If you want to know part of what's wrong with the Albuquerque Police
Department, well, just look at this picture. It's the office of an APD supervisor in the Northeast Heights substation at Wyoming and Osuna.
It's a city office decorated with political stuff, and that's a no-no, and against city rules and regs. You can't play politics on public property—that means taxpayers' property. You just can't do politics on public property.
So here's what this photo says is wrong with APD:
1. Nobody apparently told the supervisor to take the stuff down. Why? Does no one at APD know city rules and regs? Doesn't the guy who put this stuff up know the regs? If he doesn't, that's crazy and unacceptable. If he does, maybe he decided that he's above the rules. That's even sicker. Were the supervisor's supervisors afraid to tell him to remove the stuff? If so, it means that APD is leaderless, and that's not good. In fact, it's dangerous.
2. Is APD hiring people who are at heart teenage girls? Seriously, this looks like some 13-year-old girl's room, a girl who is infatuated with someone and who plasters her walls with pictures of the object of her teenage infatuation. Is the supervisor writing secret love letters to Trump in his secret diary? If so, well, we shouldn't have to explain that one.
Look, it might not seem like a big deal that a city—public—office is plastered with what are basically political ads and endorsements, but it is because it's against the rules. And those rules are there for a reason: government cannot be in the business of politics and political endorsements. Do you want government employees ordering you who to vote for?
And, this isn't about Trump. It would be wrong if there were Biden or Obama posters covering the walls.
We don't know how long this office has been so decorated, and we suspect that someone at APD might finally have gotten some backbone and told the supervisor to remove the stuff. Let's hope so.
(Editor's note: Special thanks to Charles Arasim.)