I am actually starting to feel sorry for APD's newly minted police chief. This guy took a job from a clueless Mayor Berry who thought the buddy system in the GOP would save the department. Chief Eden was thrown into a wolf's pit that would require some intellectual prowess to survive. But he was thrown in unarmed.
His lack of experience and inability to recognize a chaotic culture is borne out in his hapless news conference appearances. Is it just me, or does he seem totally unprepared and lost when confronted with real questions from the few good journalists we have left?
He probably isn't up to the job of fixing things at APD. Given the latest shooting in which lapel cameras allegedly didn't work, why would he send the camera back to the Tazer people to have a look at? These are the same people that former Chief Shultz went to work for after signing a $2 million dollar contract for them to supply such cameras to APD. Is it in Shultz's interest to have damning video recovered from the camera that might further degrade his reputation as having led this troubled department?
This decision making process is so flawed one can only wonder if it can get any worse. We will go down in history as the laughing stock of municipal governments. And that isn't funny.
His lack of experience and inability to recognize a chaotic culture is borne out in his hapless news conference appearances. Is it just me, or does he seem totally unprepared and lost when confronted with real questions from the few good journalists we have left?
He probably isn't up to the job of fixing things at APD. Given the latest shooting in which lapel cameras allegedly didn't work, why would he send the camera back to the Tazer people to have a look at? These are the same people that former Chief Shultz went to work for after signing a $2 million dollar contract for them to supply such cameras to APD. Is it in Shultz's interest to have damning video recovered from the camera that might further degrade his reputation as having led this troubled department?
This decision making process is so flawed one can only wonder if it can get any worse. We will go down in history as the laughing stock of municipal governments. And that isn't funny.
7 comments:
Here’s the solution to this crisis. C=Co(SQ)>R(C). The formula reads: Change happens when the cost of the status quo is greater than the risk of change. It is obvious to the wise man that Berry and Eden are the status quo as evidenced by yesterday's press conference on yet another killing. BERRY AND EDEN NEED TO GO as the risk of change is far less than the status quo. The formula is not my idea, it's Alan Webber's. It also what we need for the crisis in NM. His video will explain his vision of leadership, something which is sorely lacking in Albuquerque and NM. http://www.alanfornm.com/ I don't know him personally. I just googled him and found his vision refreshing.
Jim, my growing distrust in the APD certainly hasn't dissipated with Eden on board. I feel that this latest killing by the APD, especially absent a video cam recording, may have been done upon an unarmed person that the police planted a gun after the killing - I'd like to see the fingerprint evidence from that gun and the other officers' video cam recordings - will that even be available?
Do not feel sorry for Eden, but cry for APP and our City. Eden has always been a political hack and a golden boy for the GOP getting numerous State and Federal appointed jobs that did not require any brain power or management skills of first responders. (He was US Marshal and Susana Martine's Director of Public Safety.)
The original advertisement for the Chief's job required 10 years of management experience of a municipal police agency and Eden has NONE. What you have in Eden is on the job training going on with his press conferences. It was Rob Perry and Darren White that recruited Eden for the job. Susana wanted to get rid of Eden to make way for Greg Foratte to become her Public Safety Director.
Eden is making $25,000 more than Schultz and Eden does whatever Rob Perry tells him. Eden is in it for the money to get his high three to retire. And our fool of a Mayor gave Perry a $35,000 raise. Feel sorry for taxpayers.
Sending the lapel camera back to Tazer should have never happened and it is likely they will find nothing or that the lapel camera was never turned on. The problem created by sending it back to Tazer is that the "Chain of Custody" has been jeopardized that may affect admissibility in a courtroom. APD supposedly has one of the best forensic labs in the county and should have the equipment to down load what was on that lapel camera.
The most recent tragic shooting of a 19 year girl old only shows things are only going to get worse before they get better.
http://krqe.com/2014/04/23/emails-put-apd-taser-relationship-in-question/
TAser Schultz Pay to Play. Will indictments follow.
"I don't know" seems to be the them at City Hall and APD. If that's the case, then put somebody in that does know what is going on, what needs to be done, and who can get it done. Enough of this failure at all levels.
About the question of police planting guns on a suspect - Planting evidence is something that probably doesn't occur to most people but it's a longstanding police tradition. It's one of the reasons they send the rookie out with the seasoned veteran, right? To teach them the trucks of the trade. Two cops in Los Angeles were just caught at it.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2014/04/24/Two-former-Los-Angeles-deputies-accused-of-planting-guns-to-justify-marijuana-arrests/5851398343155/
It's yet another thing that flies in the face of the notion that most cops are good cops. If that's true, why aren't they exposing things like this?
As a meme I saw on Facebook yesterday pointed out; "If there were good cops they would arrest bad cops."
In the real world it may be a little more complicated. A cop, after all, is just a worker, worried about keeping their job, about getting along and going along, getting ahead, like everyone else. There must be pressure from the outside, from government itself (the mayor, council etc.,) and from society at large. We are in the state we're in because the pressure has been the other way for a long time.
But the public is ignorant of much of what goes on, and believes the cliches and the appeals to sentiment. There are a few groups that gather information about police misconduct and are trying to educate the public.
https://www.facebook.com/albuquerque.copwatch
https://www.facebook.com/policecomplaints
https://www.facebook.com/photographyisnotacrime
The last one is fighting to make sure it's still possible to record the police. Police have been burned by being recorded, and often now the first thing they do when something happens is confiscate peoples' cell phones. A couple of Republican state legislatures have even passed laws against recording the police, which are unconstitutional on their face of course but are in effect as of now.
I haven't seen anything about this on TV or in the Journal, only in the alternative press, but this web site posts videos of police demanding peoples' cell phones, demanding that they stop recording them or they'll be arrested, arresting people, beating people who won't stop recording them, etc.
Bubba, this is good information. Thanks for sharing. The only defense we have against APD and our city and state government at this point are:
WORDS, CAMERA, ACTION
It is apparent to me based on Berry’s TV time yesterday that he is not going to change his ways unless he is forced to do it. We’ll see next week if the DOJ will do what is necessary to protect the citizens. Based on Berry’s comments about the camera lapels, he’s fully aware that it will prevent him from meeting his real objective, which has been evident for the last few years and especially clear based on what has occurred subsequent to the Boyd killing.
If we don’t demand that the cameras are on at all times, we will lose the battle and this war. They know it, which is why he hasn’t already put it in place. You can see what he said here:
http://www.koat.com/news/mayor-speaks-on-mary-hawkes-shooting-doj-latest/25643850
BERRY NEEDS TO GO AND WE NEED A POLICE CHIEF FROM OUTSIDE OF NEW MEXICO WHO HAS INTEGRITY.
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