PUBLIC RELATIONS ≠ PUBLIC SAFETY

THE FAILED STATUS QUO OF #OneAlbuquerque

When Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina recently ran a red light to avoid a shooting, he was on his way to a P.R. stunt. Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller was waiting for the Police Chief at the notorious Adams Market for this canceled press conference. The Mayor offered bizarre praise for the Police Chief’s actions! This is on top of APD police scandal after scandal after scandal!

This independent (hardcore moderate) voted for Mayor Keller in 2017 and 2021, so I’m not a partisan and wanted him to succeed.

In 2017 Keller was running against a MAGA candidate, and the former weekly ‘Alibi’ endorsed Keller as a bulwark against Trump. In popular discourse, the horseshoe theory asserts that advocates of the far left and the far right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear continuum of the political spectrum, can resemble each other in surprising ways. Mayor Keller’s intolerance of criticism is one of these similarities. To claim criticism is ‘misinformation’ is beyond common sense.

The Mayor’s claim to be a status quo killer was another reason I voted for him. “Tim's zeal for public service comes from his willingness to challenge the status quo and his track record for having real impact.” Our #MetalMayor even told ‘Loudwire Magazine’, "Bands that are somewhat more political than others, like Sepultura or even System of a Down, have taught me to be my own person and not take the status quo as acceptable." All of Keller's campaign literature also highlights the status quo. So how did the status quo killer end up owning the failed status quo?

2017 “We have got to get back to community policing.” Tim Keller

“These funds will be used to get officers out of their stations and squad cars and into the community, walking the beat”

Instead of proactively patrolling areas like buses and bus stops, CABQ Metro Security ceded the job to CABQ Transit Security Force.

4/24 ABQ Ride/APD join forces to improve public safety on buses 7/23 APD plans to ramp up security for ART buses 1/24 Texts: APD Chief, Mayor Keller plan to “hammer the unhoused”

“So beginning today, as the mayor stated, we are live with the RTCC in which they will now have real-time live access to over 1,100 inward facing cameras on our entire fleet of 245 vehicles,”

If there are 10 closed-circuit cameras at each A.R.T. stop - who is watching them? Does APD dispatch A.C.S. to people in need? Is APD/ACS proactively patrolling our streets and neighborhoods?

“Nelson said the proactive response team regularly patrols and enforces, but there is more effort to come.” #CommunityPolicing

APD claims it will ramp up security on the buses, and in open space areas after recent attacks, but local journalists never ask the police or Mayor about the rest of the city! #OneAlbuquerque

When I’ve seen off-road vehicles driving on city streets, with police nearby - they say they don’t want to cause an incident by going after them. In 2021 a 7-year-old boy was tragically killed outside the River of Lights by a drunk ATV driver - at a time when APD was extremely understaffed. Mayor Keller ran on hiring more police officers, then flip-flopped, to rely on technology.

Last summer I tried riding the A.R.T. to work, but one night my bus broke down near Central and Lousiana. You could see campfires burning on the roof of the abandoned CVS drugstore. There were people at the bus stop, mostly young kids, smoking Fentanyl. If the Albuquerque Police Department is observing children smoking Fentanyl, on city property - why don’t they do - something? Should these kids be arrested? Should they be given treatment? This is where the failed status quo really comes into play.

ABQ’s next Mayor will have to declare a public health emergency.

ABQ’s next Mayor will need to be able to listen to criticism.

ABQ’s next Mayor will have to put City OVER Party and ideology.

ABQ’s next Mayor will need to get A.C.S. out walking the beat.

ABQ’s next Mayor will need to rebuild the ABQ Ride Bus System.

ABQ’s next Mayor will need to retrain 311/242 Dispatchers

ABQ’s next Mayor will need to put public safety over P.R.