The State of the City - FUBAR
Failure of LEADERSHIP #CABQ #APD
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller gave his 6th ‘State of the City’ address this past weekend. The WW2 acronym FUBAR comes to mind! Since the Mayor gave his speech ‘A future worth fighting for’ on August 17, 2024- there have been nine homicides in Albuquerque. Five of those homicides have occurred in my Barelas neighborhood and I’ve been stewing with anger and writer’s block all week. The inability of the Mayor, the Police department, and local journalists to listen/hear criticism, fuels our failed status quo.
On the same day, the Mayor gave his speech, I was returning from a pool party near Tramway - driving down ‘Route 66’ back downtown. There were ‘hundreds’ of the unhoused, addicted, and mentally ill all along Central Ave, in scorching heat, with no ACS or APD in sight. Just to be clear, I’m not angry at the unhoused in Albuquerque, my anger is at those who are claiming to help them. By the time I got downtown, I could see where all the police were - the dollar store. APD had even brought out their military tank. The shootings continued into the evening and over this weekend.
I noticed that several of these crime scenes and perimeters downtown included people on the streets, some smoking Fentynal. APD seems to work harder not smarter - each crime scene would have 2 - 3 police vehicles parked, blocking street access, while talking. I have no problem with police taking breaks - but when I walked up to a few of them if they were reaching out to dispatch to call out ACS to the scores of people camped out, they shrugged.
Since James Boyd was shot in the Albuquerque foothills, along with the creation of ACS, APD treats the unhoused, the addicted, and the mentally ill as phantoms, sub-human - as if they don’t exist! There are no proactive community policing patrols by APD or ACS. There was an elderly naked man this morning in front of the Silver Street Market, when I called out to officers below, they shrugged. I’m sure these are amazing officers but they lack good leadership.
These local information outlets like citydesk.org/ abqraw.com/ are running wide circles around the local legacy ‘news’ networks.
It was ABQ RAW that put in the freedom of information requests for APD Chief Cruizin’ $90,000 Ride After Totaling His Basic Pickup
City Desk covers - ‘It’s out of control’ - Property owners and tenants grapple with costs of insurance, and safety measures, “I think the police are overwhelmed,” he said. “You can call and it’s three hours before they show up.” Albuquerque Community Safety, which responds to non-emergency calls, is similarly overstretched.
City of Albuquerque - All-in approach to addressing homelessness.
There is nothing remotely true about this statement, “The mayor said the city is doubling down efforts for homeless outreach.”
After chatting with the local political blogger Joe Monahan, he helped me realize that the mayor’s failures have to do with the lack of an opposition party. The New Mexico GOP has collapsed in on itself due to weird bizarre disputes about MAGA and Loyalty. With no opposition, the Mayor has flailed & flip-flopped all over.
In 2023 I had written about how Mayor Keller had canceled a popular program to compensate those in need, for a day of work, usually picking up weeds or trash. When I reached out to the city in 2023 they were too understaffed to clean weeds or trash, and they had ended the program that brought in people to do just that. When I ran into Mayor Keller at the 2023 Pride Parade - he mentioned he thought the mailing I had produced was ‘Mean’. I responded that as an artist and writer, I appreciate criticism. He said that was fair enough and we went along our way. He is patting himself on the back, for bringing back ‘A Better Way Forward’.
Why not just start wearing a Military Uniform with Epaulettes?
In 2019, during his first State of the City, Keller pleaded with Albuquerque residents to stop using 311 to report homeless camps. The 311 Community Contact Center is a centralized call center for the City of Albuquerque. The 311 service is a single telephone number for all non-emergency City of Albuquerque services.
2022 - "We will stand up against shallow ideas that will neither work nor are remotely humane 0 We will not round up people; we will not force people on a bus; we will not arrest people who have not committed an arrestable crime; we will not pull your officers off your 911 calls for somebody passed out under a tree."
2023 - Another major point of emphasis for the mayor is to increase public safety in downtown Albuquerque - “We learned from Coronado Park. We also learned from First and Indian School where we demonstrated we can both get people into housing and clean out those problematic encampments, and that’s why going forward, we will not allow tent cities in Albuquerque,” said Keller.
ABQ Ride / APD join forces to improve public safety on city buses
“This is just the beginning of APD’s resurgence. We will never back down when it comes to building trust in the community and adapting to meet the needs of our city,” Keller said. “... APD is owning its mistakes and improving every day. Our message is clear: Do not count us out.” What would improve APD is to fire the chief!
Police chief involved in crash fleeing gunfire
APD chief’s new $100,00 vehicle called into question at meeting
Albuquerque's Police Chief Says Cops Have a 5th Amendment Right To Leave Their Body Cameras Off
2024 - APD Chief, Mayor Keller plan to “hammer the unhoused”
On a lighter note, is that a time traveler in front of the Mayor ?
