The House of Urine Rumor Is All Wet

Last month, councilman Doug Linkhart told reporters that the Denver Fire Department knew certain demonstrators were collecting liquid human waste to douse police with during the Democratic National Convention at what he referred to as a "house full of urine." This last phrase couldn't help making a splash, with even the New York Post leaking information about it. But as Jared Jacang Maher documents in the August 7 Westword, Linkhart's assertion is based on information that doesn't pass the smell test.

Westword quotes Linkhart's source, a DFD union representative who says the story got rolling after he shared an anecdote with the councilman -- one sparked by an incident that took place way back in May, when the rep and other department personnel gathered near a Park Hill station following a meeting.

"This car pulls up and there’s some kids in there who needed directions to the highway to get back to Boulder," says the rep, who describes the three individuals in the vehicle as looking like possible activists. One of the trio mentioned that they'd been at a nearby DNC protest-planning session, where someone had asked them to urinate in a bucket that could be used to drench cops at the convention. According to the rep, the comment was so offhand that " we didn’t think anything about it at the time. We didn’t get the license plate or anything, and we never asked where the house was."

Even if these three were telling the truth, we're talking about a single container of urine that's three months old -- if it hasn't been flushed by now. Sounds like Linkhart's urine-house story is far less than half full -- and the Denver Doo-Doo Accord aims to keep it that way. Read about this important initiative here. -- Michael Roberts