Tag: APD Protests

APD protests went from peaceful to just ridiculous in only one week.

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By Rene Thompson, Editor in Chief

The Tuesday, March 25 protest of APD officers’ excessive use of force had a massive turnout of more 1,000 people, and was really a very peaceful event that went as smoothly as it could have when ending at APD headquarters.

Unfortunately though, the other protest on Sunday, March 30 seemed to have an eerie and anxious feel in the crowd right from the get go.

I got the impression that there were instigators and troublemakers throughout the mass from the beginning; getting people riled up to walk the streets, and not to really show solidarity, but to wreak havoc on central and antagonize police officers, who seemed to have no other choice but to try to shut down the event that lasted from noon to 12 a.m. throughout sections of Downtown and Nob Hill areas.

The weird vibes in the crowd seemed to start when organizers tried to speak on behalf of family members who have lost loved ones, and were booed and interrupted by the crowd.

From that moment on the protest seemed unorganized and the march stopped sporadically, with people not knowing where they were going next, and eventually ended up circling Central Avenue from Downtown to Nob Hill and back again.

While doing so, entire groups stopped completely in the middle of Central, blocking traffic, provoking cops while screaming and yelling at officers on Girard, attempting to tear down the Central street sign at Yale Boulevard, and standing in the middle of the I-25 freeway, as well as attempting to block the I-25 on-ramp at Central.

Police were forced to stop protesters with an officer barricade while in riot gear, after demonstrators started getting even more out of hand when reaching Fourth Street and Roma Avenue, and again at Carlisle and Central where police had to finally tear gas protesters to get people to disperse, as well as arresting six people.

It seems that activists and protesters were intentionally provoking the police to do something and ruining what great work, effort, and results had been made from the Tuesday protest event.

People were aggressive from the beginning of this protest and seemed to intentionally want this event to get out of hand by acting out throughout the city in order to try and make people aware of the city’s issues, but it only takes a few bad apples to ruin a cause; like people prepped with weapons and gas masks, and this is exactly what happened at the protest on Sunday.

This issue has divided the community in our city, including some people who are supporting APD as well and even had a “wave or thank your local officers” event on the same day.

Some protesters acted hastily and without regard for others on Sunday, while losing much of the local support for this cause in the process of making citizens in Albuquerque look like fools.

This issue of APD violence has gotten to a boiling point that seriously needs to be addressed by city officials before anything worse occurs, because the community of Albuquerque deserves to feel somewhat safe and to have the peace of mind in knowing that ensuing chaos (like hundreds of people blocking city traffic for hours) and poor leadership will not be the city’s eventual downfall.

Letter to the Editor regarding APD protests

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What we are seeing is the chickens coming home to roost. In political science we call this a blowback. What we are seeing here is the murder of defenseless and troubled people by the APD and is what we do with our military and economic forces in countries around the world.

On the global level, the U.S. needs to step up the extraction of resources from abroad using economic sanctions, outright war and terroristic assassination with drones to bring about regime changes that will allow our corporations freedom to run the economies of the world.

Many of the APD it seems have been tools of this policy in our military service and are here carrying out the same shoot to kill methods. Like abroad, here they claim they are the victim and just had to defend themselves. Their killings are always justified in their eyes.

This is just what our national leaders have established on the larger level with the policy of pre-emptive war. We don’t see the cops shooting white collar, politicians and corporate CEO criminals up in the heights who have bankrupted the state and global economy do we? No. We are seeing state terrorism being unleaded to intimidate the poor and troubled people in the grassroots because at some point this has the potential to unite with the middle class in a large revolution. New Mexico and Albuquerque are full of military bases and research universities that live off quiet support for the principle that massive violence to support our corporations abroad is legitimate. It is no big jump for it to be accepted for domestic control too. Plus it keeps taxes low for the rich.

That is why we don’t see any institutional responses to APD terrorism. All the resistance is coming from people who are just one paycheck away from a job or in need of social services themselves that would require raising taxes on the corporations and wealthy. We are experiencing a real paradigm shift right now too. Domestically civilian policing methods are no longer able to cope with the growing unrest due to cutbacks of jobs, wages, and services.

Again, this is just like our corporations and military abroad who have not been able to meet the demands of the Arab Spring movement and the growing Asia countries for justice and equality, a fair economy. As a result there we are now involved in a large series of wars to suppress it. With the government’s recent suppression of our Occupy movement here at home there is a growing class consciousness growing.

A war between the haves and the have-nots is brewing everywhere and the rich know it and are preparing with agencies like the APD and the military. We need to be aware and fight for justice and equality even more.

Bob Anderson

Political Science Instructor