New Mexico Mercury

March

A “march to end police brutality” is taking place today in Albuquerque from 11am – 4pm at Roosevelt Park (Coal Ave SE & Spruce St SE). The march is put on by broad coalition of activists, family members of victims of police violence, and concerned citizens. The event will feature longtime Chicano activist and civil rights attorney Kiko Martinez as well as a number of other speakers.  The event will feature music by Albuquerque’s Mala Maña (Mary Hawkes, the 19 year old killed by APD in April worked as their roadie), Sherri Gonzales Blues Trio, L@SOTR@S, and MC Def.

According to the march website:

Since the US DOJ report was released, which concluded that the Albuquerque police department engages in unconstitutional policing and routinely uses unjustified lethal and non-lethal force, its officers have shot and killed three more people. Mary Hawkes, Armand Martin and Ralph Chavez. In all three recent shooting deaths, the troubling practices and patterns identified by the DOJ have been on display. DOJ criticized SWAT for frequently escalating, rather than de-escalating, potentially dangerous situations, failing to property capture lapel camera video, and for deficiencies in dealing with people who are barricaded, suicidal and/or suffering from a mental health crisis. Armand Martin was suicidal, barricaded in his home and suffering from a mental health crisis when they shot and killed him. The only video captured from the four-hour standoff is video of APD officers handcuffing a many they had just shot and killed.

Perry Questioned

Albuquerque’s Chief Administrative Officer and former city attorney Rob Perry took heat at the last city council meeting for his repeated presence at APD officer involved shooting scenes. Perry defended his presence by stating, “I think it’s important to be able to provide the media the basics of what occurs out on the scene in order that we don’t have a situation where the message about what happened is being portrayed by one side…”  In light of recent delays with media receiving officer’s lapel camera footage, or the city’s disseminating of edited footage, we can safely assume that Perry is largely responsible for controlling any barriers to public inquiry or investigative oversight on cases where APD’s use of force is in question. 

Perry was also grilled as to his role at the June 2^nd Mayor’s office sit-in and whether he was inciting, rather than de-escalating the situation.  Perry was accused by activists on the scene of being belligerent.  Perry stated, “There were multiple times when I told the folks who had invaded the Mayor’s office, through the use of force, pushing a police officer aside, that they were in a controlled, secure area, it was not open to the public, they were being disruptive, that they were trespassing.” At least one member of the council, as well as the Mercury, apparently have different ideas of what de-escalation means.  Councilor Rey Garduno took exception to Perry’s use of the term “invaded” and said the evidence that he’s seen doesn’t support that accusation. 

Most interestingly were the comments of retired APD officer and former mayoral candidate Paul Heh who stated, “We all know he [Perry]has a habit of showing up at scenes where he has no business, such as the Mary Han death scene.” He also mentioned a rumor that Perry was at the scene of the latest police shooting, and that he utilized a city driver because he was intoxicated, and while there tried to interfere with the investigation.  Heh emphasized that it was only a rumor but pleaded with the council to investigate those accusations.    

Florida activist Charlie Grapski has taken to the APD case and assembled the exchanges below from the meeting. 

Family Interviews

Charlie Grapski also conducted extensive interviews with family members of two APD victims.  Below are segments from Stephen and Renatta Torres, parents of Christopher Torres, and Mike Gomez, father of Alan Gomez.  You can watch segments of the entire Torres’ interview here and Mike Gomez interview here.