I have bad news for all—the few—Las Cruceans who call for police accountability: there will never, ever, be police accountability in Las Cruces. It requires something not in its culture or its citizens.
Accountability means rendering an account of conduct, a reckoning of responsibility based on the facts of that conduct. The indispensable requirement of accountability is truthfulness, or honesty, a requirement which local government and law enforcement personnel cannot and will not meet. Whether police misconduct occurs in cases of code violations, misdemeanors, or felonies, these people do not and will not tell the truth. Instead, they ignore it, twist it, hide it, or deny it; they do not tell it or act on it.
Consider officials’ responses to minor violations in my case. Animal Control Officer Juan Valles charged me with five phony violations. IA investigator Sergeant Sean Mullen found them unsupported but buried his one-sentence finding at the end of a six-page report made long by irrelevant details. IA Chief Barbara Kinney closed the investigation with a letter mentioning none of the phony violations. Police Chief Patrick Gallagher lied that a citizen, not Valles, had made all five complaints, including three about defective paperwork. Councilor Kasandra Gandara, who knew from the beginning that the charges were false and heard Gallagher lie did nothing about the charges or the lie. Councilor Johana Bencomo heard City Manager Ifo Pili admit that the charges were phony and that I was due an apology; when she (and all other City Councilors) learned that City Attorney Jennifer Vega had squelched the apology, she and they did nothing. Vega later lied that the charges were true and “well documented.” Mayor Ken Miyagishima broke his promise that I could present my case to OIR and persuaded City Council, with Bencomo’s pointed endorsement, to exclude it from review. In short, false charges, lies, cover-up, dereliction of duty—no accountability.
[Political note: Gandara, who will seek the mayoralty, will do nothing about police reform (she is too close to the City Attorney to lead or support that effort). Bencomo, who talks about accountability either does not know what it means and requires, or knows but is too weak to act—hers is the hypocrisy of preaching, not practicing.]
Consider officials’ responses to a felony in the case of Sra. Amelia Baca. On 16 April 2022, Office Jared Cosper killed Sra. Amelia Vega. His report of his action has not been released, but, in all likelihood, it more rationalizes than recounts his conduct. If it is like reports filed by officers in cases involving the use of force or weapons, it is probably false in important particulars. Police Chief Miguel Dominguez attempted to deceive the public with a PR film biased for Cosper and against Sra. Baca, made no public statement for a week until the PR film had been released, and had no comment when the unedited footage had been released after an IPRA request. The LCPD charged Cosper with nothing and returned him to duty in November. Then, in a conflict of interest, Dominguez led five other LCPD officers to a task force review of its “independent” investigation in a direct conflict of interest. Yet neither the Mayor nor any Councilor demanded answers about this perverse police handling of the police killing of a local citizen. In short, the Chief’s effort to deceive the public, his failure to inform the public, the delay in and lack of legal action—no accountability. (For a blistering editorial on the Baca case, see Peter Goodman’s “Amelia Baca and the Authorities,” Sun-News, 23-02-05.)
Local government and law enforcement personnel are prone to dishonesty. It is a mainstay of the culture and the citizenry. The police are just like us, and we are just like them, so they say. It is a conventional means to neutralize controversial issues. It is necessary to avoid offending LCPD police and prevent “blue flu.” It is necessary to deter law suits or curtail legal costs. It is built into the organization of city government. Vega, a lawyer with professional obligations to the law and the truth, ignores dishonesty in fulfilling conflicting roles and responsibilities of the City Attorney: as City Attorney, representing and defending the city in all cases on the one hand; as Risk Manager, reducing or eliminating damage from actual or potential legal liabilities on the other hand. City Council values her dishonesty because of law suits avoided or settlements abated.
In a city government which perverts truth and scorns honesty across a range of cases from the most trivial (like mine) to the most serious (like Baca’s), the likelihood of elected officials, administration officers, or police leaders holding others accountable is zero. Until citizens realize that accountability requires truthfulness, or honesty, by all parties to a problem, they should realize that any aspiration for police accountability is unrealistic.
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