to the public for the trauma that the public has experienced because all that is being broadcast live on the news. Black people are dying, and we wanted to ensure that we weren’t doing trauma to our guests. APD did not follow those instructions.

In the run-up to this decision, I had also requested a roundtable with the city of Aurora government, and that didn’t happen. Instead, we sent a person from our board to speak with Aurora police and the city government. And those conversations seemed productive, but they were ineffectual. In the beginning, I had voted to allow Aurora PD to be there. I thought, “Let’s give them a chance to step up, to really participate in a way which reflects Pride.” We asked them to wear a Pride shirt, maybe have some Pride merch, be more relatable, more accessible to the community, and they didn’t do that. They came in full uniform with lethal weapons, and that did not sit well with me at all.

Tell us more about the art festival you wanted to bring to Aurora, but changed your mind about.
It was supposed to be a three-day weekend festival in September of 2022. There are a lot of festivals in Colorado that do not showcase local artists, queer artists, etc., so I wanted to create a festival in the city of Aurora as an alternative to the highbrow festivals around the country and in our community. I wanted to focus on free access to arts education; I wanted to have a passport program through which you could receive a passport for the weekend and go around to local businesses, maybe get special deals.

Ultimately, this project could have employed up to 1,500 people, just temporarily, but still, that’s everybody; that’s vendors; that’s artists; that’s educators; those are the local businesses, events, security, etc. It was a huge project. And I forecasted minimum revenues of $1.5 million, but likely it would be much more. And that would directly benefit the city. The city was completely on board; I received a $10,000 budget allocation. I was in talks with multiple agencies in the city of Aurora in terms of tourism, in terms of arts and culture agencies, and other organizations around the city. I’ve been working on this project for eight months now, but it just didn’t make sense to move forward.

What was the reaction of the city when you returned you check to them and refused the event?
The reaction was twofold. First, I was called rash and impulsive. And then, I was invited to perhaps open a community dialogue at the city level and perhaps there would be an opportunity to speak with Chief Wilson. And so, what I have requested, and what I’m currently doing, is trying to figure out, how are we going to tackle this problem?

First of all, I want to make it clear to readers: I’m one perspective. I am a cis, white, queer guy. So I have immense privilege. This is not my conversation to take command of; that’s not for me to be doing. What I am trying to do is make space and create a coalition of other thought leaders, activists, movers and shakers in the community, to get together and to partner with.

I want this coalition to be able to be visible and loud, meet with council members and the police. I don’t want any more empty promises. Do I believe that tomorrow, we can defund the police? No, but I do believe it is possible to pass legislation to limit or get rid of qualified immunity? They absolutely could do that.

What other actions are you taking to try and make change?

First and foremost, I’ve issued a public call to business leaders in the city of Aurora to stop doing business in a city this fundamentally flawed until we can see realistic progress towards everything that this community needs. I am calling on every business, large and small, to figure out a new way of doing business that doesn’t enrich a city that has this many problems.

For more information on La Fleur and his work, check him out here. 

Featured image: “Velvet Lizard [America 1st!]” by Christopher Le Fleur 

OFM is following this story as it unfolds and reaching out to the city of Aurora, Aurora PD, and other interested parties for comment.