Sometime in the past week, vandals tagged a small sign on East Colfax which memorializes fallen Denver Police Department Officer Merle Nading. Nading was killed in the line of duty in 1971. The sign faces East near the intersection of Colfax and Gaylord, and appeared to be the only item tagged with the red spray paint in the immediate area.
The tagging could be simple graffiti. Or it could be a smaller symbol that reflects lingering tensions between some persons or some individual and the police. Those tensions were most evident in two episodes this past winter and spring.
In December 2014, four DPD officers were injured when thousands of East High students staged a walkout to protest police actions in Ferguson, Missouri.
In February 2015, protestors marched on the DPD headquarters at 13th and Cherokee, and vandalized a fallen police memorial. The event became extremely controversial because officers present at the time were told to stand down and not confront the protestors.
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