In the early morning of July 3, 2005 a 22-year-old African American University of Colorado student was walking home with a friend when a man yelled a racial epithet at him, then got out of his vehicle and punched the young man twice in the face, breaking his jaw.

The public outcry following this event caused the city council to consider and adopt several measures, two of which will be mentioned here. The city had an Anti-bias Ordinance, which was strengthened through the passage of enhanced sentencing.

This case study was submitted to the Alliance for Innovation for considation at the 2010 Transforming Local Government conference.