ABQ crime carnage nexus and a missing mayor

– Thirteen murders in 28 days!

– Keller hides while ABQ turns into Juarez,

– Why should Medina be given the permanent job of chief, when his record since 2017 is one of failure?

– Keller and Medina are at their wits end. Their plan is to keep telling you how much worse it is in other places.

Twenty-eight days into 2021 and Albuquerque has 13 murders, one APD considers justified (not sure who made this call. Was it the District Attorney? Or APD? I hope the District Attorney) and one death that is still to be determined. And where is our mayor, Tim Keller?

Never one to ignore a photo op, it seems Mayor Keller has now gone AWOL. The last time we saw Keller speak about the crime tsunami that is overwhelming Albuquerque and his political career, Keller told the citizens that it could be worse, that they could be living in Baltimore. How reassuring that, instead of confronting our crime issue head on, Keller presented a study that showed Albuquerque wasn’t as bad as other cities. Well that was two weeks ago and guess what? Albuquerque is now every bit as bad as these other cities Keller compared us too. Harold Medina says so.

What are Keller’s current comments to Albuquerque citizens about our crime surge? Is he being reassuring that it is under control? That as mayor, Keller is in command and has a plan? We don’t know because as soon as the murder rate began to climb up, Keller descended into his bunker and has not been seen nor heard from since.

Instead of seeing our elected mayor in front of the cameras, Albuquerque got interim police chief Harold Medina and his deputy chiefs. Speaking to the media on the steps of the main police station, Medina tried to reassure citizens by stating that crime is bad all over this nation because of COVID. This only reassured my belief that Keller and Medina are at their wits end. Their plan is to keep telling you how much worse it is in other places. Not much of a crime strategy, sounded more like an election focus group response.

Medina then began talking about crime nexus. A nexus is a connection, or a connecting of the dots to explain why something is happening. Medina then made the startling “nexus” that crime in Albuquerque is a result of drugs, domestic violence and youthful offenders! This was an amazing insight that only those in the deepest bowels of APD could ever come up with. Except that it isn’t new and it’s not startling.

Anyone who has studied criminal justice over the last, maybe 170 years (shout out to Sir Robert Peel), would know that from the beginning of modern policing it has been known that drugs (alcohol included) are a major contributor to crime. Domestic violence has always been known as a big crime problem. Also, most of our offenders are young, from 13 to 30. I don’t know who Medina was directing his “nexus” BS toward, but anyone who knows anything about crime and policing knows that Medina’s “nexus” was just telling everyone what we have known for decades. I can only surmise that Medina was simply wanting to appear smart and informed while he promotes himself for the permanent chief of police job.

Remember this, Medina has been in a command position at APD during these years when crime has ridden roughshod over this city. Medina needs to answer why APD under his stewardship (first chief deputy since 2017) has continued to fall apart and crime continues to go up and up and up.

Medina and his chiefs then explained to the citizens that they just figured out that a lot of crime is happening in the Southeast Heights, Southwest Heights and at motels. WOW! These guys are brilliant. Not.

Any person who has ever done police work knows motels are magnets for crime. They always have been. If you have lived in Albuquerque for any amount of time since, forever, you know that the SE and SW parts of town have most of the crime problems.

Medina and his chiefs admitted that the current homicide clearance rate is about 17 percent. That means out of 13 murders they have made arrests in only 2 cases. After the Gisele Estrada false arrest, I hope to hell that these arrests are based on solid evidence. Medina spoke about training detectives and bringing more of them into the homicide unit. What he didn’t explain is why, since he came back as first deputy chief in 2017, this wasn’t addressed then? Why weren’t the chiefs at APD fixing these blatant issues when they were occurring years ago? Why should Medina be given the permanent job of chief, when his record since 2017 is one of failure?

There was also talk about the new shooting technology, the real time crime center, having uniform officers write more tickets, stop more cars and the need for the community to understand that the police can’t do it alone. That crime is a community problem.

Well, if it’s a community problem then why do we need a police department? This is the same song and dance I have heard for years from failed police chiefs. They tell the citizens it’s not their fault that crime is going up and clearance rates are going down. They blame it on the economy, drugs, bad schools, lack of funding and “the system.” Medina and his pals hit everyone of these to divert blame from their own failures.

Let me toss out some ideas that might help APD get a hold of this current crime problem. First, stop finger pointing and own it. The police are there to impact crime and when they don’t they are failing. Reducing crime is the top priority for a police chief. When crime goes up, it’s on them because you know as well as I do that when crime goes down, they will take the credit. That ball rolls both ways, Medina and his chiefs would do well to figure this out and stop the song-and-dance show.

Medina and Keller complained about manpower, but they didn’t tell you about the large number of officers who are only there to enforce the DOJ mandates and watch other officers. After over six years it’s time to send Dr. Ginger on his way and ask the federal judge to release APD from the consent decree. If we don’t get those officers back to crime fighting, Albuquerque will continue to fall deeper into a city run by drug cartels with no serious law and order to be found. Is that what the DOJ wants? Is this what Mayor Keller wants? Is this what Albuquerque citizens want? Albuquerque is turning into Juarez, just look at our murder rate.

Medina and Keller must ask Sheriff Gonzalez, Governor Grisham and the DEA for help in stemming the large amounts of illegal drugs flowing into Albuquerque. My recommendation is to use BCSO and NMSP to inspect vehicles coming into Albuquerque from the west side (I-40) and the south side (I-25). Use the DEA to inspect train and plane cargo coming into Albuquerque. Albuquerque has a serious crime problem that is being driven by a serious illegal drug problem. Forward thinking leaders should act outside the box and with decisiveness to stem the illegal drugs coming into and wrecking our town. Do it for one year and let’s see if crime isn’t reduced. Everything else this current group is doing is simply reacting to the mayhem, instead we should be proactive and take the fight to the criminals. Stop the flow of drugs and you stop the rising crime.

Listening to Medina and his deputy chiefs speak I began to feel great despair that they have no clue what they are doing. Then I realized they were only mimicking their boss, Mayor Keller, because he has absolutely no clue what to do with APD and the crime issue.