Dona Ana County Detention Center (DACDC) in Las Cruces has been notorious for years, if not decades, for mismanagement, fiduciary deficiencies, and carceral abuses. On 16 October, a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of six detainees added to its notoriety. On that date, KTSM and KVIA/ABC, two El Paso television stations, posted reports on that lawsuit. On 20 October, I distributed my blog, “ICE-Like Abuses at Dona Ana County Detention Center Implicate County and Center Leaders,” to over 300 people and posted it for many more.
I am unaware of any public response to the television reports. I received exactly one comment by a local citizen from my over three hundred readers, many of whom are local and state officials. During that time, local media—Las Cruces Sun-News, The Bulletin, KRWG, and KTAL—and our more prominent media commentators—Peter Goodman, Walt Rubel, Shaunna Pfeiffer, and Heath Haussamen—have ignored the story for two weeks (and counting).
In fairness, I have to consider that I am impatient about, not the tardiness of media coverage, but the lack of it altogether. In fairness, I can dismiss that consideration. The lawsuit claimed that the DACDC used detainees, some awaiting trial—that is, innocent unless and until convicted of an offense—, as guinea pigs for prisoner control exercises by violent and humiliating means. The two TV reports should have prompted front-page or first-lead stories and featured editorials in the local media. But, to paraphrase a line from the movie The Big Easy, this is Las Cruces, darling, and we have a certain way of not doing things here and not talking about not doing them.
The usual response of public officials to such horrific reports is the pious claim that “this is not who we are.” The statement implies the officials’ innocence and denies the facts. But DACDC abuses, the silence covering them up, and the refusal to confront and correct them are who we are. The media and their columnists are accessories after the fact. The members of the Board of Commissioners are accessories both before and after the fact.
The elected representatives of Dona Ana and Las Cruces citizens represent a moral laxity though they act with malice aforethought. Two years ago, the Board approved the acquisition of 150 tasers and other equipment for law enforcement and detention. DACDC employees have used tasers, not to control riots, but to threaten, punish, and torture detainees. Although legally limited to work within the confines of the DACDC, members of its Special Operations and Response Team (SORT) have been deployed at Board of Commissioners’ meetings. SORT is morphing into an off-the-books police force under the control of the County Manager.
Meanwhile, as I have noted several times, Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story requested that the Las Cruces City Council seek state funding for five Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) vehicles. Council did so. My inquiries about the rationale for them to Story directly or through my District 1 Representative Cassie McClure have received no responses, and State Representatives Joanna Ferrary and Nathan Small have promised to inquire but either have not done so, received no response, or refused to share any information obtained. With little or no public discussion, much less approval, elected officials are funding training of law enforcement personnel in military tactics, and equipping them with military-style weapons and vehicles
Their use and abuse become more likely every day. President Trump and major federal departments and agencies (DHS, DOJ, FBI, ICE, CBP) are equating peaceful demonstrations or protests with riotous disturbances, even insurrections. Such incendiary language might prompt poorly qualified, poorly trained, over-equipped, over-eager law enforcement personnel to maim or kill people, damage property—actions far more harmful to the communities in which they operate than anything which demonstrations might do—, and violate laws and constitutional rights in the process. ICE and CBP agents are already acting like the goons which unaccountable law enforcement personnel invariably become. Accordingly, they sweep up, assault and batter, and jail even citizen bystanders witnessing their street muggings and abductions—and charge them with offences against government agents. Just weeks ago, Las Cruces Police Department (LCPD) officers trained rifles on peaceful demonstrators, mostly Hispanic, at the Albert N. Johnson Park.
Situations in which federalized National Guard or active-duty troops are stationed in cities already exist. They and officers from the aforementioned agencies patrol streets, suppress demonstrations, and support arrests and abductions. Other situations might arise in which states use their National Guards or state police in similar actions. Notably, the federal government is trying to persuade state and local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal agencies in their daily operations. In the end, federal law enforcement will influence, if not direct, state and local law enforcement with little sensitivity to state and local conditions.
These trends in law enforcement suggest that Dona Ana County and Las Cruces might be no exception; they are already militarizing their law enforcement departments. Although it is not too late from them to take control of their local constabularies, they are unlikely to do so. They would have to explain spending public funds and then reversing their decisions on training and arming police officers for military-style operations. Instead, they are more likely to prepare pious public statements of surprise or concern, or lame, after-the-fact excuses. The local media’s silence about the ACLU lawsuit ensures the public’s silence and thus precludes political pressure to rectify a potentially dangerous situation. In that event, officials will continue to acquiesce in the incremental militarization of local law enforcement agencies.
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