In July, the No Concentration Camps in Colorado coalition applied for CDOTâs Adopt-A-Highway program for two sections of highway that surround a proposed new GEO-owned, for-profit ICE detention center in Hudson, CO.
In September, CDOT accepted our application, and we signed a contract to perform scheduled cleaning of those highway sections. In exchange, CDOT would provide a sign on those stretches of highway stating that they are maintained by No Concentration Camps in Colorado.
Our first cleanup day was scheduled for October 24 on the adopted section of Hwy 52, and this came with a set of rules that had to be followed by all participants. One of those rules was that we could not carry any protest signs or do anything that could feasibly distract drivers while we cleaned up.
After that initial cleanup day, despite being very careful to ensure all CDOT rules were followed, we were informed that we had been dropped from the Adopt-A-Highway program for breaking Rule 4:
âWhile performing activities on right-of-way, the method, manner, and appearance of the participants will not in any way distract, disrupt, or adversely affect traffic. Participants may not display messages, carry banners, or advertise their business affiliation or cause.â
We understood this to be an attempt at suppression, as not only had we ensured that all rules were followed, and documented most of the day on video (making that easy to prove), but according to the email received from CDOT, the complaints were raised on October 20 and 21âseveral days before we conducted our cleanup.
Through conversations with CDOT, who have been helpful and receptive, and CORA requests for copies of communications related to the complaints and our removal from the program, we were able to both successfully prove our compliance and gain insight into who had filed the false complaints.
Those false complaints were not entered by just any Hudson resident.
Three sitting members of the Hudson Town Council:
Town Councilmember Matt Cole,
Town Manager Bryce Lange,
and Town Mayor Pro Tem Don Post had filed the complaints fraudulently.
There is no call to action here. We are working alongside CDOT on a solution. But we wanted to make this statement to highlight how suppression of dissent is happening, and how even at the local level, the interests of private prison contractors like GEO feed corruption and dishonesty into our representative systems of government.
Shame on Matt Cole, Bryce Lange, and Don Post. How long do you think Hudson will put up with your good olâ boysâ club?