There’s an account on X (and a matching one on Instagram) called Do Better Denver. The gist of the account is that people submit videos of homeless camps, drug addicts, street fights, violent crime, etc. The point is to highlight the negative aspects of city life in Denver and to pressure the city to be more aggressive about responding to those problems. Here’s a sample of some recent posts:
🚨 @RideRTD, we need to talk. 🚌 Denver deserves safe, reliable public transit, but riders are dodging needles and open drug use on buses and trains. Safety concerns are pushing people away—ridership is down, and it’s no wonder why. We need more security, better enforcement, and… pic.twitter.com/eCFmzgzjK2
— Do Better Denver (@dobetterdnvr) July 20, 2025
What a pathetic response by @ssprd – Despite their statement on my post a few days ago, overnight camping is still happening in South Suburban parks. We urge the City of Littleton and Littleton Police Department to enforce the prohibition more effectively. #dobetter #doyourjobs pic.twitter.com/mNutGXCMEP
— Do Better Denver (@dobetterdnvr) July 21, 2025
🔥 Two fires in a little over 24 hours at an ‘abandoned’ building used by homeless squatters in Lakewood. First reported 7/21 at 4:45 AM, then again today, 7/22. Shoutout to @WestMetroFire for quick action extinguishing the latest blaze! @LakewoodPDCO & @LakewoodCOgov https://t.co/xoV1undZd9 pic.twitter.com/s1aZvm1Ns6
— Do Better Denver (@dobetterdnvr) July 22, 2025
Hey @DenverPolice maybe you could clear this bando of squatters so it doesn’t burn down https://t.co/lcWE9zRv17
— Do Better Denver (@dobetterdnvr) July 24, 2025
I could go on but you get the idea. Do Better Denver started sometime in 2023 and by last year it already had 100,000 followers on Instagram and another 20,000 on X. It was becoming pretty well known in the city, to the point that the city itself was starting to take notice.
Last month the account apparently got a tip that the site might be under investigation by the police. Police denied it but an open records request responded to last week suggested maybe something had been going on.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
I, @DoBetterDNVR, Demand Accountability from Denver Mayor’s Office Over Alleged Coercion of Denver Police to Investigate My Protected Speech
Denver, CO – July 25, 2025 – I am @DoBetterDNVR, an anonymous voice advocating for Denver, and I’m blowing the… pic.twitter.com/v3vpwAzXgs
— Do Better Denver (@dobetterdnvr) July 25, 2025
And that brings us to yesterday when the Denver Post published a story outing three of the people behind the account.
A mother in Arizona, a former Colorado Coalition for the Homeless employee who lives in New Mexico and a local public school teacher are among the people involved with DoBetterDNVR, a controversial social media account that stokes outrage online by featuring images of homeless people, public drug use and crime in Denver…
There’s a video of a man with his pants around his knees, twerking in his underwear at a bus stop. People who appear to be homeless sitting by a fire. Needles. Blood on the pavement. Fistfights. Surveillance footage with the sound of gunshots. A man holding a cardboard sign. A rat running down the street. People who appear to be high, or unconscious, or overdosing.
The Post investigated the people behind the account because of its growing influence and the misinformation it spreads. While the account claims to be a news provider, its anonymity, lack of transparency and absence of public ethical standards undermine its credibility, said Kelly McBride, chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit that aims to bolster ethical journalism.
The Post story goes on to list their names and some information about them. None of the people outed by the Post are running the account it seems. The account’s actual admin refused to talk to them. That person claims to have hundreds of people submitting videos to the account.
The people who did get outed asked the paper leave them anonymous to prevent them being harassed. The Post refused. So it this a case of doxing the right-leaning troublemakers who are making the city look bad? It looks that way to me but The Post argues that it’s not doxing because the account has made everyone involved into semi-public figures.
Ferrucci, the journalism professor, dismissed both criticisms. DoBetterDNVR’s actions have turned the people behind it into partial public figures, he said, and receiving threats is an expected part of being a journalist. (He once received a dead bird in the mail, he said.)
“You are putting yourself out there,” he said. “This is what journalists do every day.”
These people aren’t journalists in the professional sense. None of them are making a living from this, certainly not the ones the paper named. Random people contributing to an anonymous account run by someone else probably aren’t public figures in a legal sense, contrary to what the journalism professor says.
This looks to me like an attempt by the Denver Post to do to Do Better Denver what the Washington Post did to Libs of Tik Tok. In that case at least Taylor Lorenz outed the actual person behind the account, not a bunch of sub-contributors. The best part of the entire story is the author’s interview with the mother of a drug addict who appeared in a video posted by the account.
“Smoking fetty of (sic) foil,” DoBetterDNVR wrote on the October 2023 video, suggesting the woman in the tent was using fentanyl. “I hear mutual aid groups are giving away foil to the homeless. Can anyone else confirm? This is going way beyond harm reduction — this is ENABLING. #methcampmike”
For Rae Martinez, who asked to be identified by her maiden name to protect her privacy, the video — which showed her 28-year-old daughter — shattered her heart.
“I was feeling like I failed as a parent. I felt like (I was) just waiting for the day I was going to get a call or a visit that she was no longer with us,” she said. “I felt hurt, sad, destroyed, heartbroken.”…
“It’s hurtful when you see your own children, your own family members on there,” Martinez said. But she also thinks DoBetterDNVR shows a truth that is too easily ignored.
“I’m not mad at the account,” Martinez said. “I’m really not. I think that’s what needed to be done. We all need to see the reality.”
That’s what Do Better Denver is trying to do. It’s clearly been pretty successful which is why the city and the local left-leaning newspaper are now looking to make them pay a price for it. Hopefully this is a case where the Streisand Effect is at work and the pushback only succeeds in bringing more attention and viewers to Do Better Denver’s content.
