PERRY: Holy moly and water, Venezuelan frenzy takes the weirdness out of Aurora

The life of a journalist is stressful, exhausting and bizarre.

Over the past few weeks, this newsroom and others in the region have been working hard to bring clarity, facts and reality to the explosion of melodrama and panic over alleged takeovers of Aurora by Venezuelan gangs.

Despite the bizarre frenzy this story has caused among far-right politicians who have been elected to public office, self-proclaimed on social media, or posed as journalists on FoxNews, it’s still funny.

It’s no joke that thousands of Aurora residents have been suffering for decades as tenants in slum apartments. It’s no joke that most of the victims now under the media microscope are helpless Venezuelan immigrants who, by the way, walked here from South America in the hopes of finding a slice of the American life that most of us take for granted every day. By comparison, the most passionate, determined Colorado “natives” and “pioneers” I know, who currently hate immigrants, complain when they can’t get a parking spot near Safeway.

The funny thing is that some of these people have so much time and spend it pushing the idea that brown people trying to come to the United States are “them.” They passionately believe that those who are lucky enough to be born here are “us.”

And some of them are willing to come over sentry newsroom and spray me with holy water in an attempt to send “them” back from where they came.

Last Thursday, hate mail filled our email inboxes and the phones rang and rang and rang from people eager to tell me how horrible it is that the sentry pushed back on accepting the “gang takeover” narrative without demanding verified and verifiable evidence. That’s what journalists here at the sentry and similar media from other channels that show films and let viewers figure out how to fill in the gaps and lines.

I picked up the newsroom phone line early to hear the loud screams of a man with a charming New England accent demanding to know what I was doing to stop the flood of Venezuelan gangsters from taking over Aurora, or maybe not. He didn’t say much, but he did make a lot of noise. He said it’s his job to make a lot of noise on the Take A Stand Radio Show in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

“This is what everyone in Rhode Island is talking about,” he said, demanding to know if, as a fellow “patriot and journalist,” I would tell him the whole story.

When I asked his name, he hung up. Must be a patriotic journalist thing.

But before he could do that, a clearly concerned middle-aged couple entered the office and asked for me. They seemed surprised by my gray hair, which startles me almost every morning, or by my penchant for shorts.

“You’re Dave Perry?” the clearly skeptical woman asked, perhaps expecting someone who looked more like my photo in the newspaper.

She pulled herself together and went for it.

“You need Jesus Christ in your life,” the woman insisted, saying that consulting Jesus was the sentry and my wandering path signed columns on the right path.

I playfully asked Jesus if he could help me with a pile of rewrites, since I had an empty desk for him.

She didn’t appreciate it, grabbed a plastic bottle marked ‘Holy Water’, unscrewed the cap and started wetting me.

I objected and said that unless she was ordained as a priest, she should take her bottled water, her lobbying for Jesus, and her questionable behavior back to the parking lot.

It’s been like this for a few days now.

In between the sentry Comments on articles, tweets and retweets are a rich mix of hate towards me, journalism, immigrants, 9News anchor Kyle Clark and just things in general.

Here’s an example:

“What do these (Venezuelan) profiteers expect? They come here with no skills, no money, no prospects and expect struggling American citizens to subsidize them. We need to roll up the welcome mat and turn our backs on these invaders. They do nothing but degrade our society and suck resources that could have sustained the taxpayers who contributed. NO MORE ILLEGALS!!!”

—Jan

“All of our (news) media centers are within walking distance of each other. Let’s barbecue in their parking lots and interrupt their live broadcasts with heavy protein farts.”

— lark216

“You’re fucking crazy!!!”

—Catherine H

“Lock them up!!”

—ScottDaniels

“Dude, give it up. You tried to cover it up and failed. Admit that you’re a liar and a front for the Dems. Aurora is lost.”

—Jerry Lewis

“Only a Bolshevik would barely see any human immigrants and immediately demonize the people who shed light on the NEGATIVE effects these “people” are having on American society. They don’t belong here… and frankly, you don’t belong here either. Stop calling common sense governing “far right policies”

—Quinn Gardner

Nobody is anti-immigrant. We are anti-crime. We all came through Ellis Island, where we were screened. Who in their right mind would let someone with a criminal record walk across the border? Do you let criminals walk out your back door? (House, not asshole)

— Imagine

Besides the fantastic salary, luxurious schedule and great working conditions, journalism has its pitfalls, but the lack of an interesting day is not one of them.

Follow @EditorDavePerry on BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon, Twitter And Facebook or call him at 303-750-7555 or [email protected]

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