http://www.freeabq.com/2017/08/15/pedrotty-crime-plan/

This Albuquerque Free Press Article reports on the crime plan being proposed by mayoral candidate Democrat Gus Pedrotty with a link to the video he released on FACEBOOK.

(Click on the article and when it appears, scroll down and then click on the video to view it.)

The video is his second video and like the first it is very impressive.

I encourage all voters to take the time to watch the videos.

In one day, the second video was viewed over 8,000 times.

The first video was viewed over 76,000 times in one week.

It is my understanding Pedrotty personally wrote both the scripts, came up with the production ideas and then had a friend help him with the videos.

This is what a grassroots campaign really looks like free from high paid political consultants.

It is delightful to watch the emergence and development of a candidate who has a very fresh prospective of what we need to do to turn Albuquerque around.

Mr. Pedrotty is not the product of political handlers, political consultants and he does not parrot slogans and talking points for applause.

He thinks for himself.

At all the forums I have attended, Mr. Pedrotty stands out from the competition and excels and improves each time.

Mr. Pedrotty has done his research and fully understands the issues confronting Albuquerque.

In his second video, Mr. Pedrotty offers real and substantive solutions for the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) and explains them in terms we can all understand.

It is a Mayor’s job, and indeed any leaders job, to present ideas and solutions in broad strokes and set the goals and objectives, hold people accountable and not hide from problems and surround yourself with those who can carry out your objectives.

It’s the underlying message that is important in the video.

Pedrotty calls his plan a “service-based model” that will also try to hit at the roots of crime which include poverty, drug addiction and homelessness.

The video is specific when he says he will appoint an interim chief, recruit a new management team, create a department of public safety, revamp training at the police academy, re visit the minimum qualifications to be a cop, grow the department, offer more incentives for recruitment, reinstate longevity pay, implement small clinic model with coordinating services with police, fire and emergency services, continue with the DOJ reforms with emphasis on de escalation techniques, place an emphasis on delivery of police services with an emphasis on community policing, and remove internal affairs from the Albuquerque Police Department.

Voters should not be dismissive of his ideas because of his age.

Some have even said he should be dismissed because of his lack of experience.

Not one of the candidates have experience being Mayor.

Voters and his opponents will be making a major mistake not listening to what Mr. Pedrotty is saying.

I have found that my generation has a real bad habit of underestimating the talents, abilities and wisdom of millennials that Mr. Pedrotty represents, and we do so at our own peril and loss.

The best example of underestimating the wisdom of millennials are the responses Mr. Pedrotty gave to questions in a June 16, 2017 Weekly Alibi profile interview when he addressed mental health issues and mentally ill John Hyde who killed 5 people, including two veteran police officers, and the killing of mentally ill and homeless camper James Boyd. (See http://alibi.com/news/53602/Pedrottys-Bigger-Picture.html )

FOLLOWING IS THE WEEKLY ALIBI PROFILE IN FULL:

“Fresh from his tenure as an undergraduate at the state’s flagship university, 23-year-old Burqueño Gus Pedrotty has taken it upon himself to run for mayor of this fair city.
With a small staff of volunteers, a winsome smile—and most importantly—a clear vision of where Albuquerque needs to go in order to make the most of its ever-manifesting future, candidate Pedrotty gained the attention of press and public alike at the recent mayoral forum held at the National Hispanic Cultural Center back on May 23.

With a tendency to give sweeping yet spot-on answers to queries about how and when to fix what ails this city as well as a keen eye for the underlying cultural and psychological processes that can spell success or failure for this municipality, Pedrotty displays a sort of humble confidence and resolute spirit that is rare in politicians of any age.

Gus, as he likes to be known, stopped by Alibi Headquarters to discuss a bid for mayor that began as idealistic—and some would say unlikely—but has since been transformed into one of the more vital and remarkable candidacies that have passed through this high desert city in ages.

Here’s a condensed version of the conversation Weekly Alibi had with Mr. Pedrotty. Like the other mayoral candidate interviews this newspaper has offered its readers, the entire encounter can be seen [on the weekly Alibi web site].

Weekly Alibi: Who are you, and why do you think you should be the next mayor of the city of Albuquerque?

Gus Pedrotty: I just graduated from the University of New Mexico with degrees in chemistry and psychology. It’s an unlikely combination, but it highlighted wonderful intersections between ideas and departments; it allowed me to study music in a new way [by] looking at it through neural relations, music and the brain. This also allowed me to have interesting intersections with [issues related to] healthcare. So I started working with healthcare structures around the city … and that changed things for me. It made me realize that nothing is too big, that it was all malleable and that all we had to do was participate, engage and provide new ideas. It’s with this real experience, coming from just these [past few] years, knowing exactly what we have our hands on—and how to do it better—that makes me sure that I’m in the right place running for mayor. I’m excited to have the opportunity to take the office in October … the bottom line is better outcomes for our citizens, that everyone has equal opportunity access and fulfillment.

Weekly Alibi: One of the things you talked about in your introduction was healthcare. How important is healthcare for our citizens, with regards to public safety and for citizens who are marginalized?

Gus Pedrotty: To put it in simple terms, healthcare is everything. We tout our civilization as having a longer life expectancy; we have security in our bodies. But anyone watching this or reading this knows what a personal healthcare crisis does to your productivity, to your mental state, you know how crippling it can be … it’s hard to engage in our society if you’re unhealthy. Going back to the Hyde shootings, when Ray Schultz was chief of police, it clearly showed that we [city government] didn’t have the capacity to deal with mental health in the community, and it resulted in a [police] culture of violence that resulted in the Boyd shooting and all the ones in between, that brought the DOJ here. Of course healthcare is related to public safety. We’ve chosen to engage this as a problem we can fix. When it comes to public safety, we don’t give people resources to be better.

Weekly Alibi: As mayor, what sort of legislation would you bring to the City Council toward those ends?

Gus Pedrotty: One of the biggest ways we can start to encourage mental health outcomes and how they affect our city is to begin cooperating with programs that already exist, pairing Albuquerque Heading Home with the already existing healthcare structure. Homelessness is not just not having a home. It’s everything that comes with it. I’m interested in holistic and contextualized solutions.

Weekly Alibi: So the people need jobs too, a way to make their lives meaningful and productive?

Gus Pedrotty: As mayor, what would I do to encourage that? Well, we get the homeless in homes, then we [city government] pair with programs that work with their health issues, and we can do that with programs like Project Echo and their infrastructure.

Weekly Alibi: Besides better healthcare, what else will lead to an economic resurgence in Albuquerque?

Gus Pedrotty: It comes down to education. We actually have jobs we can’t fill. We need to provide site-specific education to people so we can fill those jobs. But education can be a huge privilege. We have to create a job market that provides productive infrastructure immediately. There are ways we can go about that. For able-bodied workers, there’s solar installation. By engaging in that, we will be bolstering an industry that already exists here. We can help [solar] companies succeed here by converting city structures to solar energy. We need to be business smart here. The technology isn’t a future technology anymore. It’s here. The future is now. If we want to succeed as a city, we need to embrace that fact.”