Mango House

05/04/2026

If we are returning things to Indians, why not return Manhattan to the Lenape?

Move comes after mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke of return of the Koh-i-noor diamond after UK royals’ visit to New York

02/27/2026

Am I the only one who keeps getting stopped for jaywalking?

Todays’s lesson on cultural competence: Pretextual traffic stops, or False Pretense policing.

This seems to happen to me couple times a year; I cross Colfax Ave many times a day, mostly without waiting for a cross signal, because I work on both sides of the street and the signal is long, while the cars have big open gaps because of nearby lights.

Yesterday (Feb 26 2026) this Aurora Policeman tried to stop me but I kept walking. At least he didn’t threaten me with arrest like the last one did, who had also stopped me for crossing during a red light.

I then encountered him again a few minutes later around the corner. I told him that this sort of stopping of colored people, in a largely poor and colored neighborhood, by a white policeman, comes off as pretense policing. He probably didn’t understand what I was talking about, but here it is: it goes back through all of human history, where the dominant population makes up reasons to harass the less dominant one. This officer replied that he was there as part of a community safety initiative. I understand where he is coming from, and it is nice to have the police (and this specific individual) care about community safety, but not given such history, and not in a patronizing way of scolding me for crossing the street. I left him there, but if he would like to come talk to me, without his uniform and gun, he can do so. We can problem solve together for this community.

In this video, the street I crossed (Colfax) is to the left, and I’m trying to walk away from him to my property on the bottom of this video (on which my camera is mounted). And yes I did have my passport on me, because I believe although Denver has declared their police won’t work with ICE, I don’t think Aurora has.

02/19/2026

Here is video from an Aurora Police drone. You can see it is surveilling the neighborhood, including looking in fenced back lots and yards, and zooming in on faces of kids at the park, even though the police say it is for responding and not surveillance. "Drone as First Responder" is the title of their PR presentation on the drones. (Video source: We had help getting a few hours of this using a CCJRA request). My conclusion: this is not just responding. It is surveillance, including of private areas, and of faces of people who have done nothing wrong (including kids). We don't need to request more videos and dissect them any more than we need more Epstein files: we just want the drones kept away from our private spaces. Please use them for responding only; they are great tools for responding, but if you use them for surveilling like this, you only increase mistrust and fear in a community which already doesn't trust the police.
To that end, there was a great bill introduced in Colorado legislature; see this news from yesterday:
https://denverite.com/2026/02/18/colorado-police-ai-limits-bills-flock/

02/16/2026

Mango House is hiring a PA or NP!
Do work that feels good, get paid well, have flexibility, great coworkers, and a unique work environment. Please forward this to someone who may be interested. If they aren't on Indeed, they can DM a resume/cover letter here!

Mango House

02/02/2026

Move affecting those who have been in Spain five months or more runs counter to anti-migration policies across Europe

01/28/2026

We will now deport people born on this land currently called the United States, because they cost too much to keep alive, aka they are "public charges": free health care, free food, free milk, free money, cheap housing. Free land stolen by Abraham Lincoln under the Homestead Act and handed down thru generations to accumulate wealth. Newer immigrants aren't on the dole as much as people born on this land.

Immigrants in the US consumed about 24% fewer welfare and entitlement benefits per capita than native-born Americans in 2023, new Cato Institute research finds.

Learn more from Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo: https://ow.ly/RUbc50Y4Bsi

01/24/2026

Here is your friendly neighborhood police drone last Wednesday 1/21/26, from Noon (12:13) to 10pm (add 7 hours to the timezone in the video). On Thursday the police gave a presentation titled "Drone as First Responder," and said the drone is mostly being used as a first responder (the title of the presentation), not as surveillance. Someone explain to me how much first responding is going on in this video, why it can't remain parked (at its base on the library) until responding, and if it is going to constantly hover, why it can't avoid hovering over private homes and businesses?

01/22/2026

Police Drone meeting tonight.
Aurora Police say the drones are for "reacting".
Then why are they flying around here much of the day, hovering over houses for minutes at a time?
Here is the local news quoting a police Chief saying "the systems are used reactively":
https://sentinelcolorado.com/.../aurora-police-crime.../

I took a video yesterday of the drone hovering so long, that meanwhile, in the same video frame, a Flight for Life helicopter flew by -- an ironic picture. Let us compare these two things that fly:

A. Flight for Life: It sits parked at the hospital until called, then responds. It flies over our businesses and homes and does not stop and hover, until it gets to its destination.

B. Aurora Police Drones (Flock company): It flies all day back and forth, frequently stopping and hovering over our businesses and homes, the vast majority of the time not responding to anything. It has a base at MLK library but does not sit there waiting for much. (We have 24/7 tracking now for more than a month, of its every movement, including that it took off for Christmas.)

Which one of these flying crafts do you think is being used as "reactive" (in the words of the police Chief), and which one for surveillance?

Surveillance might be fine if it hovers over public areas like roads, parks, or schools, which it does, but is not fine over private homes and businesses. The police tell us it only stops briefly to change direction, and even then keeps its camera at the horizon, but we see it, and have video of it, hovering for minutes, with camera pointed at a downward angle, at areas where there is no indication of someone having called 911.

Not sure if such meetings make a difference, but tonight you can join the local Councilwoman at 6pm at Moorhead Rec Center to talk about this topic:
https://nextdoor.com/agency-post/co/aurora/city-of-aurora/ward-i-town-meeting-january-22-450372762/

01/18/2026

I now carry my passport everywhere, even though I am not leaving the country. Many of us who do not look white do this, even if we became citizens years ago (like me) or were born here (like my kid. I carry his also). You, the reader of this post, are demographically most likely a white person, with extra time and money, who has enjoyed eating our food, or has somehow benefited from immigrants like us. But are you willing to give back now? Blow whistles? Set off fireworks? Get arrested, because you can spare a couple hours or a couple days, in order to tie up the machine a little, so that someone else may not be arrested? Take a bullet? ***Are you willing to give up any of your privilege?*** Doomscrolling doesn’t change anything more than posting “All Lives Matter” on your lawn did 5 years ago (which btw was practice for now, for all sides). Alot of the guidance out there suggests you help your colored neighbors when we go to school, work, or a medical appointment. You are in luck here! ICYMI, our main work is healthcare for colored people, not nan gyi dok. Come hang out here a while! Or in the H Mart parking lot where ICE was yesterday, or anywhere else that you have benefited from diversity, which is probably somewhere along East Colfax or Havana. Sure eat our food, but sit here longer than that, or sit in your parked car nearby taking shifts keeping watch. BYOW (whistle). And when it gets interesting, you don’t need to know which of us is a citizen - anyone who does not look white is at risk. Help them flee out the other door, or hide in locked stores or clinics here, while you find ways to delay the intruders (some helpful white people like you are purposefully not carrying passports, just to take up more time when stopped). Yes you could be more effective heading to MSP to do these things (or ORD prior to that), but if you aren’t going to do that, you can do it here, because it will get worse here. Remember when "Operation Aurora" was a promise from the Ga***rd? You can DM me if you want to know busier times of day or week to help monitor, but I probably won’t respond unless I know you already (first do no harm).

01/04/2026

Venezuelan Maria Corina Machado is the face on Mango House's 4 story East facing wall, painted 1.5 years ago by Venezuelan AJ Grimes as part of Colfax Canvas. If there is a taller portrait in Aurora, I haven't seen it. We have plenty of patients and one tenant who are Venezuelan. Here is an interview of the artist who painted this:
https://kgnu.org/most-of-us-just-want-to-go-home-aurora-muralist-creates-a-massive-portrait-of-venezuela-opposition-leader-trump-aurora-denver-apartments-venezuela-gangs-maria-corina-machado-grime-mural-colfax-canvas/