01-02-25 Interview - Taylor Romero - Can We Make Denver Great Again

This morning, as I was making my coffee, I was perusingex dot com, as I often do as I'm making my coffee, and I saw a post by a guy named Taylor Romero, and it is an email that he sent to his landlord yesterday said I live in the Highlands, and I'm going to encapsulate it for you, though I did put it on the blog today, so you can go over to the blog and read it there. But the long and short of it is, and I'll read

First of all, yeah, Mandy, thank you so much for having me.

So how long have you lived in the Highlands?

Uh, cheesy, less than ten years?

More than seven And it's been a while now. My two daughters are kind of now comfortable to the area of their friends in the area, and so those kind of those commitments make it really hard for.

Us to mobile or to move. But it's it's been maybe near a decade now.

You talked about your wife being chased by someone while she was walking around slungslake and you having to leave work and go pick her up. That has to be very, very unnerving. That was there one particular incident and everything you laid out in this in this letter to your email or a landlord, was there any one particular incident or was it really an accumulation?

Gosh that that is such a good question.

It's been an accumulation and I don't know how much time we have, but I can, I can, I can walk through the progression yeah, and share that. So the first kind of experience that comes to mind was maybe like four years ago. I'm on thirty second in Federal heading West. I'm up next at the red light light turn screen. I start to pull forward. I'm a halfway two thirds away through the intersection.

And I get t boned. I get t boned hard.

The car that hits me, it's big suburban, hits me kind of banks to the to their right. So now they're in front of me, and I start to do what I think is kind of Carmen Harlance at this point when you get hit, is to pull over. And I started to see they were accelerating, and I was like, oh, oh no, And so I think I'm going to take out my phone and I'm going to take a picture of the license plate.

They don't have a license plate.

So they start to accelerate. I am like, well, I'm just going to call the police and I'm going to follow them.

And I start to.

Press on the accelerator and my car's like nah and sputters. So I call the police. A bunch of witnesses come around. They're like, hey, we'll hang out for the police. I call the police and the dispatch says, asked me, did you get a license plate?

And I was like no, they actually didn't have one.

And the person online goes, oh, well there's nothing we can do. Sha, Well, are you going to you going to send you need to send someone out or.

It's like no, there's nothing we can do. Fill out a report online. Okay. So I thought about this.

What do you call getting t boned by somebody, having your property damaged by somebody who is driving illegally and the police being called but putting in zero effort.

I call it foreshadowing.

So then the next I didn't know at the time, right, I had no idea at the time. I thought that this is really this is not awesome, and I fill out a report online so I can deal with my car insurance.

Okay.

Sometime passes in the measure of months, and I am walking on thirty second and Lowell in the little of the shopping district Love that area, and I am I'm confronted by a really nice young lady who I've helped describe as a clipboard warrior. You've seen them out there that's got their clipboards and they're trying to get you to sign something or to fill something out.

So I'm talking with her. There's a whole story about my conversation with her.

But about fifteen minutes into our conversation, or I think, she starts to realize, oh my gosh, maybe I'm on the wrong side of the clipboard here she I hear, help, help, help, And I look up and I see two homeless people grappling on the sidewalk in front of one of the coffee shops that I don't think I think just went out of business in the past week. And he's screaming help. So why, I say, all right, I was awesome talking. Excuse me for a minute. Someone's calling for help.

It's uh.

My wife hates it, like it's my instinct if someone's in an emergency and asking for help to go investigate.

So I go.

I walk up, and I see these two homeless guys on the ground, one on top of the other. Someone's calling for help, and I'll never forget. I set my backpack down. I start to walk over and one of the shop owners steps in front of me, puts her hand on my chest says, no, stop, just just stay out of it.

Let them finish. And I was like, uh no, so.

I lightly just kind of push her hand to the other side. I straddled both of them. I did like the weapons inspection, like, okay, I'm seeing knives on seething. I grabbed the guy on top, got him into a hole to kind of secure him, and it was like a glass wall was broken because at that moment, three or four.

Other guys jumped into help them, right right, And.

So we pull them apart, we extract them, we de escalate. We one of the ladies there says, I've called the police.

They're on their way.

Five minutes past, ten minutes past, the guy who was the attacker just gets up, walks away. Yeah, another five minutes past, another ten minutes past, the guy who was being attacked, I just turned him.

I'm like, I don't think they're coming, dude.

And so we're all looking at each other like we don't think the police aren't The police aren't coming, and so we all just leave.

Taylor. This this is we call this is this is.

I want to a couple of things about that story that I want to just interrupt really quickly. You, first of all, running towards danger, congrats ands off to you, And I think that a lot of your neighbors needed you to break that glass, right because they don't want to be the first one in, but they will help if someone else jumps in. Secondarily, that instinct will be beaten out of you when nothing ever happens at the end of it. You know what I'm saying, Like the

That's very frustrating to me.

Yeah, it changes like if we were like kind of focused on what's the light at the end of the tunnel.

It does not involve law enforcement.

And I think that's good to know, at least in my experience back to back, which is why we get into my email all of these things that I'm seeing.

We've stopped calling the police.

And fact, after some of this stuff has happened, my wife and I spoke, we said, well, shall we call the police, Like what would be the point? Like, yeah, file report online, like they're not going to do anything, not going to show. Well, I was at Walmart in Lakewood, and they have a fully like clothed, vested armed police officer that is on duty there.

And so I had.

Overheard him talking to one of the guys that worked there about something with the holidays and his wife. And so after he was done talking, I approached him. I said, hey, man, I had a question as like a husband, and.

I don't know if you have kids. Is me talking out if you have kids?

But it's like a husband and as a father, like, here's some things that are happening, what what do I do, Like if i'm if, I'm if one of my responsibilities is the safety and the protection of my of my family and property.

What do I do?

And he says, well, you could, and he talks about calling and reporting, and I responded, I said, man, none of that, none of your answers. Did I hear any confidence in what you were saying? Yeah, I like, give me an answer. You're confident and no joke. He looks me up and down. He goes, well, I think given what you're wearing, you could probably have a concealed fire arm. You should probably go that route because and this is a quote unquote unfortunately that's where we are.

Dang so you know, So, how did you are? You sent this to your landlord? The letter, and again I linked to it on the blog, so if people want to go read the whole thing. But I think anybody who lives in Denver who has been continually gaslt about what is actually happening in neighborhoods, and that's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on.

I need more.

Denver Rights to come forward with their story because what I think is happening is that a lot of people feel very isolated when they are experiencing some of these things. They don't want to be the neighbor to call the police, or they don't want to be that neighbor that seems judgmental or whatever. There's a whole bunch of like social pressures that go into this. But I think that Denver Rights have to stand up and say this is enough.

Uh, well, no joke.

I got their response, Uh just before we start our call.

So I have not read it yet.

Oh God, surely they know.

I mean, surely if they own the properties, they know what's going on in the neighborhood, you know, and it's got to be incredibly infuriating for the landlords who are who are probably understanding of your position while also needing to, you know, keep keep people in their in their properties. So it's you know, it's a very difficult situation. And where are you looking to move to? Have you even thought about it?

We want to get some more closer to golden Yeah. So one of the things and I have got so much, there's so much to share here, but I've one of the things I've seen is that wealth disparity is a precursor to violence. And when the people who run your city import an immense amount of people in a different

For a good justification for violence. Oh they stole your jacket, Yeah, but they couldn't afford one. Yeah, they hurt and broke into your house. Yeah, but that's because they don't have one. So once you end up in a situation.

Where, uh, you have really good reasons for really bad things, it gets it's really hard because and we've I think felt this just more generally over the past at least four or or more years, where it's like just saying common sense things can get you attacked, like hey, maybe we shouldn't be like stealing things from little girls.

Yeah.

But then when the response is yeah, but those people have nothing, you start this debate of justifying aggression, violence and theft, and and so I actually think I might I kind of think the situation Denver is in is really interesting because the people that run Denver no doubt have a good reason, noble purpose for everything they're doing. Unfortunately, my family and my family safety is the sacrifice, and

So it's like, I don't even know. I don't think that they don't know.

Well. I think they just see it and go, yeah, but you've had a great life, So let me give someone who needs it more.

Let me give you a little more perspective from perhaps further down on the right side of the aisle, just to give you a little bit of this.

I think you're absolutely right.

That people are justifying criminal behavior because of the circumstances of the people that are committing it. However, most of the time those people are not being impacted on a daily basis they themselves, And I would say that my frustration with the City of Denver. First of all, I think they're pursuing some measures that are short term effective at one thing, long term failures and others. When we're talking about housing, people living on the streets and things

We are a welcoming country.

But they do so because they're not living with the daily impacts that you and your family are living with.

And that's the frustration and the.

Disconnect, and that is what Denver rights across the spectrum who are dealing with this need to be emboldened and say, we too, are compassionate. Nobody wants the family to starve, nobody wants the family to suffer. You can look at some of these people coming across the border with little children and your heartbreaks, but you.

Also have to enforce the rule of law.

Because those people are being victimized too. Right, it's not just white middle class Americans. We've seen what's happened in these apartment complexes. We're the same people that we're supposed to feel sorry for are the.

Ones being victimized.

So we we have to get back to establishing the rule of law and order so we can have a society that is capable of supporting the people that need our help, because what happens is the schism starts to happen where normally people who would one hundred percent say this is great, we're compassionate, we want these people here. Then go, but wait a minute, my daughter's scooter just got stolen.

So your heart starts to turn, your.

Heart starts to harden, and that in the long run becomes a huge problem for the very people that we're here to help. So to your point, I think you're totally right. You're absolutely right that there are justifications being made for this criminal activity. Whether it is they're addicted, it's mental illness, so they can't help it.

Great, then we need to help them. We need to help these people.

We need to do this, but we need to do it in a way that doesn't sacrifice our own safety as a community. And I think that's kind of what you just said in a different perspective.

So, you know, so.

What are you.

Looking to do now?

You said you want to move closer to golden but that ultimately doesn't necessarily solve the problem.

Did you put this why did you put this letter out? Let me ask that question.

Yeah, I think, well, so, I think there's a part of me that is hopelessly optimistic, and I've seen that in the process of solving a problem, it has to start with discussions, and.

So let's talk.

And I think the problem is a major problem is that there's no way to talk about this without being embroiled in the ideological battle of our time, and so what happens is I am I would say if anybody very apolitical, I actually haven't even voted since Obama the first time. I have a lot of reason for why that was my I'm out of this moment.

Yeah, a lot of people feel that way sometimes.

Yeah, But you know, does this inspire you to pay more attention at least at the local level. And this is something I talk about on the show, Like I could talk about federal elections all day every day, But the reality is the people we put on the city council, the people we put on the school board, the people we put in these boards and commissions at the local level have far more impact on your day to day life than anybody at the federal level.

You know.

It's like the people whoever's president is going to have way less impact on you as a citizen of Denver than the Denver City Council or or the Denver Police Department, like finding out what's going on there. So I'm really glad and I hope that this inspires you to be a little more engaged, because you're great at presenting what's going on in a way that I think a lot

Yeah, well I will say, yeah, we give a little like a little framing as a thought experiment, because it'll really capture what I'm facing when I talk when I speak about this stuff. So, okay, imagine this. Imagine we went to a time machine. We jump back three four hundred years into into the UK and the and the ideological battle the time was Protestants and Catholics.

So imagine we go and we talk to someone.

And and they ask us, well, do you think that a married couple should be allowed to get a divorce?

And we would say yeah, and they would respond.

With what are you Protestant?

And it's like, well, no, no, no, I'm a time traveler from the future who's not captured by the ideological battle of your time. Okay, so fast forward to today. I say things and someone says, what are you a Republican or what are you a Democrat? And I go, no, it might be best to think of me as a time traveler from the picture who is not captured by the ideological battle of our time. I do not care

Yeah, and so I.

Can't speak about this without being called the amount of times that's something Republican would say.

What does that have to do with anything?

Yeah, Well, as a go ahead, I say, it just kills the conversation because once I'm an out group, I can be branded and villainized, and then there is no conversation to be at.

Taylor, That's what I am seeing.

Taylor Ramiro is my guest. I would strongly are.

Do you to go look at his letter to his landlord about why he wants to move out of the Highlands after living there for almost a decade. Taylor, I think you are great at this conversation. I'm so happy I reached out to you, because again, I just want to empower people to feel like they can say things are not okay and we need to fix it. Things are not okay, and this is you know, we need to make Denver great again.

That's what I said on the blog Let's make.

Denver great again, because I think the health of Denver is so critical to the overall health of the state of Colorado that no matter where you live, you should be rooting for Denver. You really, truly should be rooting for Denver. And Taylor, I appreciate you coming on the show, and as a concealed carry permit holder myself, two pieces of advice.

Inside the house, you.

Want a shotgun for home defense, Mary forgiving, won't go through the walls, won't hurt anybody, you don't intend, and it's hard to miss. But practice practice practice. If you get your concealed carry permit, do not be one of those people that gets it and never goes to the range. Again, just practice practice practice, Taylor. I appreciate your time today.

Man.

Yeah, Mandy, thank you so much. It just does give me hope. We'll see.

I'll know we're on a good path when any of the mainstream media and Denver's having this conversation, we shall see.

Hopefully they'll call you soon, Taylor. Taylor Ramiro, thanks for your time, man, thank.

You, thank you so much. Man. You talk soon.