Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Remember

Remember when I was on a rant about a criminal suspect found dead in a metal container after the guy allegedly shot a police dog?   I talked about this for months because all of the attention was on the police dog, and not the death of a man surrounded by officers in a large metal storage container.  They said he shot himself but the autopsy report said there were no powder burns on his clothing.  No one cared because of the canine.

Well, I got nowhere getting anyone interested in this.  Now Channel 13 News has done us all a favor.  They have uncovered another outrageous incident that resulted from flawed APD and State Police procedures and leadership.  They actually mauled a man's body for hours after his death.  It is sickening and it is all on a video that APD said didn't exist.  And of course the Mayor and APD Chief are refusing to deal with this in front of the media.

The level of corruption in withholding information by city officials from the news media and other governmental entities  has reached a point where we seem to be living in the age of newspeak that George Orwell visualized in his novel 1984.  Black is white, yes is no, trust only us and not yourselves.

Perhaps the new City Attorney, Jessica Hernandez,  should turn much of her attention to this chaos.  She could be a real heroine if she did so.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a national story. Berry / Eden are a disgrace. Since when is shooting bean bag rounds point blank at the eyes of s suspect legal? Since when is stomping on his groin legal?

Where is the District Attorney? Where is the Attorney General? Where is the United States Attorney? Why are we spending millions for APD reforms when this is allowed to occur with no investigation?

Anonymous said...

I remember you trying to interest people in the dumpster case.

The previous commenter asks where are the DA, AG, US Attorney, and you have called out the mayor repeatedly on this and now call on the city attorney to step up. I'd of all public officials, the council members, the leadership of the Democratic Party, legislators, where are you?

We can say there's no leadership, but another way to look at it is, what is there to lead? Is there some groundswell out there waiting for expression? I check the comments at the journal and the TV stations once in awhile to see what people are talking about, what ideas are floating around. A year or two ago when Abq police killings began to be a concept, there were a lot of defenders of the cops commenting. They have largely gone silent. People occasionally make sentimental pleas to look at things from the angle of the honest cop and so forth but the violence behind the comments is largely gone, the vicarious glorying in the deaths, the veiled calls for more cop shootings, the blaming the victims and so forth.

But in their absence there is a vacuum. There are no calls to action, or no suggesting that government can solve the problem. This forum you maintain represents a small corner of society where ideas are still floating around. In the general populace I don't think they are. Why so?

You can step back from the problem so far that the things you suggest have no bearing on it, but I urge people to keep the bigger picture in mind. What brought us to this point? How to steer the larger society to where it needs to be, which I think would encourage people inclined to leadership to lead, to envision a result and a means. But the leaders we have must be pressured to use the podium they've been given to help bring this about, too.


Anonymous said...

this will be a real test for the new city attorney. hope she has some courage and won't let her work for Governor Martinez impinge on her responsibility to the citizens of Albuquerque. We will see if she is really independent.