COMMUNITY PROFILE CREDIT: PAULA BARD CATS NOT COPS “WE ARE A COMMUNITY BY PAULA BARD PROGRAM, WE’RE MUTUAL AID. WE’RE NOT HERE TO HARASS COPS, WE’RE JUST HERE TO SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY.” Tara De La Fuente CATS NOT COPS SETS UP TENTS and hot food stations in Benedict Fountain Park three afternoons a week. Mutual aid volunteers descend on the small park with tents, tables, and an abundance of home-cooked food, drinks, and even pizzas. They feed up to 50 unhoused people in an afternoon. They know each other now; they’ve made friends. Cats Not Cops evolved organically in Denver out of last summer’s protests over the murder of George Floyd. The volunteers and Cats Not Cops Founder Tara DeLaFuente came together and bonded initially over their mutual concern with ongoing police brutality. They formed a caring, supportive community among themselves. But, witnessing the distressing crises of the unhoused out on Denver’s streets, they began focusing on food. Alan, one of the original volunteers, says he has worked all year with Cats Not Cops, feeding the unhoused and providing clothing. “We care about each other.” As to their somewhat mysterious name, Cats Not Cops? Well, it has nothing to do with cats. DeLaFuente says her daughter drew the picture they use as their logo, and a protestor came up with the name. It stuck. DeLaFuente, who also goes by Ash Marie, said, “During COVID, I started talking to people and collecting stories. Finding out what people needed. It was good food and hot food. And because of COVID, they needed social interaction and community.” At first, she reached out last year to churches and government agencies to help. But according to DeLaFuente, “Nobody was willing to help or find a place for us to be, so I just started serving on the streets, on the sidewalk.” Their mutual aid focus was formed. Volunteers gave what they could to support their community. To start, they were feeding 80–100 people, seven days a week. They were outside of St. Francis Center, just north of downtown. At the end of their first year, they dropped down CATS NOT COPS LOGO CREATED BY ASHLEY DELAFUENTE 6 DENVER VOICE August 2021
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