When Courtney and Nicole Mallery were thinking about buying a ranch on the Eastern Plains, other Black people in Denver told them to “be careful out there.” But it was the Mallerys’ dream to live off the land, so they bought some land east of Colorado Springs anyway. A simple dispute over their property line quickly escalated with slaughtered livestock, allegations of a racist conspiracy involving the local sheriff, felony charges for the Mallerys, and nearly $200,000 in donations to a GoFundMe supporting their cause. Producer Paul Karolyi sits down with the president of the Rocky Mountain NAACP, Portia Prescott, to talk through the case, the changing shape of racism in rural Colorado, and the legislation she thinks would have ended this whole thing before it started.

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Department has disputed the allegations of racism at length. For more, 9News covered their press conference earlier this week. 

Paul mentioned the rally planned for this Friday at the Capitol in solidarity with the Mallerys and in support of the CAREN Act. It’s set to begin at 9 a.m.

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