By Dan Klein
Another week has gone by in Albuquerque, and we can add three more victims to the list of homicides in Albuquerque.
This week we had homicides reported on Arroyo Crest NW (APD says neighbors detained a man breaking into a home and that man subsequently died), another on Hiawatha NE, and the third when the FBI shot and killed a man they were trying to arrest.
The number of homicides in Albuquerque now stands at 81.
These numbers include all homicides as reported by the Albuquerque Journal Homicide map, two homicides that the NMSP are investigating (but occurred in the city limits), all justified homicides, and the two children killed by their mothers in a drunk driving accident.
Oddly, we are hearing no demands from the local media (KOAT, KOB, KRQE and the Albuquerque Journal) for the body videos or the agent’s name from the FBI shooting. Of course, we all know the FBI, or should I say, Department of Justice law enforcement officers are special and therefore the DOJ doesn’t require their own to wear cameras. I also can’t remember when the FBI quickly identified one of their own who did a shooting and provided that agent’s personnel history. All the things that the civil division of the DOJ demands from local law enforcement they are silent on when it comes to their own. The DOJ are a bunch of hypocrites. I wish Shaun Willoughby would tell Judge Browning that at the next CASA hearing.
As for spin, well it’s an election year and Mayor Tim Keller came out with a press conference will all the usual suspects standing behind him like clowns on display. Keller’s latest swing at crime is to blame the entire criminal justice system for this crime tsunami. He promises that representatives from the criminal justice system will review what each of them can do better. Sure, they will Tim.
Don’t look for anything more substantive from Keller’s press conference. This is just so Keller can say he is doing something more than hanging out on park benches, in disguise, while he directs the soap opera mess that he has created at APD. This initiative will, like so many other Keller initiatives on crime, fade to nothing as soon as the election is over. It’s what we have become used to here in Albuquerque. Keller holds a press conference announcing a new crime plan (one that was already in place years ago) and then months later the lame media (and the rest of us) forget about. It’s how we roll in Albuquerque.
Speaking of APD soap opera, retired APD Chief Mike Geier is now filing a whistle blower lawsuit against the city. The drama that Keller has created at APD lives on. I wish Geier and APD Chief Harold Medina would just agree to a Texas death match on Civic Plaza to put everyone in Albuquerque out of their misery with their drama. Maybe they can be contestants for Tim Keller’s love on the next Bachelorette.