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A couple of years ago, a tragic triple homicide in Denver left families grieving and a neighborhood fearful that more violence could follow. The killings grew out of a long-running conflict between two well-known gangs, the GKIs (Gillian Knights Insane) and the Bloods, whose fragile alliance over drug deals had collapsed.
That was when Leo Alirez, founder and executive director of Life-Line Colorado, got a call from both police and parole officers asking for help to keep the situation from getting worse.
Life-Line had credibility with both sides. Leo and his team reached people no one else could. They met with leaders from each group, listened and passed messages between the streets and those calling the shots from inside the Department of Corrections, where tensions were feeding the conflict. They also helped move people who were in immediate danger to safety, including several living at a Lakewood trap house connected to the dispute.
Leo recently explained to us when recounting all this that, within a week, the retaliation stopped. There were no more deaths and no new funerals.
That’s what real safety looks like in Denver when we invest in people who can calm a crisis before it explodes.
The Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition’s Get Real Denver campaign is calling on Mayor Mike Johnston and Denver City Council to make a $4 million investment in the creation of a community-led safety grant program to support nonprofits that prevent harm, stop it before it escalates, and support people impacted by crime and violence – not just fund the systems that respond afterward with police, courts and incarceration.
The lesson from Life-Line is simple: Violence interruption works. When a shooting happens, Life-Line’s mission isn’t to solve a case but to stop the next one.
Their interrupters stand at vigils so grief doesn’t turn into retaliation. They sit with families in hospitals. They help people relocate when staying put is too dangerous. Life-Line covers basic needs like food, a ride or child care because stability is what keeps bad nights from becoming bad months. As the scene cools, they connect people to counseling, school or jobs so that short-term help becomes long-term stability.
But Denver needs more than a few interrupters. It needs a wider commitment to preventing violence long before it happens. That means making sure conflicts don’t spill into schools. It means giving young people places to be, and trusted adults to turn to before a problem escalates.
When violence does occur, the city also has to be ready to help victims. Funeral costs, relocation, groceries, utility bills and rides to counseling rarely make the news, but they make the difference between healing and debilitating trauma. Families who feel abandoned after violence are more likely to see pain turn into another cycle of harm. Helping them stabilize quickly is smart public safety.
Denver also has to think about prevention in a broader sense. The same investments that stop shootings also keep other crimes from happening. When people have support and stability, there are fewer car thefts, fewer burglaries and fewer crises that turn into 911 calls. Violence interruption, victim services and youth outreach aren’t niche programs — they’re part of how a city keeps neighborhoods safe and thriving day to day.
Four million dollars would help sustain and scale these organizations, fund an independent partner to coordinate efforts efficiently, and track what matters: conflicts defused, families stabilized and people supported when they’re recovering from harm.
If you’re skeptical, picture the moments that never make the news: a vigil for a shooting victim that ends peacefully, a family that gets a safe place to heal, a teenager who shows up for help instead of giving up. That’s prevention. It’s quiet, local…and it works.
Denver already funds the response after harm. We spend over half a billion of general fund dollars on the criminal legal system – police, courts and jails. It’s time to extend that commitment to preventing harm before it happens. This investment would be a meaningful start, one that would save lives, strengthen neighborhoods and prove that safety grows when the city and its people work together.
Denver City Council will hold a public hearing on Mayor Mike Johnson’s proposed budget at 5:30 p.m. Monday, October 27.
