Do the math. A $60 drug sting operation turns into a $6.5 million dollar settlement from the city after the police shot up their own officer during the operation. Bernie Madoff would be proud. And now by some estimates the APD, under the leadership of Mayor Berry and so called Chief Gordon Eden, has now paid out some $40 million in wrongful conduct settlements due to poor leadership at the highest levels at City Hall. At least the Keystone cops were funny!
It won't be long until we are looking at city government having budget problems because of this inability to fix things.
It is actually worse than the situation at Bernalillo County Government which is facing a $19 million shortfall, even as Commissioner Art de la Cruz takes a $20k trip to France on tax payer money. My bet is that this will be fixed faster than the cataclysmic hemorrhaging of dollars at the City.
It won't be long until we are looking at city government having budget problems because of this inability to fix things.
It is actually worse than the situation at Bernalillo County Government which is facing a $19 million shortfall, even as Commissioner Art de la Cruz takes a $20k trip to France on tax payer money. My bet is that this will be fixed faster than the cataclysmic hemorrhaging of dollars at the City.
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Chief Eden’s comment that the community and APD “are deeply affected by this tragedy” goes down as one of the biggest understatements of the decade coming one day after the City agrees to pay $6.5 million dollars to Police Officer Jacob Grant for being shot 9 times by his APD supervisor in a botched undercover $60 drug bust . At least Chief Eden did not pronounce the shooting “justified” in a news conference after it happened the way he did in the shooting of homeless camper James Boyd that resulted in a $5 million dollar settlement paid to the Boyd family . Mayor Berry can no longer blame the previous administration for the destruction of APD since there have been 40 police officer involved shootings and now over $40 million, and climbing, paid for police misconduct cases all under his watch and his management team. It is the continued “culture of aggression” and gross mismanagement and policies of APD that led to this tragic shooting. The Federal Monitor’s March 1, 2016 report revealed that the current APD management is incapable of implementing the Department of Justice reforms. Political appointee Chief Gordon Eden, who has no previous experience managing a municipal police department, is clearly way over his head and simply does not know what he is doing. Chief Eden needs to be replaced, as does the Assistant Chief, all the Deputy Chiefs, Commanders and Lieutenants with a totally new command staff brought in to make major changes in management and policies and to implement the DOJ reforms and who will actually cooperate with the Federal Court Appointed Monitor. The Mayor and City Council need to wise up and recognize APD's problems are not going away with the current APD command staff and management. This City cannot wait in hopes for a new Mayor and a new administration. The City Council needs to demand action now and hold the Mayor and APD management accountable for this tragic incident by designating a civilian police commissioner to take over APD, clean house, and implement the Department of Justice reforms.
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