The Piercing Truth

This is right from the dictionary and seems to describe Albuquerque, Berry and Schultz. Fascism (f ash ,izem) noun An authoritarian right wing system of government and/or social organization. (in general use) extreme right wing, authoritarian, chauvinistic and/or intolerant views or practices. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one group over another, national, ethnic, especially social strata or monetarily; a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach. Compliments of one of our Eyes

Aug 8, 2013

City Leaders prefer to blow your Tax Dollars: Berry MIA, as usual

The leaders of Albuquerque seem to be living in upside-down-land. Not only in how they spend our money, but in how they address challenges on the street…

Faced with spending about $10,000 compared to more than $500,000, the Albuquerque City Council openly revealed how they could care less about citizen tax dollars. A citizen initiated ordinance which would change the “viability” date of late term abortions from 24 weeks to 20 weeks, is prepared to go to the voters. But instead doing what they have the power to do and include the measure on October’s city ballot, city councilor’s are instead desiring to have a special election for the matter. At issue are to matters:

1) Can the city council approve an election resolution

2) Can city clerk Amy Bailey certify the 12,000 or so signatures of the approximately 28,000 turned into her by September?

Costs for a special election are anticipated to run between $500,000-700,000. But why spend $10,000 when you can spend over half-million?! Instead of moving forward with the necessary resolution and offering to supplement Amy Bailey’s staff to certify the necessary signatures by hiring people, the members of Albuquerque’s city council want to bilk tax payers for the cost of the special election. While they had no problem looking the other way on a “consulting fee” of $10,000/per month for recently departed chief of police Ray Schultz, city councilors can’t seem to assign a few people for $20/per hour to help count signatures. How many community centers could stay open a few extra hours each day if the council used that money for our kids?

But this kind of upside down thinking shouldn’t surprise us. Even though the current mayor, RJ Berry is supposed to be a “businessman” (we thought that meant making and saving money not wasting it…) under his administration, APD has shrunk and not grown. At latest report there are approximately 853 sworn officers. And his approach to dealing with crime in the city is also the inverse of what needs to be done. Instead of dealing with it, he hides from it then says it doesn’t exist.
Under Berry, gang violence has increased and now there are midday shootouts where recent gang violence spilled up to 70 bullets into the streets in gun fight last Sunday afternoon (Here: http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/local/central/1-dead-1-arrested-in-benefit-shooting). This didn’t happen in some remote section of the “International District” or some destitute area of the South Valley, but in the busy intersection of Menaul NW & 4th NW. But because of officer scarcity no dayshift officers responded to the call nor swingshift officers. Only an off-duty sergeant who was headed into work but whose shift wasn’t to start for another half hour.

When asked about this mess and the lack of officers, newly pressed APD Chief Allen Banks openly stated to City Councilor Ken Sanchez that APD’s Gang Unit has not been disbanded but merely “dispersed.” (By the way, even KRQE anticipated gang violence weeks ago: http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/on_assignment/biker-gangs-moving-into-new-mexico and we at the Eye called it months ago)

Like STD’s the legacy of disgraced former Public Safety Director Darren White continues to give. Just recently the city settled a high profile case where he encouraged aggressive action on citizens back in 2010. In the fabled “4th Street Mall” case, we got to see how litigation rich targets, also known as Leah Kelly and Jennifer Jara, pushed their badge around on citizens not violating any crime. (Here: http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/central/city-settles-with-man-arrested-for-feeding-homeless.) And this is the second case in this incident that the city settled with the total tab running to about $100,000. The conduct of officer in this incident is really beyond comprehension. We’ll let you see this for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I9RhVaW72E.But hey, when Public Safety Director Darren White says the gloves are off, he means it!

This is the same Leah Kelly who would be involved in a shooting a few months later which has yet to fully litigated. Will the city settle this one also or will they take it to court and risk another $10 Million? Given that the target of the shooting was found to have not committed any crimes and Kelly has, well, an endless discipline and complaint history we expect there to be a lot of fireworks in this mess. We'd like to see the lawyers involved in this matter grill White as to what personal liability does he have Kelly's actions against her victim/target. By failing to discipline Kelly and Jara for their behavior on the 4th Street Mall did he encourage and incite such aggressive behavior? If not for White's inaction to appropriately discipline Kelly and Jara did they not feel they were untouchable and fully empowered to go on their own shooting rampage?

The point is folks, just when we thought things couldn’t get worse, well they are. Then there is the matter of some discriminatory practices involving what is known as “The Kirk” (a predominately black neighborhood) that we at the Eye have uncovered.  We’ll leave that for next week though….

 
 

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

LT from homicide do you feel that you are qualified to be putting out a bulletin on the outlaw motorcycle gangs that were involved in the shoot out? You were not on scene and I believe that Intell Unit from SID is qualified to be putting accurate I formation out.

Anonymous said...

I wanted to buy a friend dinner downtown, but no one at the Mayor's office could tell me if I needed a permit or not. They asked me to stay on the line until the SWAT team arrived at my front door. I told them, no thanks, I'll just take my money elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

Doug West now we know why you got transferred. You're units weren't doing their work. It usually takes a couple of years for weaknesses to come through and it has big time. Glad you kept those hard charging detectives in Intel isn't that right Sgt porter (acting forever).

Anonymous said...

"Destitute" area of the South Valley? Look up the meaning of the word EYE and these are the kind of judgemental words that convey cops perceptions of an area that are part of the problem with APD and the City of Albuquerque. Me thinks you are part of the problem and not the solution using these type of trigger words. Give it a break!

Anonymous said...

0913, what exactly are you saying if anything?

Phonics Major said...

des·ti·tute

/ˈdestiˌt(y)o͞ot/

Adjective

1.Without the basic necessities of life.
2.Not having.


I looked it up and it is a perfect description of Berry's head in reference to a brain.

Eg: The mayor's head is destitute of brain cells.

Anonymous said...

@0913...there's a giant shootout in the center of the city and your biggest concern is the word "destitute"??

Cupcake Men said...

Ah, now it makes sense....that scumbag who had the swingers club located right there on the mall just north of 4th/Central probably had "patrons" leaving his club in the early Sunday morning hours. And if folks were there congregating then these people would be seen. And these are the people that would really NOT want to be seen. I smell a collision in bound involving the typical parts: sex and power. Thats why White wanted the likes of Herrick and the homeless out of the area....otherwise who gives a shit about homeless people downtown on a Sunday morning when all the business are closed anyway....

Bunch of small fruit faggots White, Berry, and Perry and there henchmen....run motherfuckers run!!!

Anonymous said...

I saw on channel 13 the burglary "bait house" that is across the street from a very popular city park. That makes sense knowing that most of the burglars are drug addicts so let's put the citizens and their children at risk.

Anonymous said...

Who benefits most from not having the abortion issue on the ballots with the vote for mayor? Hmmmmm Berry, less Democrats show up to vote.

Anonymous said...

@10:44...Yes my concern with EYE is that they implied with the statement they made was it would be acceptable if the shootout would have occurred in the international district or the destitute south valley but not on 4th & Menaul. Again its about perceptions and assumptions that are made by cops that get them in the wrong frame of mind in their decision making, because of the area they are working.

Anonymous said...

Yea, that's APD for ya. Risking a catastrophy for their bullshit stats. I remember a few years back then Lt. Gonterman of the valley area command had his squad do an auto burglary tac plan at the Century Rio off of I25 during swing shift. This clown put a plastic AR15 training replica painted black to look like a real rifle into the back of a vehicle hanging out of a rifle case in plain view to entice someone to break in and steal it. Talk about reckless and setting someone up to get shot. Just imagine an off duty seeing someone running across the parking lot of a movie theater with an assault rifle on a Saturday when the place is packed full of people. This is the kind of shit that brought the DOJ here!

Anonymous said...

I don't see what you're talking about. What I read was one would expect the cops to drag there asses if the shooting were in a remote or abandoned area of town, not in populated central area. Which of course is what they did leaving it for an off duty sergeant to take.

Anonymous said...

How about letting anyone drive off in a bait car. Bad enough a guy's property got smashed up, imagine what would have been the consequences, to the city, if someone had been killed. It's obvious the current APD brass has no concerns for the safety of the people. They need to go now!!!!