We at the Eye think it's historic for other reasons. We think, in many ways, it is a new low.
While we appreciate and support citizens expressing themselves, what we saw mostly last night was success by the administration of Berry and Perry. You see, they have changed the dialogue from this matter being about THEIR failures, to one about individual police officers and the previous mayor.
And like true children it seems many are being distracted by bright shiny objects of police shootings, rather than the painful truth that those in power are the real source of tragedy facing this city. From employment, to economy, to education, to crime, to costs, everything is going in the opposite direction this city needs it to be. But nevermind that Berry's handlers say, we'll just preoccupy them with attention of APD's individual problems rather than the institutional issues caused by Berry, Perry, White, and Schultz's neglect.
We found one speaker last night, truly extraordinary. One who really exemplifies the disaster known as the Berry Administration of the Albuquerque. His name is Scott Lopez and here's his picture:
As a sergeant, he was known to keep out of any controversial events, would call off officers when anything remotely interesting happened and couldn't discipline people fast enough. If you run his NCIC history you'd see that Mr. Lopez was very busy running the plates of cars driven by attractive women and was generally one of the last sergeants for officers to bid for. As a lieutenant, he claims to have been the incident commander of the Emcore scene. Perhaps we should get the audio of that incident and listen to how Mr. Lopez handled that scene and what he did to the true police officers that day that did what they had to do while Lopez screamed on the air to keep them away. Then when Schultz gave Slopez, oops, Lopez a position overseeing property crimes, all but APOA vice president Shawn Willoughby, we are told, left the burglary unit because all Lopez was interested in was playing with bait vehicle operations. More shiny bright toys.
Well last night, Mr. Lopez talked down to all the citizens and city counselors who dare criticize APD. He said if you point a gun at a cop you shouldn't be surprised at what happens. While trying to use the opportunity to boost his standing, and let's be real that's all Lopez has been know to do is take advantage of opportunities, Lopez boils things down to one simple fact about those running APD. They LIE. Lopez would have you believe that all of the 37 shootings involve people pointing guns at cops, when they don't. Lopez would have you believe cops are beyond criticism when they are not.
In Lopez's world, as a cop you get to do what you want without any accountability. But you see in that world you get what we've seen for years in APD: No Accountability. With no accountability comes distrust between the department and its officers, the department and its citizens, and the department and other gov't entities. In the is the mindset exemplified by Lopez last night that has got us to where we are right now.
Stay focused people, despite what RJ Berry likes to blab about, the issues of APD and his administration are not caused by single incidents (like the Boyd shooting), they are caused by his neglect and failure to address incidents like that which have happened over and over and over.
It's kinds like when the mayor says he can't attend a historic city council meeting like last night because he's meeting with other community groups. Except he wasn't. Just like he wasn't in Brazil, he wasn't with community groups either last night.....
