“Advocates for the Homeless” Regan Benson and Elizabeth “Aurora Transparency” Cannellis wore homemade sandwich board signs adorned with swastikas proclaiming that they were the “Englestasi Press” as they entered the Englewood City Council chambers Monday night.
The pair were accompanied by a number of homeless people from the Denver area and went live after setting up multiple cameras in the designated “press” area within the chambers.
After a bit of trouble with the WiFi connection, initially blamed by Benson as a conspiracy by the city council to limit the “press” from covering their activities. Benson set up her computer with her back to the council, showing her list of “brown shirts” (essentially a list of names of city council members and administrators) as displayed on the sign she was wearing on her back.
Benson and company were the primary speakers during the public speaking portion of the event. The three homeless people from Denver made very serious statements with real concerns about homeless in the Denver and Englewood areas. Cannellis and Benson? Not so much.
Up first, Benson, still adorned in her swastika covered sandwich boards, attacked the recent decision by City Manager Shawn Lewis to ban recording from the Englewood Civic Center and other Englewood properties.
She promised coming federal civil rights lawsuits briefly touched on homeless residents in the area as she said that Englewood had “no plans” for a severe weather alert for later that night. Instead of spending her time addressing her topics, she again stood at the podium wasting the rest of her time clapping for herself (with Cannellis briefly joining in).
Cannellis stood at the podium, again adorned in sandwich boards covered in swastikas and messages targeting the city council, where she read the lyrics to the song “War Pigs” by Black Sabbith. Getting no reaction, she would then break into a white girl freestyle rap version of “Fuck the Police” by NWA before exiting the podium.
As they were in the role of “Englestasi Press,” Benson and company could not storm out of the meeting immediately following their remarks as they normally do. Instead, the group stayed for the entire 4+ hour meeting, only ending the livestream after Mayor Othoniel Sierra gaveled the meeting to a close.
Other than Benson’s multiple federal lawsuit threats, there were no major events at the other than Benson and Cannellis’ outfits. No reaction was made to the outfits by the city council and it is unclear what statement Benson was attempting by again using Nazi related symbols to attack those she disagrees with.
Benson is currently fighting a 120-day exclusion notice she received after disrupting the city council meetings on multiple occasions.
