Keller and Torrez

The ABQ metros two young political hotshots continue to get tripped up by the ongoing ABQ crime wave, a reminder that advancing in statewide politics from the big city looks easy but really isn't.

First, ABQ Mayor Tim Keller, 41, fresh off a high in announcing a decline in a number of crime categories, including auto theft, is now haunted by yet another misstep by his APD that has prompted yet another internal affairs investigation. This one is over the drowning death of a one year old baby girl whose  parents are now charged with child abuse resulting in death:

. . .Family asked police to check on the baby on Dec. 18 and an officer did a welfare check on the baby at a Northeast Albuquerque apartment, but Romero told the officer the baby was with her sister, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday. At that point, the baby was still missing, and it’s unclear why police did not seek the public’s help in finding the family sooner. “That’s under internal affairs investigation, that’s what we’re looking into,” a police spokesman said.

The problem is that back in May the same APD failed to fully investigate the abuse of a 7 year old girl whose drug-addled parents turned her into a child prostitute. The girl's blood-stained underwear was collected by an APS teacher but APD rejected it as evidence and had it thrown away. A shocked city saw Keller order an internal affairs investigation and be forced to make a public mea culpa over his initial support of his department's actions.

But here we are again. And that raises the question of whether Keller and his police chief Michael Geier have command and control over the department, which operates under the purview of the Department of Justice because of its checkered past.

 It also again raises the question of APD's culture and whether Keller and Geier are making enough progress with needed reforms. It also raises the more disturbing question of whether Keller and/or Geier have become part of the defensive/rogue culture that got the city in such a law enforcement mess in the first place.

And all of that raises questions about Keller's decision early in his term to reject choosing a new police chief from out of state to reform the rotted culture. Is it now time? Or is the Mayor going to continue to absorb the slings and arrows from an agency that seems largely unresponsive (or impervious) to his will for major reform?

Meantime, Dr. James Ginger, the highly compensated overseer of the DOJ decree governing APD, pronounces himself pleased as punch because, in part, unlike the Mayor Berry administration at least Keller and the chief talk with him. But that's not reform, Doc. That's ego stroking. And pretty darn expensive stroking at that.

UNRELENTING MACABRE VIOLENCE

The late '18 and early 2019 city violence has been unrelenting. We don't know if the parents of that one year old boy left to drown and then callously buried in a backyard forever to be forgotten were doped up, but isn't that usually the case in these twisted sagas?

And then there's the two teenaged boys--14 and 15--who were slain and buried in shallow graves near Rio Rancho over an apparent drug deal gone awry. The crime began in the ABQ foothills then went to the West Mesa where the boys were beaten to death, with the horror inexplicably being shown on Snapchat.

Then there was the killing of a young girl on the west side last week identified only as a "juvenile" whose 15 year old cousin went berserk, killed her and left the body in an arroyo. Drugs? No word yet.

The cops can't necessarily stop deranged cousins, but it's highly important to note that in the span of a couple of weeks we have a one year old dead and the parents charged; two teens in the grave because of drug abuse and a little girl aged unknown murdered and lying in an arroyo.

Those are the children of this city and state and this is not new. It is a continuation of the wickedness that began creeping up on us with the economic decline and increase in drug usage and trafficking.

ABQ has made some progress in reducing auto and property crime, but the fact remains that violence continues at historic and unacceptable levels--and it is the city's youth who seem to be in its crosshairs.

Keller doesn't try to spin that. But after 13 months in office difficult and potentially painful decisions about this city's policing and its rampant drug dealing have yet to be made. Hiring more cops is not the sole solution, if the culture is not revamped. That's like putting more salt in an already over salted sauce. The more the decisions are delayed by the 11th Floor the more pain it will bring to victims and to the future of the city.

The mayor has hired several old hands as consultants but we need fresh perspectives--from out of this region and state.

TORREZ TAKE DOWN

Now over to Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez, 42, whose political future appears to be getting swallowed up by perhaps the most horrific child murder in city history--the 2016 killing and dismemberment of 10 year old Victoria Martens.

Democrat Torrez has worked furiously during his tenure to shift blame for the crime wave to the judges. But his blame shifting has caught up with him in the Martens slaying which threatens to go unpunished under his watch and has the DA facing possible court sanctions over his public statements regarding the case. As is his custom, those statements worked to blame others for shortcomings in the case. (Has a DA ever been sanctioned here?)

This week Jessica Kelly's trial for Victoria's murder begins but Torrez has already alarmed the public by saying there could be "an unidentified" man who may have committed the killing and is still on the loose. And the DA has now had to drop the rape charges against her. And Kelley is being prosecuted against that backdrop? Truly this is bizarro world.

Late Monday morning Kelly copped a plea, perhaps lessening a bit of the political pressure on the DA:

One day before the first trial in the Victoria Martens case was scheduled to begin, the defendant, 34-year-old Jessica Kelley pleaded no contest to child abuse recklessly caused, resulting in death, tampering with evidence and aggravated assault. 

There is already talk that Torrez could face a Dem primary challenge in 2020 when he is up for re-election. The sanctions threat and the Victoria Martens case make him more vulnerable--even if he plans on running against the judges for the rest of his career.

They often say the 40's are the "worry free years," usually blessed with good health and career climbing. But for fortysomethings Tim Keller and Raul Torrez they are years when their mettle is being tested like never before. For them their 40's is when your hair starts to turn gray.

JUMPING THE GUN

Harry Teague

We jumped the gun when we said in a first blog draft Thursday that for the first time in "living memory" our state's congressional delegation is now controlled by one party. It's true that all five positions are now in the hands of the Democrats, but as several readers reminded us we forgot about Harry Teague.

He was the southern NM Democrat who in 2008 was elected to the normally Republican  congressional seat there and who made the delegation all Democratic for two short years in 2009 and '10. That ended when Republican Steve Pearce reclaimed the seat in 2010. We missed that when we trotted out the "living memory" line.

So when was the last time before 2009 that the state's congressional delegation was comprised of solely one party? That was 1981-82 when we had two--not three congressional districts. They were held by Republicans Manuel Lujan and Joe Skeen. Our Senators those two years were Republicans Pete Domenici and Jack Schmitt.

In 1982 Dem Jeff Bingaman was elected to the US Senate, breaking the one party hold on the delegation. It wasn't until 2009 and Teague's election that we would again have solo party control/ If the Democrats hold their own in 2020 it will be the rare occasion when not only one party controls the delegation but does so for two consecutive elections.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019