Talk about all-crime-all-the-time:

A recent study by Yahoo Finance said Albuquerque leads the nation in car theft with nearly 700 per 100,000 people in 2014. FBI crime data said more than 6,600 were stolen in 2015.  Albuquerque police said they're doing all they can to keep cars out of the hands of thieves but they need some help. “We'll arrest these guys but they'll literally laugh in our face and say 'I’ll be back out tomorrow doing it again,” APD said. APD said people can keep their cars safe by not warming them up in the mornings, they said they had 30 stolen cars in one day.

Sure, we'll warm up our cars but how about warming up the cop recruiting effort so we have enough of them on the streets to discourage the car thieves? APD remains severely understaffed.

Retired APD sergeant and longtime APD critic Dan Klein said his jaw dropped, along with the rest of the city, when it was disclosed over the holidays that the city was preparing to ink another deal with Taser to supply lapel cameras for APD officers. Yep, that's the same Taser that's involved in an alleged corruption caper with former APD Chief Schultz to get its first contract with the city:

Only in Mayor Richard Berry's world would allowing a company that your staff admits had inappropriate ties to the past chief of police, and is now under criminal investigation for that contract, to have the winning bid on the current multi-million dollar camera contract! We don't have common sense, we don't have rule of law, we just have an AWOL mayor. And once again a shout out to Attorney General Hector Balderas--please make a decision on the Taser investigation. So far the City Auditor, City Inspector General and the New Mexico State Auditor are all alleging criminal pay-to-play between Taser and APD Command Staff. Hector, you need to do something.

Your move, Hector.

SCRAPHEAP?

Here's one reason the idea of reinstating the tax on food to raise money for the state budget may end up on the Roundhouse scrapheap:

Advocates say Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester is forcing New Mexico lawmakers to reconsider various proposals related to fighting poverty in one of the nation's poorest states. Less than two years into his tenure, Wester has been outspoken on issues ranging from early childhood education and immigration to income inequality. He recently denounced a tax proposal that critics say would unfairly raise grocery prices for low-income families. He hosted an immigration forum earlier this year and criticized the Obama administration for not giving due process to detained migrant children from Central America. He also spoke out against an effort to reinstate New Mexico's death penalty. 

The food tax, aka, "The Tortilla Tax," is being prominently promoted by Sandoval County GOP Rep. Jason Harper who is grabbing all sorts of headlines. But, hold on. Didn't Harper lose his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee when the GOP lost control of the state House at the November ballot box? Yes, he did. So why is the Democratic legislative leadership letting the minority representative hog the public microphones with his Tortilla Tax and not putting out their own spokesmen to counter Harper's view? Did the Dems forget they won? Just wonderin'.

THE BOTTOM LINES

In the Tuesday blog we called Republican Wayne Johnson, who is a possible '17 mayoral candidate, a former BernCo Commissioner. He is an incumbent serving his second term. And we misspelled the first name of mayoral candidate Eddy Aragon.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2017