Monday, June 28, 2021Progressive Councilor Faces Test To Hold ABQ Westside Council Seat, Plus: Crimes And Cops; Strong Reactions To APD Union Leader's Comments
Take, for example, the coming battle for District 1, the central Westside district that features appointed Councilor Lan Sena and retired APD officer and Allstate insurance business owner Louie Sanchez, both Democrats. For a time it appeared that Sena, whose spouse is westside neighborhood activist Joey Sena, might get off with an easy ride, but Sanchez, 56, joined the race late and his campaign says he is well on his way to collecting enough $5 donations to secure $41,000 in public financing as is Sena. The deadline is July 5. This is the council seat long held by popular moderate Dem City Councilor Ken Sanchez who passed away in 2020. Sena was appointed to fill the vacancy by Mayor Keller. She is now seeking a four year term. The daughter of Vietnamese refuges with a Master's in Public Administration, Sena is well-spoken and involved, but she is also progressive--very progressive. Enter Sanchez--no relation to Ken Sanchez--but whose politics are similar to the late councilor who ran an accounting business. Like everywhere else in the city crime is a major issue in this district but Sanchez, a lifelong resident of the district who once headed up the security detail of Mayor Marty Chavez, says Sena is disconnected from that and is pursuing a radical, progressive agenda that includes calling the APD racist and condoning the department's mismanagement: Mayor Keller and his un-elected appointee Lan Sena, have allowed crime to wreak havoc on our citizens through poor management of the Albuquerque Police Department. I will work to open an APD substation in the Southwest Mesa so that District 3 and District 1 residents get the police services they pay taxes for. SENA'S SIDE
Councilor Lan Sena with Councilor Pat Davis introduced a bill to prevent APD from receiving military surplus equipment—though the department hasn't in recent years. Sena said policing, as a whole, is a racist system and that understanding the history of racism and policing is a first step to shaping policy that confronts racism. Sena helped lead the effort to make the ABQ bus system free and has been an advocate for paid family leave. She has also been outspoken about discrimination against Asians. But the biggest headlines she's made in her council career are over sex harassment charges she leveled against former State Rep. Abbas Akhil who she said harassed her in 2019 when she worked for his campaign. Akhil has disputed the charges which Sena did not make public until January of this year. In the upcoming campaign Sanchez is sure to hitch his wagon to BernCo Sheriff and mayoral candidate Manny Gonzales. Sena will try to ride the Keller coattails. This is a mostly working class Hispanic district with a fair share of socially conservative Democrats. It's a proving ground for the new progressivism. Whether that sticks is the question hovering over the Sena vs. Sanchez contest, a race to watch in City Election '22. COPS AND CRIME We have much more on the ABQ cops and crime. It's in reaction to a statement from APD union head Shaun Willoughby on the Thursday blog who argued, among other things, that disrespect for law enforcement is why crime waves here and elsewhere continue. We asked for counterpoints sand they poured in so we'll do some today nd tomorrow. First up is reader Michel Corwin: Joe, Willoughby’s piece feels like Blue Grievance. There’s zero introspection on how law enforcement has entrenched itself in all the wrong ways—militarization, beating non-violent protesters, shooting people that shouldn’t be shot. It’s called blame everyone else instead of looking in the mirror. The high level of killings started in 2020, before the Floyd murder, under a lock em up or shoot them president. 2021 is ramping up from there, mostly because our country has no mental health infrastructure. Willoughby assumes that people are going out and killing after watching the news. After all, according to him, the media has created this myth of disrespect of officers that enables these killers to go kill. News flash (pun intended) people killing other people are not doing so after sitting down for their favorite dinner and watching the news. But, respect is a funny thing, it has to be earned, it doesn’t come simply because you carry a badge or a gun. So the lack of respect that he feels has nothing to do with deterrence. There’s a lot of angry folks out there now who don’t know how to control their anger. Cities need to have mental health professionals handle more calls, perhaps with a single officer standby. Civilian employees and techs can handle after the fact crime reports instead of uniformed officers. Why are we sending out officers when the crime already occurred and the criminal has gotten away? And warehouse only the baddest of the bad. Take away the school of how to be a better criminal before they become hardcore. How about intervening and changing the lives of those who fall in to crime at an early age, teach them a better way. THEIR OWN UNDOING? Reader Ken Tabish sees it this way: The police in this country have created their own undoing. Consider these points: The militarization of the police has been a large problem creating this divide along with the hiring of ex-military into the ranks. Their training and mind set, I suspect, is much different then those officers who did not serve. Yet, I would admit that all ex-military police do not fit this profile. Their view is that the suspect is the enemy and not someone who is a member of the community in which they serve. The police are protected with unqualified immunity. This must change to impact the behavior, actions, and response of the bad cops within the system. No one is above the law. Lastly, there is no message from the police about the concern for the number of guns and very lethal guns within the community at large. If there is a concern among the police about the increase in murders and gun violence, you would think that the police would take a stronger stance on gun regulations. It just seems as if they are more inline with the NRA, than with a large portion of the community which feels that gun controls and regulations are a necessary means of containing gun violence. This is the home of New Mexico politics. Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.   (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021 |
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