Heated Denver Protest Altercation Leaves New York Giants Fan Bloody, Booed

Update: Denver police have arrested twenty-year-old Jose Cardenas for allegedly stealing the glasses from the Giants fan in the video. Police originally identified Cardenas as the person who tripped the man, and said he was booked for second-degree assault. Cardenas is now being investigated for theft, not assault. Neither the Giants fan nor the person who tripped him has been identified.

The No Kings protest that took place in Denver on Saturday, October 18, resulted in several confrontations between protesters and police and counter-protesters, including one incident that left a middle-aged man bloody and angry after he hurled a homophobic slur at protesters near Union Station.

The No Kings protest split off into three marches during the day, including one that went down 16th Street, past Union Station and through McGregor Square. While protesters were on Wynkoop Street, several passing spectators shouted at them, including one who yelled “get a job.”

A video circulating on social media shows the man who was eventually hurt yelling at protesters as they made their way past Union Station.

The video captures taunts coming from a gray-haired man wearing sunglasses, a black vest and a blue shirt with a New York Giants logo; the team was in town to play the Broncos on Sunday. The man’s identity hasn’t surfaced, but he appears to be in his sixties and was with five to six other guys who looked to be around the same age and were also wearing Giants gear.

As the group passes Amante Coffee at 1612 17th Street, walking away from protesters in front of Union Station, the gray-haired man can be heard chanting “God Bless Trump!” while his friends seem to be chanting along, though a little out of sync.

Then it gets uglier. The Giants fan leading the chant turns around to flip off protesters, who shout back. One or two people can be heard yelling at the top of their lungs, and the man responds with a homophobic slur.

A young man wearing a black shirt, jeans and black beanie, and carrying a skateboard, is walking ahead of the Giants fan when he hurls the slur. Immediately after the young man hears it, he takes the older man’s sunglasses and sprints off; a brief foot chase follows until the older man trips, face first, onto the 17th Street pavement. He gets up, looking a little dazed, but keeps pursuing the young man.

Shortly after, the Giants fan appears to be tripped by another protester and he falls into a gutter, sustaining a bloody gash about his left eyebrow. Protesters try to calm the Giants fan and restrain him, but he responds by shoving them, determined to get his sunglasses back. A protester can be heard yelling, “You bumped into me!,” before getting shoved by the now-enraged Giants fan. Another older man who had been chanting “God Bless Trump” is also shoved as he follows his friend.

The No Kings protest drew more than 8,000 people to the Colorado State Capitol and Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park across the street, according to the Colorado State Patrol, eclipsing the first No Kings protest in mid-June by about 3,000. Overhead photos from the New York Times show nearly every square foot of those two blocks packed with protesters, suggesting that the event may have been much larger. Across the state, thousands of additional protesters showed up in towns ranging from Grand Junction to Colorado Springs.

In Denver, about a dozen protesters ended up in cuffs on charges such as graffiti, possessing a knife and assaulting a peace officer, according to the DPD. Nearly all of the arrests took place during the three marches that broke out after the rally at the Capitol, DPD adds.

The protest was supposed to wrap up by 4 p.m. Around that time officers used smoke grenades that smelled like a campfire and pepper balls, which leave a lingering bleach-y taste in the throat and nostrils, to move protesters away from the highway entrance near 20th Street and Chestnut Place, outside of Coors Field. Police tackled a couple of protesters, including one moments after he had grabbed a Lime scooter and moved it into their way along Chestnut.

The majority of arrests were made during a third march that ended up at West Sixth Avenue and Santa Fe Drive between 6 and 7 p.m., according to the DPD.

No Kings wasn’t the first protest in Denver that saw altercations and violence. In February, a minor and a local man, David Halverson, were seen on a video harassing and throwing a bottle at a group of protesters. Halverson pled guilty to related charges in September.

Conservative talk show host Jeff Hunt said he got kicked in the back for making “little gotcha videos” during the first No Kings protest in June, and a DACA activist said he was attacked by a counterprotester during anti-ICE protests that same month. In August, protesters allegedly attacked three seniors, including two near Union Station, who ended up in the hospital.