Much goes into a decision to relocate, but the attitude of local government toward its citizens and its commitment to public safety should count for something. In Las Cruces, if you are White, you are likely all right; if you are Brown, you risk going down.
Despite what maps show, Las Cruces is located 40 miles south, not north, of El Paso—culturally speaking. In matters of law enforcement, the city is corrupt and incompetent. Its officials are dishonest and contemptuous of its citizens, and its police officers are dangerous. The Mayor, City Councilors, City Manager, City Attorney, LCPD Police Chief and other ranking officers enable police misconduct, from harassment of citizens with phony allegations of traffic or code violations to killing or maiming them.
These officials have no regard for public safety. They respond to complaints about phony charges or officer brutality with lies, false assurances, broken promises, or illegal conduct; resist admitting, deny, whitewash, or conceal police misconduct; and talk reforms without effecting them or pass policies without ensuring their enforcement. So police misconduct enabled from above is not surprising in Las Cruces, with its officials indifferent to civilizing influences like the rule of law. Fish rot head first.
A recent incident in the city’s history of cops running amok is the cop-killing of Sra. Amelia Baca. Sra. Baca was 75 years old, suffered disabilities including dementia, and neither spoke nor understood English. A family member called 911 to get her medical attention because she was threatening family members with knives. A police officer arrived; in 40 seconds, he let them leave the house; ignored cautions about her condition and ignorance of English, and pleas not to shoot her; and killed her with two shots.
This incident reflects the culture of city corruption and incompetence from top to bottom. City officials reacted to this violent incident by choosing to mislead the public with a deceptively scripted and edited PR presentation of body-camera footage stopped just before the moment of killing. Reflexively, they defended the officer, whose identity remains unknown, by making it appear that the victim threatened great bodily harm to an officer doing his duty. They meant to bias the public and taint the jury pool. The Police Chief expressed confidence in the killer; the City Manager expressed confidence in the Police Chief; the Mayor, who thinks that anyone who does not support, trust, and love the police is unpatriotic, was disconcerted.
Under pressure, the city released redacted footage of the entire incident. Version 2 proves the misrepresentation of Version 1. It shows that Sra. Baca moved the knife in her left hand to her right hand, which held a second knife; held both knives pointing down; smiled at the officer and waved to him with her empty left hand; and stepped forward. At this point—does the still redacted footage here show Sra. Baca dropping the knives?—the officer, who had been repeatedly shouting a profanity and order (five times “put the fucking knives down”), fired two shots and killed her. From the start, he made no effort to de-escalate, was confrontational, and killed Sra. Baca only because she did not obey loud and angry shouts which she did not understand from a menacing officer.
City officials, advised by its damage-control official, the City Attorney, fear three things. One is bad publicity. The trial and likely conviction of a de-escalation-trained, veteran officer for first-degree murder will be sensational news. Two is public exposure. The trial will reveal the officials misrepresenting the incident and their contempt for the public; until then, concealment. After consulting with the City Attorney, the City Clerk implies that the city has no records about who initiated, supported or developed, or approved Version 1. Three is big costs. A recent settlement cost for a chokehold killing was $6.5 million. The settlement cost for this two-shot killing may exceed $10 million. Instead of paying more for insurance, the City Manager should use the money and work harder to improve the LCPD, which, in a well-managed city, should be able to do better.
But it cannot. It has policies and programs, but corrupt and incompetent leadership make them meaningless and ineffective throughout the police department. The Police Chief unwittingly admitted his impotence when he echoed a joke in commenting on the current situation. Old joke: a restaurant review that the food was bad and the portions small. The Police Chief seemed disbelieving even in reporting that the killer cop had had more than the mandatory 70 hours of de-escalation training. New joke: his creative riff implied that the training was bad and more of it made the results worse.
Another way to understand the current situation is to understand how Las Cruces responds to police incidents. After the cop-killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Las Cruceans protested for several days at a major downtown intersection not far from LCPD headquarters. City Council convened to discuss proposed “8 Can’t Wait” police reforms; a media-addicted Councilor spoke strongly about the need for reform and did nothing. But no Las Cruceans protested the cop-killing of Sra. Baca. At the time, no city officials, including four Latina Council members, expressed any sympathy for the loss of life or condolences to the family for the loss of their mother or grandmother. In Las Cruces, forget about Black Lives Matter (or White Lives Matter); Brown Lives Don’t Matter.
If a problem exists elsewhere, it is a problem; if it exists here, it is a different one. I imagine that City Council will get involved. First, media-addicted councilors will propose a resolution deploring citizens who obstruct the flight of police bullets or thrust bloody arms into the mouths of K-9 German Shepherds, as in an incident a few days later. Then, Council will pass a policy against such citizen misconduct because it costs the city too much money. With pay-outs for penalties or settlements rising, insurers will either raise rates or drop coverage, because of LCPD’s “pre-existing conditions,” that is, officers over-protecting themselves or administering “street justice” by killing or maiming citizens. Finally, Council will justify itself by explaining that the city cannot let itself be victimized by low-lifes (citizens) trying to get rich quick (seeking financial compensation) merely because they suffered grievous loss of loved ones or bodily harm from violence-prone officers doing their jobs according to LCPD’s traditional police practices.
If you are thinking of relocating to Las Cruces, where living is cheap and life is cheap, my advice is be white, be rich, and buy an expensive house east of Interstate 25 and south of U.S. 70. Residents there, if they call for help, have a fair chance of surviving a police response, especially if they can arrange to have their doctor or lawyer arrive first. However, just to be safe, think about staying put or relocating elsewhere.
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