I have witnessed first hand the failures of our system and there’s no one to blame but the current leadership in power.  

This is not normal and living in constant fear of not if, but when you are going to become a victim is unacceptable.

Does this sound familiar? 

A once nice neighborhood has now been flooded with criminal activity, specifically drug dealing and auto theft thanks to properties being purchased and turned into rentals corporate property management not checking in on their tenants. Combine this with repeat violent offenders being released a day after arrest to go stay with their parents or friends, picking up right where they left off.  It’s created an atmosphere of chaos.

My community isn’t isolated in experiencing this, it’s happening across the entire city.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

A friend and neighbor was assaulted with a deadly weapon when a known previous offender decided to target her and her husband.  They had no previous interaction with this guy, but he decided to open fire on their home after previous threats to kill them that were reported to police.

It took police nearly 2.5 hours to respond to the call of this man being an active shooter due to lack of available officers to respond.

He was arrested, charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and then two days later released with no conditions or bond via a judge appointed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Even worse, a month later the prosecutor calls them and says that despite having security camera footage, they can’t prove it was him and are dismissing the charges. Even with his admission to officers, a gun found in him as well as the shell the do-nothing prosecutor said it wasn’t enough for a conviction.

Could you imagine being in this situation?  Where a known violent offender opens fire on your home in the night and you wait hours for police response only to have a judge set him free in a couple days and then all charges are dropped by a questionable prosecutor?

Imagine the fear the people have and the fear across the neighborhood that anyone could become a victim themselves.

It begs a lot of questions.  First, whatever happened to victim’s rights?

This guy is out free to victimize those neighbors or anyone else he chooses.  He’s free to commit whatever other violent crimes he has chosen thanks to a judge that in no way took into account or likely even reviewed his prior offenses and a prosecutor that didn’t have the backbone to actually advocate for victims.  Any other state in this country and he would be in lock up.

Thanks to groups like the ACLU openly telling state democrats not to allow any criminal justice reforms to pass the round house during legislative sessions, here we are still victims and growing in number every day.

Mayor Keller is touting his success with the focus along Central in the war-zone but without courts keeping these people in prison, it’s catch and release that displaces this criminal activity into neighborhoods across the entire city.

Let’s not also forget the inherent hypocrisy of Keller’s Police Chief asking for the national guard to intervene and displace these people and it being given a pass by our state democratic delegation, but when Trump calls them into LA it’s heretical.  It’s ok when our New Mexico Democrats do it, but not when their political opposition does. Everyday working people see this and understand the hypocrisy at work.

Second, let’s talk about policing.

Many Democrats within New Mexico, The ACLU and out of touch political extremists who believe in ACAB (All Cops are Bad), exist in a bubble of privilege.  They haven’t had their homes shot at or dealt with violent offenders as next door neighbors.  They haven’t experienced the inability to sleep at night because of the fear someone is going to harm your loved ones.  

Mayor Keller and his incompetent Police Chief are a direct threat to the general public safety of Albuquerque.  They have reduced the standing officers on the force to below 900 for a city of over 564,000.  They say they’ve diverted resources to the Community Safety department.  Ok, but that department is absolutely powerless to address the violent and now federally classified Cartel activity that is taking over every aspect of this city.

To those who argue more police aren’t the answer, please tell us all how safe we were in a community with an active shooter running free over 2 hours while waiting for Police response due to insufficient staffing.

To those who live by ACAB, I say get real.  Community Policing works and if you don’t know what it is, like City Councilor Fiebelkorn who had to openly ask during a council meeting, then you shouldn’t have any say in Public Safety policies.

You can have fair and equitable policing, but you have to invest instead of divest.

Lastly, let’s talk about drugs and mental health.

Mayor Keller has created the Albuquerque Community Safety Department (ACS) and touts it as the “right response at the right time.”  

What about when it isn’t?

I had a man jacked up on drugs attempt to break in to my house and several others.  Police couldn’t locate him, but later he was found hiding in trash cans and ACS were sent out.  I stopped them and told them this guy needs to be arrested by officers.  They said they wouldn’t do it and were taking him to the hospital instead.  I called dispatch and was told there’s no coordination between APD and ACS in cases of someone like him being accused of criminal activity.  They never sent an officer to the hospital to take him into custody and he’s back out on the streets to wreak havok again.

How many times have failures in public safety like this happened with ACS?  How many more people have to become victims?

This was an example of the wrong response at the wrong time.

Mayor Keller tries to paint ACS in a positive light but they have a less than 10% intake rate when offering care to the unhoused and addicted.  His Gateway program costs millions of dollars, but beds still aren’t filled.  Worst of all what you hear nothing about from Mayor Keller’s office are statistics on care outcomes, when someone is provided resources how many stay the course and don’t end up back on the streets.

If we are to address mental health and addiction as well as crime and victim’s rights , we need to write and enforce laws.

Laws that would provide funding to:

-Create more state mental health and drug addiction treatment centers

-Require the addicted and mentally unwell to be in these care services or face criminal incarceration

-Further define and refine criminal competency definitions to account for when someone is a danger to others, as in public safety

-Fund, staff and increase standing officers on the force to use community policing initiatives and engage with neighborhoods to help identify and address criminal activity

-Create prison programs that help the incarcerated re-integrate into society with education and job training to not become revolving door cases

-Harsher sentencing for Fentanyl related crimes, requiring treatment or prison with no release back to the public until programs are completed

-Removal of any Judges who allow previous violent offenders to be freed without bail or restrictions

-Require landlords to maintain criminal background checks and post to a public state database when a felon is renting their property

-Require landlords out of compliance with registration to pay restitution to the victims of crimes related to those renting their properties

It’s really common sense, but unfortunately to the privileged leaders disconnected from the reality we are all facing, there will be pushback.  These people bet on your exhaustion, disillusionment, and fear.  That has to change and we have to stand up and say enough is enough.

Idealism is wonderful and making things better is something we all should strive for, but the reality isn’t ideal.  So until we reach that ideal, we have to address the current situation accordingly.

We need new and bold leadership that will be pragmatic and do what’s necessary to ensure that we have a prosperous way of life that is equitable.  Negative actions should have consequences.

In regards to Keller running for Mayor a third term after his incompetence, it begs the question of “What’s the definition of insanity?”

Doing the same thing over and over again.

As for state democratic leadership soul searching after Trump’s victory and still disconnected from reality, their policy failures are why totalitarianism is taking hold.  No amount of calling on the national guard will solve the issue, it only displaces it across the rest of the city and state.

The rest of us who don’t live in the privilege of a gated community or a wealthy gentrified location will go to bed tonight  wondering if we’re going to be the next victim.  Fearing for our loved ones, for elderly neighbors who are retired & too afraid to sit on their front porch, for neighbors with children who don’t feel safe to let play on the block, and for neighbors caring for loved ones through health struggles like cancer and dementia who are scared to death of what’s happening.

This is the reality the rest of us face day to day in numbers far greater than you will ever know or understand.

We desperately need change.

Sincerely,

A working class resident of Albuquerque 

ABQ RAW welcomes all opinions and anyone can submit their content to post in our opinion section. Send your opinion to info@abqraw.com This opinion was written by a community member who wished to remain anonymous.