Indeed the shooting of the homeless person earlier this year should be considered murder; the video is prominently displayed on the ABQ Journal’s website and will both sicken and anger you. A second shooting of a 19-year old woman about two months ago also appears unjustified, though she was committing criminal acts. In the latter case, it appears the lapel camera was deliberately shut off just before the confrontation and turned back on after it was over, total time about five minutes. In both cases, some of the shootings were by police who had checkered records as officers.
What is not reported is that before both of these shootings, the Obama administration’s Dept. of Justice completed a report on separate earlier shootings and sanctions and fines are coming against the APD together with oversight by the DOJ. The mayor’s office and city council are instituting a citizen advisory committee to work with the PD to reform procedures (like not shooting at fleeing vehicles). These are separate from changes expected to be required from the DOJ.
Also, citizens and students from UNM have been protesting some of which have gotten violent, breaking into the mayor’s office and disrupting city council meetings. The protests have generally been led by a UNM professor who is good at agitating the protestors. However, APD has stepped into it too buy embedding undercover officers into the protests who were videotaping individuals in the chance they would turn violent. Unfortunately for the police, some were recognized by news reporters and outed, which has aggravated tensions more.
Thanks for your report. Let us hope that the present jack-booted Gestapo activities of US police will soon be curbed.
Incidentally, a few weeks ago I was walking up to my beach road where I encountered the entire police department of my small Philippine town. They were hanging some sign for a charity event and having photos taken. They greeted me and laughing asked “Where is OUR beer?”. I returned to the house and loaded my small cooler with cold beers for the five of them.
For a photo of me in the group, one stuck his 45 into my waistband. It was a fun time.
One would be far pressed to see such an event in the US.