What's more dangerous, a gang member or an activist?

Julian Rubinstein and Terrance Roberts are an unlikely pair. Both grew up in Denver, but Rubinstein is a journalist and Roberts is an ex-gang-member-turned-activist who is now running for mayor. The two met after Roberts, at his own peace rally in Denver's Holly Square, shot active gang member Hasan Jones.

Rubinstein was living in New York at the time. The shooting made national news and piqued his interest. He flew home to meet with Terrance Roberts. What followed was a 7-year investigation into what culminated in Holly Square that day. Rubinstein, with Roberts' help, made sure the real story of The Holly was told.

What was a book first, "The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood," is now a documentary thanks to the footage collected during Rubinstein's investigation. "The Holly," the film, was released last Friday.

I met with Roberts and Rubinstein shortly after the book was released two years ago. It was a Zoom interview with an audience. But before the live event started, Rubinstein told me he had almost missed our interview because he had to get out of Denver. His life was in danger. (Our full conversation is available on YouTube.)

The story Rubinstein had unearthed in Denver put a lot on the line. "I didn't expect to find myself in the middle of a story of corruption and collusion involving law enforcement, gang members, developers, City Hall and even the local media," Rubinstein wrote recently via email. "I became aware that there was a perspective not represented in the widespread media coverage."

The Holly serves as a case study of what has happened and is happening in cities across the country. "This story illustrates not only how power operates in Denver," Rubinstein says, "but in America today."

Prior to shooting Jones, Terrance Roberts was out of jail and on a mission to do better by his neighborhood. He had made great strides in interrupting the recruitment of new gang members. However, he told me via email, "When I left a life of gang violence and incarceration behind, I did not in my wildest dreams think I could be in just as much danger as a community organizer."

Roberts had made inroads getting his community's voice heard in the midst of the gentrification of the neighborhood. For a time, gang violence had significantly declined thanks to his "Camo Movement" and his Prodigal Sons Initiative. In gang territory, wearing the wrong color clothing can put you in grave danger. Thanks to Roberts, camouflage became the color code of peace and neutrality in Northeast Park Hill.

But the more Roberts made progress, he says, "a system within the system was developed to slander, undermine and eventually literally attack me." Which is how he ended up having to shoot Jones. "This story illustrates why so many people in communities like this are afraid to speak up," Roberts says.

It's not easy to stand up and speak out. At one point in the film Roberts says, "If I was white? I'd be Captain America. But since I'm Terrance from Northeast Denver, I'm an angry activist." His frustration is palpable.

In the end, both Roberts and Rubinstein put their lives on the line to expose the truth and they continue to do so to this day. But Rubenstein says, "I'm honored to have had the chance to tell this important story in a way that centers voices from the community and highlights the complexity of the challenges faced by the activists working in them."

Reading and watching "The Holly" provide a front-row seat to the flawed and unethical law enforcement systems that desperately need to be reformed. Though shown through the lens of Northeast Denver, it could be any city in America. If you care about police reform, put it on your to-watch list.

© Creators, 2023