I have been on a vacation from blogging for two weeks. But I return on news of a total breakdown in leadership in the City of Albuquerque. The actions by the Albuquerque Police Department on social media is akin to the resurgence of brown shirt mentality in our society. The use of APD's social media to threaten and coerce judges, social reformers, or anyone who doesn't wear blue is truly epic. I can't recall anything like it in my life long time as a resident of this city.
There is a vile sickness at APD and in the Mayor's office where apparently everyone is on a permanent vacation from practicing leadership. I have often given Mayor Berry some slack because as a former Mayor I know how difficult that job can be. But, sooner or later a Mayor has to do some things that might upset people or employees in the city. And he seems to be at sea.
Here is some advice. Fire the Chief of Police immediately. Shut down the department's vicious social media sites and exert some leadership over new sites. If not then the administration is lost.
No, I don't like criminals, having been the victim of a recent home invasion and theft of our car and other valuables in the middle of the night as we slept. I want judges to put people in jail, especially repeat offenders. I want the Governor to properly fund the courts and penal systems to punish these crooks. And I want the police academy to turn out public safety employees instead of a paramilitary force.
When the police came to our house last month a very polite and impressive officer made an interesting comment. I asked him why it was so hard to recruit new officers. He said it was Obama's fault for letting the Justice Department investigate local police departments.
This otherwise professional young cop had imbibed of the kool aid set out by APD leadership, and a lack of leadership in the Mayor's office. What a shame.
There is a vile sickness at APD and in the Mayor's office where apparently everyone is on a permanent vacation from practicing leadership. I have often given Mayor Berry some slack because as a former Mayor I know how difficult that job can be. But, sooner or later a Mayor has to do some things that might upset people or employees in the city. And he seems to be at sea.
Here is some advice. Fire the Chief of Police immediately. Shut down the department's vicious social media sites and exert some leadership over new sites. If not then the administration is lost.
No, I don't like criminals, having been the victim of a recent home invasion and theft of our car and other valuables in the middle of the night as we slept. I want judges to put people in jail, especially repeat offenders. I want the Governor to properly fund the courts and penal systems to punish these crooks. And I want the police academy to turn out public safety employees instead of a paramilitary force.
When the police came to our house last month a very polite and impressive officer made an interesting comment. I asked him why it was so hard to recruit new officers. He said it was Obama's fault for letting the Justice Department investigate local police departments.
This otherwise professional young cop had imbibed of the kool aid set out by APD leadership, and a lack of leadership in the Mayor's office. What a shame.
4 comments:
I thought the APD Facebook page was pretty innocuous until I got to the multiple posts regarding the Albertson's machete kid post. The effort that APD is going to blame the kid for the reckless driving of their responding officer is pitiful. A long time ago, a friend told me that the mark of a good driver is that they don't trust on other drivers to keep an accident from happening. That is true for both of the drivers involved in the tragic wreck that resulted in the death of a toddler. More so for the professional APD officer.
The lack of leadership from this Mayor and Chief has, I fear, left a long lasting stain on ABQ.
Celina Espinosa lied about APD officers interviewing Victoria Martens in March 2016. Celina should be fired for this. The lie was blatant and an attempt to coverup that APD never went. What does it take to hold these people accountable.?
The best police chief I met in my time as a police reporter was a guy named John Butler who headed the Texarkana, AR PD, who once told me that there was no reason for any of his officers to ever violate any traffic laws. I had asked him about high speed chases because at the time there were the beginnings of a movement in law enforcement to do away with them and for reasons that should be obvious.
Unfortunately that enlightened thinking didn't catch on and as a result many people, including cops, die every year for no good reason. A six year old Albuquerque kid is dead and you're out what, thousands of dollars because your car was wrecked during a high speed chase, for no reason except that some cops wanted to play cops and robbers.
There's dash cam video all over TV and all over YouTube of these high speed chases where the cops and the people being chased are passing vehicle after vehicle after vehicle in which are innocent people, families, and six year old kids who are minding their own business but whose lives are suddenly in danger because the cops didn't simply stop.
First of all, there's no justification for endangering anyone's life. People will jump and say that lives might be lost if the cops don't stop this or that person, but as in all these "ticking time bomb scenarios" it never is the case.
Second, cops can radio ahead for someone to put out tire spikes or do any number of things. Those people who stole your SUV weren't going anywhere. Cops have helicopters, night vision cameras and heat vision cameras now. People will argue that that kid in Albertson's might have killed someone and in their minds there probably exists the likelihood and that's a problem, too, and it's a big part of the problem we have with policing in general, but as in the vast majority of cases like this no one got a hangnail but a six year old is dead for no reason anyone can justify.
Jim, like I said three years ago. APD---- Another Person Died. Send out the puppets to spread Fake News. Damn I can't believe I quoted Agent Orange!,,
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