Here's a pic of the weary ABQ police chief apparently nodding off during Gov. Lujan Grisham's town hall on public safety Monday evening (or perhaps deep into the mysteries of his phone) symbolizing how Mr. and Mrs. New Mexico feel about the never-ending prattle from the political class about the ongoing crime crisis.

That "crisis" is now years-long and probably needs to be relabeled the new normal. As long as fentanyl continues to flood the metro there appears to be no end in sight. The latest:

A daring chase involving two carloads of FBI agents on Albuquerque’s West Side turned even more dangerous when the fleeing suspect allegedly dumped an estimated 10,000 loose blue fentanyl pills onto the roadway and kept driving. A SWAT team leader with the FBI finally had to call off the pursuit near Central and Atrisco NW on July 18 because it was too dangerous, according to a criminal complaint. Agents quickly blocked off a street to secure the loose fentanyl, which had exploded from a cardboard Corona beer box when it hit the pavement. Nicholas “Youngster” Mares, 22, ultimately was arrested on July 25, and is being held in federal custody until trial.

Wild stuff and it's not as if the Feds aren't trying. The arrests of the notorious leaders of the Sinaola Cartel in El Paso being the latest example. 

So the town halls drone on, resembling five hour group therapy sessions for the Governor, law enforcement and crime victims but have little bearing on actual crime-fighting. 

The public cares deeply about crime but has grown numb and hungers for leadership that comes with a platform that is new and actually has a chance of working. They will awaken if and when they hear it. Meanwhile, does someone have a pillow for the Chief?

MLG AND CRIME

Before the ABQ town hall the Guv gave an interview with a lot of long-winded answers. We hear from her first and then from a Senior Alligator critic at the Roundhouse: 

MLG: Albuquerque is impacted by the fact that 16,000 cases since 2017 have been dismissed for competency. These are cases that go before the court system 30 or 40 times a year. This represents about 3,300 unique individuals who are committing serious felonies. 

If [the Albuquerque Police Department] is chasing — and they are — all these calls over and over and over again, you can’t do preventative community policing. It interrupts your ability to do patrolling. It’s creating road rage. .  The kind of basic disregard for public safety. . . in communities like Albuquerque is making it impossible for a city or a county to do it by themselves, unless there are more tools available. That’s why we’ve got state police in Albuquerque

We need to get more shelters up. But remember, far too many people won’t seek treatment on their own, or if they are getting treatment and support, don’t stay in it long enough and it’s creating this kind of permissive environment. We are seeing open fentanyl use on our streets, drug dealing, solicitation, human trafficking. Go to any corner, broad daylight — God help you if you’re out there at night. It’s horrific and we can’t get in front of it unless you have the tools on the back end. That’s what the city needs, which is why city councilors support the measures I brought before the Legislature. It is why the mayor stands with us, the district attorney, the sheriff, the police.

Now a rebuttal from the Roundhouse:

Despite now almost ten hours of town halls, never once does she or anyone else discuss the specific bills and their deep flaws as the result of poor legal writing and inevitable constitutional defects. She's surrounded by non-lawyers who don't read the actual bills or understand what those bills say and mean. 

The Governor doesn't have the interest or patience to actually read and understand the bills she touts. She's never burdened by worrying about the constitutional issues which invariably lead to lawsuits and injunctions. The best example is her multiple gun orders that were struck down in court. The Governor doesn't concern herself with constitutional limitations to her powers, takes the momentary achievement and glosses it over when she's struck down in court.     

Three of her five bills at the special session would have been struck down in court and accomplish nothing other than employment of lawyers. The data sharing bill she proposed is already law and would accomplish nothing more. The felon in possession of a gun penalties have been increased five times in the past six years under two Governors--with no demonstrable reduction in crime. At the ABQ town hall she again touted a presumption for pretrial detention which the NM Supreme Court would certainly strike down as unconstitutional. 

On competency, yes, we need to find a solution to criminals simply released time after time. The legislature write laws but ultimately the discretion will belong to judges. It is the judiciary that is the key to addressing crime. The bench now is very liberal and progressive on crime. Ironically that is the result of appointments made by this Governor. She has appointed 4 of the 5 Justices on the Supreme Court and over half the sitting trial judges in the 13 district courts.

As far as this being primarily an ABQ problem, data shows crime is not as significant a problem statewide. The judge who gave testimony to the legislature said competency of a defendant is at issue in less than 5 percent of his cases. 

When we are in this crisis we should triage and attack the most significant problems and offer the most consequential solutions. The Governor's bills on panhandling, homelessness and competency are not remotely the most significant issues. Gun violence is. So why was that not in the special session?

We're told the Governor will soon undertake an overseas trip and after that hit the campaign trail for VP Harris and the Dems. 

The crime debate will continue in the legislative races but in a sign of growing political incoherence the Republicans will be supporting the Governor's crime bills while Democrats back away from her.

This is the Home of New Mexico Politics.