An Open Letter From; We The People

The Eye recently received this open letter that was sent to Mayor Berry. This letter is right on point and spells out some grave errors. We hope when the Mayor read this letter he will realize; it is not just the Eye complaining, this is your voting block.

Dear Mayor Berry,

During your tenure as mayor I have supported some of your decisions when it came to public safety, especially that of accepting Darren Whites resignation. When you chose to veto the city councils effort at calling for a DOJ investigation, (R-11-247), citing in part the P.E.R.F. investigation and that of another city employee, or employees, I made an effort to seek-out and read the report. I immediately saw it as a "schmoozing" report, but when I learned that Chief Schultz in fact is a member of P.E.R.F. I became enraged at the thought that you had to have known about his direct involvement, lest he intentionally kept it from you, as has been his practice regarding myriad issues where the public is concerned. I will not resort to name-calling but his arrogance is legendary.

I then set-out to check a few things for myself and I must say first of all that the P.E.R.F. report, in my opinion, is a waste of money, or as someone recently said, "APD got exactly what they paid for." Actually, "We-the-people" paid for it, or at least its conclusion. As one who helped pay for the investigation and report, I would like a copy of all communications between all investigators and P.E.R.F. personnel and the City of Albuquerque, Albuquerque Police Department, and anyone else who was involved. I can't believe you would be satisfied with a report that doesn't even have a table of contents or an index! Not to mention the fact that investigative methodology isn't addressed, nor who actually conducted these investigations. If your office can-not provide what's requested, please pass this along to the appropriate department.

I maintain the majority of Albuquerque Police Department officer's are of good standing and truly want to do a good job, but they're being hindered by department hierarchy, who're making bad decisions. I am left to wonder what in the hell motivated Chief Schultz, et al, to do a dog-and-pony-show on broadcast television regarding the last shooting incident on the westside, where I live. Was this something you approved? As a citizen I am livid over this, but were I a police officer, I would be requesting chain-of-command to find out why the chief would deliberately explain, nay, demonstrate to "the bad-guys" how to kill a cop, or someone else, what kind of weapon is required, and the type of ammunition needed! It's bad-enough people are intentionally knocking each other off, some call it gang warfare, but for a chief of police to reinforce what to do is stupid, stupid, stupid!

Normally, I keep my opinion of such political hot-potatoes to myself, but it's obvious to an exponentially growing number of "We-the-people" that something is very wrong within our police department, beginning at the top, which includes you too mayor. At the very least things are out of control, and at the very worst citizens are being killed at a rate that far exceeds police departments of similarly sized cities as Albuquerque and some much larger.

Mr. Mayor, picture yourself standing at the center of a locomotive turntable, (your office), and several freight trains are bearing down upon you at out of control speed, all at once. This is how I see your situation. The trains are from within the police, (and fire), department, but they also represent several citizen groups and their membership is rocketing upward, trust me.

This mornings Albuquerque Journal editorial speaks of 14 shootings, when the fact is that there have recently been 20 shootings, of which 14 have been fatalities. It's this form of protectionist reporting that festers like an open wound, to a point that it's hard to separate truth from lies. Mayor, the city and your administration of it is festering and the mis-management of APD is the wound. A good chief would have been proactive and immediately addressed the so-called bad apples, as referred too by Chief Schultz, within the department, instead of waiting for people to thumb their noses, and worse, having done-so publicly! Why have shootings occurred and the officer states he didn't deploy his taser because it didn't work! Why isn't assigned equipment being used in the manner intended? Why aren't officers utilizing audio and video recording devices as prescribed by standard operating procedure? I can go on for several pages but I will say this, now that the horses are out of the stable, "We-the-people" are invited to have a look inside, in the form of a damned dog-and-pony-show! Am I missing something here or is it just my blood boiling?

Mr. Mayor, I think it's time to cut-out the wound and begin the healing process, for the sake of us all. Although, I am a democrat, and because I believed you would be the breath of fresh air our fine city needed, I voted for you, but you haven't kept your end of campaign promises; you've simply bargained them away. Speaking for myself, I want to see a change in the top administration at APD, and for supervisors to ensure stricter adherence to policies and procedures by everyone in the department, yes that includes civilians too. It's a police agency, sir, not a bordello. As someone who helped manage a protective force of several hundred armed officers at a weapons laboratory, I know what it is to deal with a strong union on a day-to-day basis, and it starts with respect. Unfortunately, you, Chief Schultz, and most of his top command do not have the respect of subordinates and dog-and-pony-shows won't get you there.

Without needed change Mr. Mayor, I promise I will ask 100 people not to vote for you in the next election, explaining why, and I will ask that each approach 10 more, and so-on, until "We-the-people" have our say! Accordingly, we're also keeping our eyes on the city council and taking note of who listens to what we believe is in the best interest of our city, and for us who choose to live here. Until election day, your option is to hunker-down and weather the proverbial Department of Justice storm, or just continue to bury your head in the sand.

Respectfully,

Lawrence Trujillo