WHO REMEMBERS AMELIA BACA?

 On 16 April, Jared Gosper, a veteran LCPD police officer, killed Sra. Amelia Baca.

 

Every police agency involved—LCPD, DASO, NMSUPD, and NMSP—worked to absolve this killer.  LCPD Police Chief Miguel Dominguez resorted to a PR film which presented the 75-year-old Hispanic woman with dementia in a bad light and her killer in a good light.  Despite the conflict of interest, six LCPD officers, including Dominguez, sat on the task force which sent a secret report to Third District Attorney Gerald Byers.  He ducked the decision to prosecute the killer by sending the case to NM Attorney General Hector Balderas.  After today’s election, Banderas will decide not to prosecute the killer.  Such is justice in New Mexico.

 

Las Cruces was briefly excited by the police killing and the film of this killing.  A few people protested for a day or two at Picacho and Main, not far from LCPD headquarters.. Then, they went home or moved on to another cause.  They have forgotten Sra. Baca.

 

City officials—Mayor Miyagishima; Councilors Kasandra Gandara, Johanna Bencomo, Gabe Vasquez, who had touted police reform; City Manager Ifo Pili; City Attorney Jennifer Vega—have stayed silent.  They have forgotten Sra. Baca.

 

The Las Cruces Sun-News and its investigative reporters, Justin Garcia and Algernon D'Ammassa—, after headline-grabbing articles, dropped the subject.  They have not reported or commented on the task force composition or the DA’s decision to turn the case over to the NMAG.  They have forgotten Sra. Baca.

 

Two VIPs dropped the subject.  One VIP, Peter Goodman, first wrote an on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand column: poor Sra. Baca, who suffered dementia; poor Officer Gosper, who awoke with no intent to kill.  He then wrote to advocate a Civilian Police Oversight Board.  Later, he joined other VIPs to lobby local officials, lost, but wrote nothing about lessons learned from their resistance to police reform.  Nor did this now-and-then lawyer write about the handling of this case by police and prosecutors.  He has forgotten Sra. Baca.

 

The other VIP, Bobbie Green, president of the local NAACP chapter, joined other VIPs to lobby officials for a CPOB.  She did not lead chapter members to protest the killing of a Hispanic woman of color, push for police reform, or support the CPOB proposal.  She has forgotten Sra. Baca.

 

Apparently, those who have forgotten Sra. Baca do not value the life of an elderly Hispanic woman killed by a police officer or condemn another police execution of a harmless citizen.  Otherwise, they would have remembered her by pursuing police reform.  I have not forgotten Sra. Baca, scorn those who have, and hope that her family will receive the justice due them.