As a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, I have been protesting the horrific level of police violence in my city for years. A lot of people refuse to believe us since the police department, city officials, and media smear each victim of the Albuquerque Police Department as criminals who deserved to be shot. But maybe now when they hear APD Officer Jacob Grant describe being shot at point blank range 8 times by his supervisor, they will understand why we have been protesting in the streets, disrupting city council meetings, and risking arrest to expose what former APD officer Sam Costales describes of his workplace of 24 years as "a culture of aggression".
APD has killed 8 times as many people in my town than the New York Police Department--although Albuquerque has about 560,000 residents and New York has a population of 8.5 million. One of the people APD killed was someone I knew, 19 year old Mary Hawkes, who they claim (as they always do) pointed a gun at them yet they were never able to produce the gun (only a replica of the gun, to the disgust of local reporters at Chief Eden's press conference on April 23, 2014). The cop who killed her, Jeremy Dear, had a mysterious malfunction of his lapel camera so there is no way to verify his story that she threatened him with a gun. (Chief Eden and Dear contradict each other on the missing footage, see in Sources below). Dear had been caught lying previously in the APD killing of Alan Gomez.
Yes our police department have to wear lapel cameras but that has not reduced the level of violence, beatings, and killings of the people of my city. There is no accountability when they don't use their lapel cameras or delete the footage. Cameras are not the answers to systemic failures of military style policing where cops are promoted when they beat and kill, and whistleblowers fear for their lives. Ask our District Attorney, Kari Brandenburg, who has publicly stated that she fears for her safety after charging 2 cops with murder and being warned by cops friendly to her that she is a target. APD filed false charges against her which have now been dismissed by our Attorney General as politically motivated. APD cops were caught on audiotape talking about trying to destroy her career. Now she fears for her safety, as so many Albuquerque residents do.
The Department of Justice released a scathing report on APD last year but it was ignored by many residents and downplayed by the Chief of Police and Mayor, who hired a public relations firm instead of instituting real changes. Billboards around the city urge us to have "coffee with a cop" where armed cops sit in coffeehouses and tell us how dangerous their job is and how the DOJ report was written by people who sit at their desks and don't really know what's going on.
But today maybe my fellow Burqueños will believe those of us whose loved ones have been killed by APD.
APD Officer Jacob Grant, who was shot 8 times at point blank range by his supervisor in January and critically wounded, has recovered enough to be able to tell us what really happened. Up until yesterday, the official version from his supervisor Lt. Brachele, the Albuquerque Chief of Police Gordon Eden, and our Mayor was that Officer Grant's near fatal shooting by his supervisor was an example of how dangerous police work is (to which we activists have always countered that no, its an example of how trigger happy and violent the Albuquerque Police Dept is).
Grant was an undercover officer in a $60 meth bust and says his boss opened fire and emptied his eight-round clip into the car. Grant says he was in his pre-assigned seat in the car with another detective and the suspects when Lt. Brachle opened fired even though the suspects were compliant and posed no threat. Will the officer's near fatal shooting by his supervisor finally move my city to believe that APD has a very serious problem that needs serious systemic change?
A few weeks ago, on the one year anniversary of Mary Hawkes' killing by APD, about 100 of us gathered in an indigenous ceremony with burning sage, an altar with flowers and photos of Mary, led by four indigenous healers. Two APD officers showed up to the memorial under some fake pretense and we threw them out. APD regularly harasses those of us who protest them, as well documented in the Feb 2015 New Yorker article:http://www.newyorker.com/...
and the recent Abq Free Press article: http://www.freeabq.com/...
After posting Officer Grant's version of being shot by his supervisor to several listservs and our facebook page Albuquerque PD in Crisis, cops showed up in front of my house. My family and neighbors have gotten used to the sight of APD surrounding my home and cops have even followed me to work and questioned me, but I still document this along with the others activists that APD monitors and intimidates. We will keep fighting for justice for our loved ones.
Sources:
APD kills 8 times as many as NYPD: http://www.alternet.org/...
DA Brandenburg says she fears for her safety: http://www.freeabq.com/...
Eden says Dear's lapel camera malfunctioned http://www.abqjournal.com/...
Dear says his camera did not malfunction: http://www.abqjournal.com/...
Dear caught lying in the killing of Alan Gomez: http://www.latimes.com/...
11:16 AM PT: I state that the gun that APD says Mary had was never produced. During a press conference on April 23, 2014, Chief of Police Gordon Eden showed a photo of the gun she supposedly had and also held up a replica of the gun, but not the actual gun. This was not typical of past press conferences by Eden when weapons recovered from the scene were marked and in clear bags. I was not allowed into the press conference as I do not have a press pass. I stood outside with family and friends of Mary and we gave our own press conference. Several of the reporters told me they were disgusted by Eden's press conference whereby the lapel footage was "missing" and the gun not produced except in a photo. The reporters actually felt lied to. Months later, Officer Jeremy Dear did say that Chief Eden lied about the malfunctioning footage. Here is the local mainstream coverage of both Eden and Dear's press conferences, which contradict each other: http://www.abqjournal.com/...
and
http://www.abqjournal.com/...