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Sunday, September 23, 2007
ABQ Mayor Chavez and Police Chief Apologize to Peace Demonstrators
Some good news. As described in a previous post, peaceful demonstrators at last Saturday's Iraq occupation protest at Kirtland AFB's Truman Gate in Albuquerque got a raw deal from members of the Albuquerque Police Department. Those participating in the protest were called names, cars parked in legal spaces were ticketed if they had certain bumperstickers, mounted officers steered their horses onto the sidewalk where people were standing with signs and other problems were reported.
As KRQE News 13 reports, representatives of the peace movement met with Mayor Martin Chavez and APD Chief Ray Schultz last Thursday and received their apologies, as well as a pledge that officers will receive additional training on how to respond to peaceful demonstrations:
A confrontation between anti-war protestors and Albuquerque police last weekend has brought an apology from city officials and a promise of more training for police, according to a protest leader.
... "There's going to be training on First Amendment rights," protest organizer Jeanne Pahls said. "We in the peace movement are looking forward to see how the Police Oversight Committee deals with this.
"We'd like to see there's some accountability for the behavior we saw on Saturday."
View the KRQE News report, which includes video taken at the protest by participants:
September 23, 2007 at 10:46 AM in Civil Liberties, Iraq War, Local Politics | Permalink
Comments
A certain irony here as I clicked on the video and there at the bottom of the screen it said, "Our Community Needs You, APD Wants You." ... an ad for APD. I guess this video would solicit for a certain "type", eh?
Posted by: | Sep 23, 2007 3:40:00 PM
I was very upset that the police acted the way that they did. I did not attend this rally thought I participate in a lot of them. It is very reassuring that the mayor and police chief apologized and that 1st ammendment training is being given. I am saddened that so many Americans, especially our police, are not already fully aware of our bill of rights.
Posted by: Terry Riley | Sep 24, 2007 9:48:40 AM
We have a police department that wants us to believe that they have one of the best training academies in the country. If true why do those officers need more 1st amendment training? Fact is APD has a long history of officers misusing their authority to abuse citizens. Thankfully, the day's of shooting unarmed civilians under very questionable circumstances are gone, however much abusive behavior continues. Perhaps it is acceptable behavior to the Mayor and Chief, but under the current political climate there will be more protesting and a much more vocal electorate, its way past time for Albuquerque Police to raise their level of professionalism past being abusive and Constitutional right violators.
Posted by: VP | Sep 24, 2007 10:41:24 AM
I think more than an apology is needed from the mayor and chief. The officers who were so rude and un-American should be made to apologize and then punished in some way so this doesn't happen again. What price are they gonna pay?
I also think those dangerous tasers should be taken away from all police everywhere. They use them against people when zero force is needed just to be smart asses.
Posted by: Citizen K | Sep 24, 2007 4:36:12 PM
The problem is, no one is fired. The police have learned they can commit false arrest, use
unnecessary force and damage people's
bodies and know the police union will
spare no expense to prevent termination.
Mayors like Chavez rely upon the support of
public employees, which includes the police union. Rather than fire the bastards for
being the walking lawsuits they are, he kowtows
to them. After all, we the taxpayers are just
the bottomless pit. Officer Smith beat up
a protester. What the hell. Just get the state
to allocate another 1/4 cent gross receipts tax raise (5 years ago, ABQ gross receipts taxes were
a tad over 6 percent; they now stand at 6.875%).
Raise fees for the BioPark and ABQ Museum.
Raise fines. Any way you slice it, they will
not fire anyone nor will they take it out
of their own wallets.
Posted by: Brandon Curtis | Apr 20, 2008 12:55:48 AM
