Mayor Ken Miyagashima gave his “state of the city” speech without mentioning the crisis in police accountability.
Ken took a slow, stately victory lap, recalling old times and accomplishments. He reminded us that his election followed the city council’s questionable approval of annexation of six square miles of land with 30,000 projected residences on it. This “unfettered expansion,” and fears of its impact on citizens, led to a focus on “Smart Growth,” a principle he said was ridiculed at the time. We have become a more sustainable and humane city, while staying financially sound. Ken’s finishing his fourth term.
He said repeatedly that our city is strong.
He did not mention that our city has had way more than its share of questionable police shootings.
I say “questionable” because I know enough about what police face to avoid jumping to conclusions; but on some, the City has spoken. We paid the family of Amelia Baca, shot nearly a year ago, $2,750,000 to settle only their state case, while the federal case continues.
For the pleasure of making Antonio Valenzuela dead, the city paid $6,500,000 changed some policies, and terminated Officer Christopher Smelser’s employment.
Jonathan Strickland survived being shot under circumstances that may or may not have justified the police conduct. Noted civil rights attorney John Burris thinks enough of the Strickland case that he’s representing Strickland against the city. But the city has substantive legal defenses. This case might go to trial.
Sources say the fatal shooting of Presley Eze will cost us a bundle. (I have no opinion: while stealing beer isn’t a capital offense, resisting arrest with your fists limits police options. You don’t get to bully a clerk and punch a cop, then just drive on to California.)
By its actions, the City necessarily admits the seriousness of the problem. The sums the city has paid out are not “nuisance” settlements paid to save on attorney fees. But the city government so far has resisted even seriously considering a citizens police oversight committee, or some similar means of improving police accountability.
Mayor Ken deserves credit for some significant past accomplishments, but should also be held responsible for resisting serious efforts at police accountability.
Appropriately, Ken opened the speech with a moment of silence for migrants who died in a fire in a camp in Juarez the previous day.
He offered no moment of silence for Amelia Baca. (I would not suggest a moment of silence for Valenzuela or Strickland; but neither did Valenzuela deserve to be dead.)
Ken can banish blemishes from his speech; but he will be remembered as much for the present failure (or refusal) as for past successes.
One accomplishment Ken mentioned was setting the minimum wage. And he deserves credit. But he voted for a watered-down version, at the 11th hour. CAFé initiated a petition for a referendum. Enough citizens signed. Legally, council’s options were to enact the proposed ordinance as written or hold the referendum. Instead, seeking compromise, councilors watered it down. Ken, in a rather moving moment, explained that he’d opposed it until he helped his son with a homework assignment to create a workable budget for a family of four on a set income. Realizing he couldn’t do it, without adding a second job, opened Ken’s eyes.
That Ken rationally examined the evidence, with an open mind, then decided. Where is he now, when we really need him?
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[The above column did not appear Sunday, 2 April 2023, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, because I screwed up sending it in, but should be on the newspaper's website, and on KRWG's website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and on KTAL (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and be available on both stations’ websites.]
The LC police accountability issue, as described, is an ongoing public issue without universal acknowledgment, mediation, deliberation or resolution. I don't think it's fair to lay blame at the Mayor's feet anymore than it would be fair to lay the blame at Goodman's; nobody has the solution.
ReplyDeleteNew Mexico's law enforcement and criminal court system as a whole is a complete mess with low level offenders arrested and released only to re-offend, get re-arrested and released ad absurdum. But violent offenders, the mentally ill/addicted and/or dementia patients in crisis, such as Baca, are vulnerable to police response activity who are trained to neutralize a threat to their own safety or the public.
Colin Kaepernick and others recently released a documentary series "Killing County" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt24246984/ available to stream on Hulu. The series documents police shootings in Kern County, CA with almost zero accountability; law enforcement kills a lot of innocent people in that jurisdiction, covers up for its officers and accepts the precept that taxpayer funds will pay multimillion dollar settlements if and when the families have the resources to sue for damages. It's a worse case scenario, but offers some point of reference to juxtapose the scale LCPD shootings with other law enforcement agencies.
I voted for Miyagashima but was super disappointed when he sided with the Chamber of Commerce/business community to circumvent state laws by appointing an unqualified judge he felt would jail low level offenders who target and impact local businesses with theft, graffiti and rampant human waste crimes. But then, he decided not to run for office again.
I simply disagree that the our community has made every effort to identify a quantifiable law enforcement shooting/neutralizing threats problem and solution from which we can fault Mayor Miyagashima for lapses and failures of holding LCPD accountable or even minimize a problem that hasn't been quantified in the first place.
I do not lay all the blame at Ken's feet or claim to have a solution. We do, however, have a proposal to do something that has worked in other cities. A couple of cities have had CPOCs for many decades. We have investigated a bit and said, "Yo!, City, we have a very serious problem here, and there's a step that has worked for some other cities, although some had it pushed on 'em by the Feds. Many of the councilors have seemed open to taking a serious look at it. Ken had stalled, changed his rhetoric as the situation changed, and generally been hostile to the idea. Which is too bad, both because it's a reasonable step to look at and because acting as he has lately will tarnish his legacy.
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