9News reporter Jeremy Jojola apparently experienced an epiphany about the scale of Denver’s homelessness crisis.
Anecdotally I’ve noticed a substantial increase in the number of tents and and encampments around downtown Denver. So many. This is such a complex issue. I wonder how we should continue to delicately cover this from a journalism standpoint because nothing seems to be changing.
— Jeremy Jojola (@jeremyjojola) June 10, 2021
The idea journalists should be concerned about “delicately” covering a subject to avoid upsetting woke viewers is altogether absurd, but not entirely unusual for 9News.
Jojola’s tweet was both an admission he couldn’t ignore the crisis any longer, and a plea to the left to help him cover the subject without offending anyone.
It would be amusing if it weren’t so pathetic.
If Jojola can’t properly cover a subject like homelessness without consulting woke-Twitter, he shouldn’t call himself a journalist.
Jojola ought to ask Democrats why they appear completely incapable of mounting any meaningful policy response to the growing threat to public safety, especially considering liberals have been in charge for the last several decades.
One can take a quick drive around downtown or the River North neighborhood and see it’s evident the city is not enforcing the camping ban.
Aside from a few Temporary Managed Shelters in neighborhoods like Park Hill and Capitol Hill, the left has offered virtually no policy responses to this crisis.
Denver County GOP Chairman Garrett Flicker, on the other hand, is collecting signatures for a ballot initiative that would force the city to actually enforce its camping ban.
Denver GOP chairman Garrett Flicker filed a ballot initiative Thursday that would cap the number of city-sanctioned campsites for people experiencing homelessness to four or fewer on public land.
- Residents also could sue the city for failing to remove illegal campsites within 72 hours of a complaint.
What they’re saying: “What we really seek to do is to stop the unsanctioned camping … and reinforce the urban camping ban,” Flicker told Alayna.
Details: The plan would work in conjunction with Denver’s sanctioned homeless camps initiative — a program that has relied on private property owners to grant outdoor space and faced resistance from neighbors nearly every step of the way.
“One of the things that this initiative is trying to do is get the bulk of the un-housed population into temporary housing where they will have safety lighting and basic sanitation,” Flicker told Complete Colorado.
“This is a response to the neglect of the city of both the un-housed population and the citizens of Denver,” he said.
“There’s two parties that feel disenfranchised and the solutions that the City Council offered have done nothing but continue that disenfranchisement.”
Flicker has 180 days from May 3 to collect the necessary 8,265 signatures and put the measure on the ballot.
If you are a resident of Denver and interested in signing the petition, you can connect with the Denver County GOP here.