After the DIY venue Rhinoceropolis closed this month, many people wondered why Denver Fire had come to a place where they already knew people were living.
Denver Fire, for its part, said the previous occupancy slipped through the cracks and that they were responding to "reports of unsafe building conditions."
It's not known who registered those reports, but there is one group of people who have made it their mission to report as many DIY venues as possible: the self-professed politically incorrect 4chan users.
In threads peppered with Pepe the Frog images and allusions to Hitler's SS, anonymous users of the 4chan forum called on people to "report violations and keep unwitting leftists from getting themselves killed."
Other threads refer to the fire at Oakland's Ghost Ship as an opportunity to "crush the radical left."
"MAGA my brothers and happy hunting!" wrote one user.
One such thread from Dec. 16 includes notes on which DIY venues have been closed and which ones have been reported, presumably to local authorities.
Among those listed as reported are Denver's Seventh Circle Music Collective and Colorado Springs' Flux Capacitor. Flux Capacitor has since been closed due to code violations.
Denver Fire Department spokesperson Melissa Taylor said that the agency treats all reports of fire code violations as credible until proven otherwise.
"There is no vetting process that happens," Taylor said. "We're not in the business of vetting them for 'did they stem from something political?'"
We have reached out to Seventh Circle Music Collective and hope to update this post with their comment.
