The brand new district attorney, just like a previous district attorney somewhere else. It's George Brockler of the twenty third Judicial District. George, what's it like to be back in the saddle as a prosecuting attorney?
Again, Well, it's a saddle that needs to be broken in, so there's some predictable chafing. Otherwise that it's great.
You know, not many people use the word chafing on the show, So well done for breaking that barrier, just just tossing it right aside. So this is a brand new judicial district and one that I know has been needed for a long time because of the growth of the area. What's it like being able to build an office from the ground up?
What a great opportunity, but also a little bit daunting too. I mean, like we're still figuring out things like do all the computers work? And where did the phone numbers go? And what's the shortest way to the bathroom? I mean we're still doing stuff like that.
Yeah.
Well, at the same time trying to manage a caseload that is not insignificant. I'll give you an example. And when I get off the phone with you, I'm going to walk down the hall and participate in the sentencing for the very first murder sentencing in the history of this jurisdiction. So we have a great team. The county commissioners out here in Lincoln, Albert and Douglas have been so wonderfully supportive. They are pro public safety, pro law enforcement,
pro justice. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's what sets them apart from the rest of the metro area.
Isn't that sad? I mean, isn't that sad? George? I have a story on the blog to now now you know, I don't know if you've ever seen my blog at mandy'sblog dot com, but it is magic every single day. And I actually put a crime story, just a little throwaway crime story, because two shoplifters were arrested from Park Meadows Mall and I said, that's Douglas County. That's why they got arrested. Me, you know, that's why they got arrested. So it's nice. I live in this in this judicial district.
I live with a great sheriff. I live with people who care about law and order, And to your point, it is disappointing that other municipality buies don't have that same support, and the law enforcement officers don't have that same support. Because go ahead, I was going to say a couple things about that.
That shoplifter one the very first felony that occurred. That the arrest occurred after I was sworn in, and it was happening while the swearing in was going on. That's one for which there we had done a press release, but it was out a Parker and it's similar, and that these aren't just people who are thieves. These are
people who we pursued. And that's the difference too. There you see a lot of videos out there of people watching folks push shopping carts full of stolen goods out into the parking lot and nothing really seems to happen, not down here. And the part that you bring up, Manny, that's so important is this, had I had this message, this if you come down here to victimize us, prepared
to be incarcerated kind of a thing. If I had had that message fifteen years ago, twenty years ago in this game, it would have been a total yawn fest because everyone would go, that's right, I mean, yep, isn't that.
What you do? That's your job.
We've seen such a change and it's like the DA's offices have become these social support networks instead of law enforcers, where we're supposed to fix all of society's ills mental illness, drug addiction, broken families. And I think at some point we need to have a readjustment and say no, that's a different part of government, that's a different part of
the community. That's not our business. Our business is to maintain safety, prevent and protect victims, and to hold people accountable who just can't bring themselves to follow the damn law.
And you know what, George, nothing you just said, in my mind is controversial. And I'm not asking you to comment on other das. But DA Beth McCann leaves Denver and she kind of broke this glowing review of everything she was proud of. And I'm thinking to myself, if I'm in charge of prosecuting crime and the crime rates have done what they have done in Denver under my tutelage, under my leadership, I would be walking out with my
head hanging in shame. So to hear you talk about the fact that you understand your job is to hold criminals accountable. It is. It shouldn't be strange. But I'm sure there's people listening in Denver that thinks you sound like some kind of maniac.
You know, it's not just the da thing. And again, Beth, I'm sure was committed to what she thought was the right path for her community, and because they continued to re elect her, maybe she was right. You know. Yeah, but think about this. Those horrible stabbings that took place this weekend where two are dead and two more seriously injured. Those took place two days after the governor of our state in his state of the state identified only three crimes. Specifically,
they were wage theft, cattle rustling, and wildlife trafficking. That's not what plagues the Metro area.
Cattle rustling.
Really, Oh yeah, let go back and take a look at it. It's bizarre of the things to identify that we need to tackle with crime. Cattle rustling? Is it the top fifty? Was this because the National Western stocksties in town?
I mean, I don't know, maybe he's pulling bad with you know, ranchers maybe, you know, because they're all mad at him for everything he's done to them. But they're supposed to feel better now those are going after cattle. I mean, what year is it, George? What are we gonna look out for gunfights at the OK Corral at the same time. And don't get me wrong, I know cattle gets stolen. I know that this is an actual crime.
But to your point, is it the most important crime or should we were worrying about mentally all homeless people slashing the flight attendant's throats in the sixteenth Street mall instead?
And if you're gonna try to make up for that ridiculous I'm an impossible meat lover thing that he did, Yeah a few years ago. Maybe ask the ranchers, would you prefer us to tackle cattle rustling or the wolves who are eating the cattle? I mean, give them a choice.
Yeah, you know, George, I live in Douglas County and I'm very familiar with the area. And a lot of people would say, are you going to be bored in this office because you kind of think of the suburbs area, the rural parts that you're covering, as well as not necessarily being a hotbed of criminality. But how does this compare to your prior post.
It's different, and it's different in this way, you know where Rappa Hoe County represented two thirds of the population of a one point one million population jurisdiction, but half of a rapa Hoe County's population is Aurora. And Aurora the third most populous city in the state. But there's a reason that has the second largest police department, and that is, for better or for worse, it generates violent
crime and other crimes. And so I think we calculated before the split about seventy percent of all the felonies the jurisdiction prosecuted came out of a Rapahoe County. Sixty percent of the total came out of Aurora itself. Wow, So we are naturally going to be able to now focus on those other crimes that you have to prioritize down the list when you have truckloads full of violent crimes. Get me wrong, we have some down here. But now we're able to try to stem the tide at an
earlier level. And I'm a believer in this, if we send the message loud and clear, early and often and consistently that if you come down here to break the law and victimizes, you'll be held accountable. I think we don't get all that violent crime that Aurora and a rapa Hoe and Denver and Adams have had.
I don't know if you saw the mayor, Mayor Mike Johnston's press conference after the murders this past weekend where he spent eight seconds and that's not an exaggeration giving condolences to the families the victims, before he launched into a pr campaign about how much Denver has improved. And the real problem is is we're just not giving it the chance because we've got a misperception of what's going
on now. If what he had said was what you just said, it would be a completely different situation in Denver. If he had come out and said exactly what you said, We're done. We're going to prosecute you. If you break the law, We're going to prosecute quality of lime, quality of life crimes. I mean, it's like we're operating in two different planets. It truly is, George.
There's an awesome video that the Parker PD put out right before the swearing in, and it was a guy his faces blurred out. Of course, he's presumed innocent. We don't know who he is, but it's Parker PD ushering this guy into the back of a patrol car over the theft of a couple stolen phones. And he's a gast and he said, this is on social media. You might play this thing. And he says, this is a ridiculous, this is a joke. You're ruining my Friday night. He said,
this isn't even a thing in Denver. And you can hear the cop go, yeah, well you're down here in Parker and he goes, this is why I.
Don't come to Douglass County.
And I told the chief we need more of these, we need we need a whole YouTube channel just dedicated to this.
Wow, I'm finding that right now. So I'm going to find that and at.
Uh PD look for I think it's on the Parker PD twitter.
Thing, so I will look for that on the Facebook.
But oh man, it's good.
Yeah, I mean they they I will make sure we get that. But that's actually that. It makes me incredibly happy. It makes me incredibly happy that people will think twice about coming to Douglas County. How much of the issues that we're seeing in Aurora in terms of gang activity have you? Are you aware of that making its way into Douglas County at all?
Yep. Yeah. In fact, you know, if you talk to Shrip Darren weekly, I mean, he's just the best at what he does. They shortly after that story started getting the attention it deserved. About a year earlier, they busted up a Venezuelan coordinated effort to steal a whole bunch of cars down here. And we're going to start keep mapping the crime that we end up catching and resolving down here. Shock no one, Because I did this in
a test case about a year ago. It should shock no one that the home of origin for many, many of our criminals is not here. It is Aurora, and it is Denver. And that's what we got to stop.
Okay, George Brockler, if you could, and before we go, how would you describe your judicial philosophy?
Maybe this didn't come out in this interview, but I'll say this. Look, I'm a Christian guy. I'm not good at it. I'm constantly trying to improve, But I believe in redemption. I truly believe in redemption. But there cannot be redemption without accountability. And for us down here, our job is to try to change behavior. One. We'd love you to never break the law. That's our first and best goal. But if you are hell bent on breaking the law, our next best goal is to discourage you
from doing it down here. And our third goal is if you come down here to do it, We're going to give you reason to never do it again.
I love that. George Brockler, the new DA of the third Judicial District. I'm super happy. I just we're about to see a real time experiment, in real life unfolding of what it looks like when an entire group of leadership, whether it's the Douglas County Commission, whether it's law enforcement agencies, whether it's the twenty third Judicial District, when they all work together to fight crime next to areas that simply
don't follow that same standard. And I'm I'm here for it because I know which side of the line I'm living on. And I'm pretty happy about that. George. I appreciate you making time for me today.
I just texted you the link to that stage.
Oh perfect, Thank you, sir, Thank you sir. We'll play that. Yeah, no problem, and I'll talk to you again soon, George, I appreciate that very much. We will. Yeah, golly,