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New Mexico says no to police brutality

The following was submitted by A.N.S.W.E.R. New Mexico:

 

The following article was written by Frank Levine for Liberation newspaper.

ALBUQUERQUE-More than 100 angry citizens held an emergency protest in front of the city’s police headquarters on Friday, May 13, after another cowardly shooting death at the hands of the Albuquerque Police Department, less than three days after an unarmed Alan Gomez, 22, was shot in the back by the murderous APD officer Sean Wallace – a cop with a long track record of unjustified gun violence against unarmed citizens.

The protest was organized by the A.N.S.W.E.R coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) of New Mexico, and was joined by representatives of numerous other community activist groups as well as the family and friends of the victim.
Preston Wood, an A.N.S.W.E.R organizer of the event, told the chanting and poster bearing crowd, that the APD, rather than serving the community, “employs terror and violence against those who are most oppressed among us, including those with mental illness, disabilities, homelessness, the poor, and those who are exploited because of their race or because of the neighborhood in which they live.”

The May 10 shooting marked the 17th APD-involved shooting in the past 17 months, resulting in three deaths since the beginning of the year, and four deaths over the past 12 months. Last year, there were a total of 14 APD officer-involved shootings, nine of which were fatal, representing a killing rate outpacing that of even New York City – which comparatively had only eight deaths in 2010 – with 14 times the population and a police force 10 times larger.

“It’s totally barbaric, unjustified, inhuman, and insane,” said Mike Gomez, father of the victim at the protest. “My son posed no threat to the cops as he was walking back into the house when they shot him in the back …These attacks against unarmed citizens must end.”

Police department officials – as they invariably do when cops kill unarmed citizens – once again tried to deflect responsibility for the killing to the victim, claiming that Wallace was justified shooting the victim, because he believed Chavez held a weapon in his hand … a “weapon” which later proved to be nothing more than a 99-cent plastic spoon.

This is not the first time Wallace decided to be judge, jury and executioner. In 2010 he shot and wounded a suspected car thief who allegedly was climbing up on a roof in Northeast Albuquerque. The shooting was ruled justified, even though Wallace admitted he never saw a weapon in the victim’s hand. Wallace killed another man in 2005 as a state police officer working in an undercover heroin operation after the man allegedly tried to run over Wallace with a truck during a traffic stop. Again the shooting was ruled justified, but in the aftermath, the victim’s family received a $235,000 settlement against the state after filing a wrongful death lawsuit.

Wallace’s propensity for violence was not limited to just using his gun. In 2003, he was sued for allegedly brutally beating up a Las Vegas, NM man during a routine traffic stop. The victim also sued.

Of course, the APD knew of Wallace’s violent history, but as they explained “he was never charged or convicted,” and anyway, “police departments are sued all the time.”
Meanwhile, the latest incident began with an early morning 911 call that described Gomez as being “out of control” and holding relatives hostage with a weapon. When cops arrived, they reportedly ordered Gomez – who was standing at the front door of his home to surrender. Gomez allegedly refused and turned around to enter his home when he was shot in the back.

According to witnesses, when cops failed to find a weapon near the victim’s body, they stormed the home searching everywhere for the phantom weapon. Eventually they found an unloaded .22 rifle in a locked bedroom closet, which had absolutely nothing to do with the front door shooting.

Mary Avila, the aunt of the victim, who had raised Gomez from childhood as his surrogate mother, said that the cops knew all along that Gomez didn’t have a weapon.
“They had scopes on their weapons and they could easily see that he (Chavez) wasn’t carrying a gun in his hand,” she said, adding: “When I was told he was dead, I just couldn’t believe it …I couldn’t accept it. They not only killed him for no reason, they took a piece of my heart as well.”

The family confirmed press reports that Chavez had a history of mental illness and may have been “hallucinating” at the time of the shooting adding, however, that his problems should not have resulted in his death.

“He was a good, loving, kid,” said his father Mike Chavez. “Sure, he had his problems, but he did not deserve to be gunned down like that …to be treated like human waste.”
His “human waste” comment referred to an incident last year after an APD cop shot another victim in the back and who had boasted on his Facebook page that he worked for the city government in “human waste disposal.” The comment was eventually removed from Facebook after public pressure.  Meanwhile, the cop is back on patrol after law enforcement officials and a spineless grand jury determined the shooting was justified, even if the victim was running away.

Chavez is one of a number of persons with a history of mental illness gunned down by the police in recent months, including Christopher Torres, who was gunned down in April.

In response to a public outcry following the Torres case, the APD reportedly instituted a brief training program that will supposedly better equip the gun-happy cops to deal with “problem” individuals. The department also said that database will eventually be created identifying individuals with mental illness so that the cops will “be better prepared” to avoid deadly confrontations.

Meanwhile, joining the May 13 protest was Eli Chavez, a retired DEA special agent and former training officer at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA., who described the May 10 shooting of Chavez as an unnecessary tragedy and symptomatic of deep problems within the Albuquerque Police Department.

“In no way was the shooting justified,” he said. “The victim was clearly unarmed and was shot in the back. To me, this indicates systemic problems in the Albuquerque Police Department, in terms of organization, training, and culture of violence.”

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