Albuquerque Police Dept. Kills 26 people in 4 years

Gun News ^ | 6-23-2014 | Tom Hudson

[Cowgirl]

I recently read that in 1980 there were 3,000 SWAT raids in America. This year there were 80,000! Talk about not being safe in your home or out of it. Just how does anyone “do something” when the justice department and the government are corrupt? The Republicans can’t even find a decent candidate to support and I’m convinced that even if they did, the corrupt voting system would keep them from winning. We had all better turn back to God if we want any change for the better. Remember, God tells us that vengence is his. He can take care of these criminals.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

In all fairness, to give real credibility to a story like this, it really helps to create a table of each of the killings and woundings, not just selectively cite one that is particularly egregious. Yes, it involves work.

Importantly, some, or even many on the list will be seen as objectively reasonable shootings on the part of the police. And to note these, and subtract them from the total amount, slathers on credibility, even if it comes at the expense of some of the drama.

So instead of “killed 26 and wounded 40”, the article might read “killed 15 and wounded 30 *under questionable circumstances*.

A smaller number, but far more damning.

[CedarDave]

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.

[CedarDave]

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[AlexW]

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.

[jstaff]

What I believe is that the writer gave a number, 24, that included all shootings, but only told the story of one “bad”, unjustified one. In an honest, unbiased article the writer would have differentiated between justified and unjustified.

You should not suppose that you know what I believe.

[centurion316]

I did not say that I knew what you believe, I said that i supposed. There is a difference

If you believe that the other 23 were all justified then I suppose that you are clueless. These things happen in clusters where there is a culture of misbehavior that is aided and abetted by the Police leadership, by the local government, the prosecutors, and the courts. It’s a perfect example of why good cops go bad. It isn’t the cops that are the problem, it’s their leaders.

[jstaff]

My point is that I have no idea about all the other shootings. They might have all been unjustified, although I doubt that. My point is that the article is written to inflame, rather that inform. It is intended to get exactly the reaction it got, anger directed at the police. It is the same type of rhetoric the left has used against the US military since Vietnam, and there is a simple formula.

First, tell a story that will waken the emotion you want in the readers. In this case it is the story of police shooting and killing a poor, homeless, mentally deficient man who was unarmed, except for a couple of knives.

Second, make it a subset of a similar group of actions, and intentionally omit any facts that will explain why there is a difference. Here the writer made it a part of all police shootings, without mentioning justified shootings. To have done so would redirect some of the reader’s anger at the police to sympathy, not the reaction he intended.

Last, wrap the whole thing in a list of numbers and statistics that, while they may be accurate, have little or nothing to do with the subject. If someone were to do casual research into the numbers he used, they would find they are substantially accurate, and would be more inclined to accept the writer’s point of view.

This writer took it a step further by mentioning that all the shootings had already been investigated and none were found to have been unjustified, then promptly slammed those findings as being unreliable, a cover-up. He did all the legwork and thinking for you, now just sit back and let it sink in the way he intended

[sport]

That would work. Put kill decals on the side of their patrol cars. Silhouettes of humans, males and females to indicate humans, dogs to indicate animals killed. Silhouettes of clubs alongside of humans to indicate beatdowns administered.

[centurion316]

This writer took it a step further by mentioning that all the shootings had already been investigated and none were found to have been unjustified,

No doubt the article is filled with anger, with 24 dead human beings, someone ought to be angry. Here's something to think about. Investigated? By whom and reviewed by whom? This is the fundamental problem with these cases nationwide. Most do as was done in Albuquerque, police department internal investigation followed by a rubber stamp from the local prosecutor. This one even had the gall to say that he had no choice but to accept whatever the police said.

You are criticizing the article. I am criticizing the behavior of the police and the prosecutor and I believe that this behavior has become endemic in the United States. It is murder by government and we cannot tolerate. As for writing, that is a skill soon to disappear from the American scene.