Give Me a Break, Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico apparently has a police department out of control.
Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg has confirmed to the NM Political Report that she will charge two Albuquerque police officers with murder for the shooting of a homeless camper in the city’s foothills in March of 2014.
The homeless man was armed with a pen knife and there is a video.
This becoming a habit in Albuquerque.
And then to top it all, last week one officer shot an undercover officer over a $60 meth bust.
An Albuquerque police lieutenant shot a fellow officer who was working undercover in a McDonald’s parking lot near Central and Tramway just before noon Friday.
Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden said Saturday the male officer remained in critical condition at University of New Mexico Hospital. He is in the intensive care unit and has undergone multiple surgeries.
No mention has been made of any perceived threat before the lieutenant opened fire. No mention was made of any guns.
Thanks to Brian for the heads up.
I think going undercover is possibly one of the worst and most dangerous assignments a police officer can do. Unless you were totally insane or religiously opposed to mitigating risks, anyone going into it must have some hard assumptions about what police officers would do if they showed up and they didn’t know who you were. After all you are one of them aren’t you?
If a bust goes down while you are under — you aren’t armed. You do nothing to trigger gunfire from anyone. Get on the floor and let them ID everyone.
And yet this can still happen to a trained officer. What more proof do you need that the door kickers are out of control?
1There was an old, oft-repeated Bugs Bunny quote, “Mmmmm I shoulda toined left at Albequerque…” It makes even more sense to avoid that place today. Their police are of the shoot first… persuasion.” God bless that DA, she’ll need it.
2Albuquerque PD threatened by a homeless man with a pen knife, 100 yards away. What, don’t those “American” cops like football?
Then a lieutenant, not a rookie, opens fire on one of their own, an undercover cop. Word on the streets is that the LT skipped the briefings for this bust. Yeah, dumbass, that ‘perceived’ twitch was your clue for the day, friend, not foe.
New PD excuse: “I didn’t know, so I felt threatened.”
Thinking one LT needs to go down for negligent homicide, at the very least.
3Oh yes. In Albuquerque, one must beware of being old, confused, or fearful while being brown. (Obviously, being mentally ill crosses skin color boundaries.) Also, beware of being brown and holding a cell phone. That’ll definitely get you killed.
The DoJ came down on the department late last year and it couldn’t happen soon enough. Maybe now that they’ve critically wounded one of their own, they’ll start looking at their extreme ability to escalate violence as a bad thing instead of flailing around to justify it.
Of course, in the wake of the DoJ condemnation there’s already a trend cropping up of officers using “this is how I was trained” as a Get Out of Jail Free card. But seriously, I was really delighted to see the headlines today. I can’t imagine the officers will be convicted (because, right)–but I think the conversation needs to be taken to that level.
We can’t breathe…
4Judas, can police forces across America stop hiring and training and arming men (as far as I’ve seen they all have been men) who are so trigger-happy that they will shoot unarmed people who are no threat?
Part of this is down to the insane policy that everybody should be armed. The cop sees someone moving in a “suspicious” way and assumes the guy (or child) has a gun, because doesn’t everyone? But this man with his hands up turning away — how in the hell did he deserve to be shot?
5I cannot watch one more video of cops killing people.
6The police motto used to be ‘To Protect and to Serve.” Now, it sounds more like “Shoot first, so you can be the one to answer questions later.”
It’ll be interesting to see how this one plays out – I’m guessing “justifiable shooting” for some incredibly lame reason.
7A couple of studies (I’m not sure how valid) have shown that conservatives tend to be more fearful than liberals. I think that a lot of police are particularly fearful of black men.
8LynnN, here’s one study in which people were exposed to scary images and sounds and their skin moisture and blinking reactions noted.
“Participants who scored high on the skin and blinking stress tests also tended to support military spending, warrantless searches, the death penalty, the Patriot Act, obedience, patriotism, the Iraq War, school prayer and the concept of Biblical truth. And they tended to oppose pacifism, immigration, gun control, foreign aid, compromise, premarital sex, gay marriage, abortion rights and pornography.
“Those who were less startled by threatening images and noises were more likely to favor foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism and gun control.”
Yes, people who are more easily scared (or more easily disgusted, in another study) tend to be Republicans. And their leaders are happy to scare them over and over to get their sheep to the voting booths. I don’t even need to cite those triggers because you all know them.
http://www.livescience.com/2866-political-views-driven-biology.html
http://www.livescience.com/3634-conservatives-easily-disgusted.html
9Amen to the Albuquerque Police Dept is OUT OF CONTROL. They’ve got a license to kill and they use it with abandon. Much to the detriment of those around them.
10@RepubAnon
11Directly from the Wild Wild West movie, “shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more and then when everybody’s dead try to ask a question or two.”
Isn’t this the same state that forced a person to have very invasive medical procedures done TWICE to prove that that they weren’t smuggling drugs in their intestines????
Yeah, avoid NM.
12I guess they thought they were just saving on the cost of arresting and trying the man.
If I didn’t know better I would think that Vail Ennis, a long ago lawman in Bee County, Texas, was still alive and practicing his version of law enforcement. This story definitely made me want to puke.
13This is why I don’t go to Albuquerque,
14I live in Albuquerque, and I still visit Texas! Despite what Juanita Jean reports about how crazy it is in Texas, she doesn’t mean all Texans are crazy.
15Our female DA just brought charges of murder against 2 cops…..how about an Amen and Thank you! and she was being blackmailed by the police union and she did it anyway. (yes, more weird stuff)
So come and visit, cause we need your tourist dollars (oops, did I say that out loud)?
I hear that the DA has been blocked from this case.
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