Denver city hall security guards turned away a man wearing a pro-reparations button. The city later said the guards will be re-trained.

Denverite: Jesse Parris, a staple activist at Denver City Council meetings, was blocked from entering the Denver City and County Building on Monday, at least while he possessed a pin reading “Black Reparations Now. America Must Atone.”

“I felt very irritated. This is fascism. This is what fascism looks like,” Parris said. “For a button? Does that mean the City Council’s buttons with their names on them are okay? Police emblems? All that stuff should be banned if that’s the case.”

Buttons are, of course, allowed at the City and County Building. But in turning Parris away, he said the security guards, who work for contractors HSS, showed him a July order from four Denver judges that bans “displaying signs or materials” — but only in courtrooms and other areas belonging to the judicial branch, not in the City and County Building generally.

The guards also showed Parris a judicial order from August that restricts recording in parts of public buildings. Sheriff deputies wrongly enforced that order against activists in the city hall hallway last month.

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