Rudolfo Carrillo is a graduate student in the English Department at the University of New Mexico. His recent work includes publication in the journal Rigorous, a presentation on Borderlands Shakespeare at the Second Annual Justice and Revolutionary Thought Conference at NMSU, and a virtual appearance at the University of Dayton’s Metal and Change Conference, where he spoke on the work of Canadian rock band Rush. Formerly, Carrillo was the news editor and music editor of Weekly Alibi, where he often wrote as August March. Before that, he was one of the bloggers at Duke City Fix. In his spare time, he paints beautiful pictures of life on Earth.

EDITOR’S DISCALIMER: Following is a guest column written by Rudolfo Carrillo who gave consent to publish his column on www.PeteDinelli.com. Mr. Carillo was not compensated for the article.

HEADLINE: The Dependent Arising of Butterz, a Dog in Albuquerque, By Rudolfo Carrillo

You might be wondering what I’ve been doing these days. Or you might be wondering what I did in the before time. As it happens, I spent about ten hours this past weekend trying to explain all of that to people who might be interested in what I have to say, what I have to write. And I wrote a whole lot, 1500 words worth, that was mostly about politics in this town. Mostly. To make the piece humorous, I wrote it in the style common at my old hangout, a place in cyberspace now long forgotten.

After reading it though, after having my long-time editor read through it too, I decided that what I had done should be tossed right into the bin. I was reminded that I once said to myself, a long time ago, firmly and like an old time and weary Wizard of Wor, that I should get out of the political diatribe business and put aside the cultural commentary spiel that I had used like a cudgel made out of overcooked enchiladas.

I reckon that in this day and age, with so much questionable stuff going on in the world, in the state, in our community, that I’d be better off to write about something good, uplifting, and mindful, because all that really matters is kindness.

It’s with that conceit clearly in view that I present to you, dear readers, aficionados of la politica, supporters of la cultura, and bearers of the flag of progressive, inclusive democracy, the story of Butterz, a local dog.

Back at the end of December, on the 24th day of that oddly warm and dry month, I went to visit the City’s Animal Welfare Shelter on the westside of town; and mano, is it ever on the westside of town. I thought I was nearly to Califas by the time I rolled up.

En serio, mi esposa had a dental appointment down near Atrisco that day, so I figured I would have plenty of time to see what was up at the shelter.

The place was clean, quiet, and staffed with a number of kind and professional local humans. After speaking to them, I was directed to an elderly little terrier who had been living at the shelter for about a month; his owners had surrendered him. Cisco, as he was known back then, had health problems and whomever adopted him would have to sign a medical waiver noting the ostensibly fragile state of his health.

He was a friendly little hombre, quiet and sleepy, and I decided to take him back to mi chante. “I will call him Butterz”, I told the staff as they lovingly loaded him into my SUV. The next two months passed quickly, and it became clear that Butterz had trouble eating. He never seemed really hungry and often left much of his food behind.

 We took him to a local vet who said toda la situacion was due to complications from his dental surgery. As Butterz had been in the shelter for an extended stay, he had received top-flight veterinary care, including a dental procedure where most of his rotten teeth were removed. He also had a persistent oral-nasal fistula, which, did not heal properly after it was fixed, a common occurrence.  Our own vet concurred about the dental complications, but hypothesized that there might be other problems contributing to his long-term lack of appetite.

The surgery to correct Butterz dental complications and investigate his lack of appetite would be risky and expensive.

 But in an of an occurrence of beautifully timed and succinctly graceful grace, the City of Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department, under the awesome direction of Carolyn Ortega, allowed our vet to work with an amazing nonprofit, Albuquerque Kennel Kompadres, to make sure Butterz could be properly treated for what ailed him. The surgery was scheduled and happened during UNM’s spring break, by the way.

 The thing was, after the operation, Butterz still would not eat. And he looked pale and wan. And he began vomiting and shaking. I borrowed $200 from mi sobrina, Ciara, and rushed him back to our vet. They gave him a huge dose of subcutaneous fluids and an anti-nausea medication, in a noble effort to flush out his failing biological systems. If he did not improve overnight, he was to be checked into hospital the next morning for a full series of radiographs and possibly, emergency surgery.

 I took Butterz home and feared for the worst. He was obviously unwell and had probably been ill when he was surrendered to the shelter; maybe that’s why his people gave up on him, I speculated. But I was determined to ride it out with him. Anyway, at eight that evening Butterz grew frantic and literally ran to the back of the house. He squatted. There was blood.

  And then, something miraculous happened. The water did its work on his insides. Perhaps someone upstairs fancied his funny face, quien sabe?  Butterz began to expel a cloth and plastic eyeglass retainer that was at least 20 inches long! A mean old snake, it came slithering out of him in a scene that would have put David Cronenberg to shame. When I realized what was happening, I took a deep breath and helped him, slowly, carefully coaxing the poisonous cagada out of him.

I was shocked. To say he was relieved would be an understatement. Afterwards, he wandered over to the couch, jumped up on it for the first time ever, and fell into a deep sleep. I took photos of the serpent and preserved it in a plastic bag. The next day, one doc thought that he may have lived with the monster inside of his gut for months, a la!

 That morning, Butterz ate a whole can of dog food. And the day after that, and the day after that, too. And his digestive issues disappeared. And he grew strong and confident, un panzón in the making. And now here we are in April, nearly a month later. I am writing this and Butterz is stretched on the floor, next to my other terrier, Izzy. They are waiting for their second breakfast, like good little perritos. My famous poodle, Falkor, is sleeping with his special spiky ball, in the next room.

Meanwhile, the world is a mess. All sorts of very difficult-to-grok things are happening or may happen. But there is good in the world and miracles happen all of the time. For example, we are all connected, all dependent on one another, even the animals. And I can prove it.

 Butterz would have never survived had not the director at the Animal Welfare Department patiently listened to what I told her and then hooked our vet up with Kennel Kompadres of Albuquerque. That intersection of forces and forms allowed an old and venerable chulo to have the medical treatments needed to discern and resolve his main physical issues, saving his life. The caring demonstrated by those organizations, and their respective leadership, goes beyond politics, and into a lofty realm we should all aspire towards.

 That’s really what matters: that there is something worth fighting for; a set of ideas and values worth sticking together through, something grand and diffuse that resides in the power community wields. Despite whatever tempests or eyeglass retainers may asail our fragile forms, they will pass. And that’s super padre, compadres.

On April 10, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman announced his 2026 campaign for Governor at Plaza Park in Las Vegas New Mexico In front of a crowd of several hundred supporters and onlookers.  Bregman said next year’s race for Governor  will come down to a simple question:  “Who’s best equipped to push back against the policies of President Donald Trump?”

“I’m running to take on the chaos in Washington and protect the people of New Mexico. … Not only do we need to protect our freedoms and democratic values in our state, we still have more work to do to address issues affecting everyday New Mexicans. … New Mexico is under attack by Elon Musk, his puppet Donald Trump and the Republicans in Washington. … They’re attacking our public schools, our healthcare, veterans, workers — all of us. I’m running to take on the chaos in Washington and protect the people of New Mexico.”

Bregman in his news release touts what he says are some of his top accomplishments in the District Attorney’s Office. The news release says in part:

“In his two years as D.A., Bregman has increased homicide prosecutions by 76.5% going  from 162 convictions from 2019–2022 to 286 convictions since he took office. Bregman also worked to establish a zero-tolerance policy for guns in schools and implemented new technology to deal with the backlog of sexual assault cases in the D.A.’s office

Bregman, in an interview with New Mexico Political Report published on April 10, said this:

“In the last two-plus years, I’ve hired over 80 attorneys here in this office alone. We can do the same thing when it comes to police. … I truly believe New Mexico is a great place and we can do a lot better when it comes to recruiting police officers. It’s not a matter of money or resources; we can afford to pay more police officers. Let’s just get the job done. That’s the number one priority because the more police officers on the street, the safer we’re all going to be. And everybody deserves, not, just wants, but they deserve a safe neighborhood in a safe community.”

The Bregman campaign also released an official campaign launch video featuring Bregman riding a horse and decrying the toxic national political environment, including the “radical left” that he accused of dividing Democrats. “To be blunt, people are tired of this garbage,” Bregman says in the video.

ABOUT SAM BREGMAN

On January 4, Sam Bregman, 61, was appointed Bernalillo County District Attorney by Governor Mitchell Lujan Grisham to serve out the remaining two years of the 4-year term of Raul Torrez who was elected Attorney General in 2022.  Bregman won reelection to a new term last year.

Sam Bregman has a 30-year career as an attorney and is considered a highly successful and respected trial attorney in both civil and criminal defense. He is a 1989 graduate of the University of New Mexico Law School. He is a former Democratic Party State Chairman. Bregman served as an Assistant Bernalillo County District Attorney from 1994 through 1997. Bregman was an elected Albuquerque City Council from 1995 until 1999.  While on the Albuquerque City Council, Bregman championed the implementation of SANE – the Sexual Assault Nursing Examiner program as well as the first hate crime ordinance. Bregman has a served as Deputy State Auditor for the State of New Mexico. Bregman unsuccessfully ran for Commissioner of Public Lands and also for Mayor of Albuquerque.  Bregman currently serves as the Chairman of the Governor’s Organize Crime Prevention Commission.

Sam Bregman has represented defendants in several high-profile cases over the years. The most notable was when Bregman was the defense attorney for Keith Sandy, one of the two APD Officers who faced charges for the shooting and killing of homeless camper James Boyd in 2014. James Boyd was a homeless individual with a history of mental illness who had camped in the Sandia foothills and had a 5 hour stand off with APD police who were trying to arrest him for illegal camping. Both APD SWAT officers  were charged with murder for the killing Boyd and were ultimately not convicted because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. However, the Boyd family filed suite against the city alleging use of deadly force by police and wrongful death and the city settled the case for $5 million.

Sam Bregman represented defendants Keith Brandon and Jonathan Sandoval, the two Metropolitan Detention Center officers charged in the 2019 death of inmate Vincente Villela. He was the lead defense attorney for former New Mexico State Treasurer Robert Vigil in a public corruption case that ended with Vigil being sentenced to prison time for receiving kickbacks. He also represented the family of Amelia Baca, who was shot and killed by a Las Cruces Police Officer in April of 2022.

Links to relied upon or quoted news sources are here:

https://www.koat.com/article/sam-bregman-governor-candidate-2026-election/64435375

https://www.krqe.com/news/new-mexico/sam-bregman-announces-campaign-for-governor-of-new-mexico/

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/sam-bregman-enters-race-for-governor-of-new-mexico/

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/bregman-to-officially-announce-campaign-for-governor/article_7efd2f44-ab33-46c2-bb48-e992404bbe82.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_4763289e-eef2-423b-afea-09b2cc8615fe.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/10/bregman-haaland-new-mexico-governor-democratic/

https://www.koat.com/article/former-las-cruces-mayor-ken-miyagashima-eyes-gubernatorial-run/64345104

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

New Mexico’s primary election for governor is set for June 2026, with the general election to take place in November, 2026.The race for governor will be an open contest, since Lujan Grisham is term-limited and barred from seeking a third consecutive term as governor.

LONG CONTENTIOUS RACE

DA Sam Bregman’s announcement over a year before the primary sets up what will be a long and very contentious Democratic Party primary election against fellow Democrat former Biden Interior Secretary Deb Haaland who is also a former U.S. Representative for the Albuquerque area congressional seat and replaced Bregman as chair of the state’s Democratic Party in 2015. Haaland’s campaign is focused on a theme of being “fierce,” with promises to work to lower the cost of living, strengthen schools and fight crime, which is the identical platform Haaland relied upon when she successfully ran for congress.

Notwithstanding, other Democrats will likely run. Former Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima has not formally declared his candidacy, but he has formed an exploratory committee to evaluate the feasibility of a gubernatorial bid and to begin building statewide support. Gregg Hull, the mayor of Rio Rancho, is expected to run for the Republican nomination for governor of New Mexico but has yet to make an announcement.

BROADSIDE TO PROGRESSIVES

Bregman released an official campaign launch video featuring Bregman riding a horse and decrying the toxic national political environment, including the “radical left” that he accused of dividing Democrats. Bregman says in the video “To be blunt, people are tired of this garbage.” 

The Bregman announcement video raised more than a few eyebrows within the Democratic Party. It is a clear broadside to the progressive supporters of Deb Haaland who they presume is the front runner and that she will win. There is no doubt that Bregman is taking direct aim at the “progressive” wing of the Democratic party which has dominated the party for so many years in state and local elections.

Ostensibly, what Bregman is saying with his comment “people are tired of this garbage”  is “moderate to conservative democrats are sick of the garbage of progressives excluding them from the party and targeting them.”  Progressive democrats during the last 10 years have “targeted” and successfully primaried and removed moderate to conservative elected officials from office, especially those in the New Mexico Legislature..

STRATEGIC ANNOUNCEMEMENT

Bregman’s decision to officially launch his campaign in Las Vegas, New Mexico as opposed to Albuquerque where his base is was strictly strategic. It is clearly aimed at conservative Hispanic voters in a traditional Democratic stronghold. It was a clear message of planting his politcal flag in a statewide election that he intends to win and not to concede any part of the state to anyone. The Las Vegas venue will give northern New Mexico voters and opportunity to see Bregman  for the first time personally and up close what Bregman represents and not just some interview on TV news casts about a murder case his office is prosecuting.

CONTERINO AS CHIEF POLITICAL CONSULTANT

DA Bregman has his work cut out for him since Deb Haaland has already announced more than $3 million in campaign contributions but there is more than enough time for him to catch up with the fund raising. With a seasoned and respected politcal consultant that is easily done.

On April 7, it was reported by New Mexico Politics With Joe Monahan that veteran Democratic consultant Dave Contarino, who helped bring home two gubernatorial wins each for Governors Bill Richardson and Lujan Grisham will be the chief politcal strategist to the Bregman Campaign for Governor. Contarino, 63, served as Richardson’s chief of staff during his first term.

A reliable source said Contarino “will help level the playing field” with Deb Haaland and “Contarino will work to nationalize this race and make it about who can win the general election.”

On April 9, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an Executive Order declaring an emergency and sending 60 to 70 National Guard troops to aid the Albuquerque Police Department to help fight crime.  According to a news release, the training  of national guard troops to assist APD is already underway and under the supervision of the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security, Department of Public Safety, State Police and APD. The goal is  to free up APD Officers so they can focus more on fighting crime as the Governor declares an emergency in the state’s largest city.

CHIEF MEDINA’S LETTER TO GOVERNOR MAKING REQUEST

The sending of the National Guard to Albuquerque is a direct response to a March 31 letter to the Governor from APD Chief Harold Medina for the National Guard to fulfill “non-law enforcement duties” such as providing security at crime scene perimeters and transporting prisoners, among others. The emergency request from APD Chief Harold Medina cited rising violent juvenile crime and the fentanyl epidemic as issues that require immediate intervention.

In his March 31  letter to Governor Lujan Grisham, Chief Medina said he wanted to keep the momentum made by APD officers and expressed the need to have them on the streets, not driving prisoners to the Metropolitan Detention Center or providing security at city facilities and courthouses.

The guardsmen could also be used for helping with document filing and organization of APD cases for prosecutors, operating drones and distributing food, water and aid to “vulnerable populations.”

Medina wrote that deploying NMNG “in these roles would enable APD to reallocate resources more effectively, sustaining continuous enforcement and essential services 24 hours a day.”  Medina called the reinforcements “critical to improving public safety and the quality of life for Albuquerque residents.”

Medina said this in his March 31 letter to the governor:

“The community must see NMNG (New Mexico National Guard) members not as a military force but as trained professionals dedicated to supporting and protecting residents.”

The link to review the March 31 letter from Medina to the Governor is here:

Click to access 033125-ltr-from-medina-to-gmlg-re-national-guard-67f57cdb7dbc6.pdf

THE GOVERNOR’S EXECUTIVE ORDER

On April 9, Governor Lujan Grisham signed the Executive Order that directed up to $750,000 to be made available for the deployment of guardsmen “needed to provide military support to civil authorities as needed for this emergency.” Lujan Grisham said this in a news release announcing the order:

“The safety of New Mexicans is my top priority. … By deploying our National Guard to support APD with essential duties, we’re ensuring that trained police officers can focus on what they do best [which is] keeping our communities safe. This partnership represents our commitment to addressing the fentanyl crisis and juvenile crime with every resource at our disposal.”

The governor’s executive order left the timeline for the National Guards  presence open-ended but said they would arrive in mid-May and will address “ongoing public safety challenges in the city, particularly along the Central Avenue corridor and other specific areas.”

The governor’s office said  the National Guard will assist in the following areas:

• Scene security and traffic control at critical incidents
• Medical assistance and humanitarian efforts along Central Avenue
• Prisoner Transport Unit assistance
• Transit security enhancement
• Metro Court security support
• Aviation/Sunport security assistance
• Shield Unit case preparation support
• APD Drone Program operational assistance

The Governor’s  Executive Order comes after back-to-back operations along East Central to tackle crime, particularly fentanyl usage. APD had its own operation that started late last year. Currently, the New Mexico State Police, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office have an ongoing operation known as “Operation Route 66” to tackle crime in the area. Both operations have been declared a success by all four agencies with hundreds of arrests being made.

Deputy Deanna Aragon, a Bernalillo County Sherriff’s Spokesperson said the agency appreciates the Governor’s actions and said this:

“[BCSO appreciates] the governor’s concern and her efforts to support public safety. We are already seeing measurable success through Operation Route 66, a coordinated effort that is producing real results. The numbers speak for themselves … We will continue doing the work that keeps our streets safer every day.”

Nancy Laflin, spokeswoman for the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office, said Operation Route 66 had netted 400 arrests over seven weeks, recovering dozens of guns and stolen vehicles. Laflin said this:

“… [W]e appreciate any and all help from law enforcement as we continue to clean up the streets of Albuquerque.”

NOT THE FIRST TIME

This is not the first time Governor Lujan Grisham has declared an emergency over crime issues or dispatched reinforcements to Albuquerque’s streets. This  is the very first time she has deployed the National Guard. The efforts have had mixed results.

In September 2023, Lujan Grisham declared a public health emergency over gun violence, spurred by the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy. She ordered a firearm ban in public places in Bernalillo County, which was quickly challenged in court and blocked by a federal judge.

And in 2019, Lujan Grisham dispatched dozens of New Mexico State Police officers to Albuquerque for the Metro Surge Operation after University of New Mexico baseball player Jackson Weller was fatally shot in Nob Hill. That operation came under scrutiny when many of the prosecutions fell apart because the officers, who came from all over the state, didn’t show up to hearings.

PILOT PROJECT OF POLO SHIRTS AND NO GUNS

On April 8, Mayor Tim Keller and APD Chief Harold Medina held a  news conference to announce the deployment of the National Guard to Albuquerque.

During the April 8 news conference, Chief Medina said the initiative of sending the New Mexico National Guard (NMNG)  to the city is a pilot project that has been in the works for months after the NMNG offered help and one the department will measure to determine its success. Medina emphasized the National Guardsmen will  have the same authority and fulfill the same roles as police service aides, who often can be seen blocking traffic around crime scenes.

The National Guard’s main role will be to support Albuquerque police officers, so those officers can be out on the streets fighting crime. The National Guard will be responding to medical emergencies, de-escalating potentially volatile encounters, and handing out water and food to people dealing with homelessness. They’ll also be doing security at crime scenes and traffic control for accidents, transporting prisoners and helping TSA at the Sunport.  Basically, if it’s something that would tie up an APD officer from being out making arrests, that’s where the National Guard would step in. Medina said this:

“Our officers spend a lot of time on scenes that they don’t need to. We have officers parked guarding violent crime scenes for up to 6, 8, 12 hours. We have officers guarding fatal traffic accidents 6, 8, 12 hours. If I can start taking 6 hours off these on scene clears it’s gonna make a huge difference, and it’s going to start swaying and getting officers back in service, and getting resources back into the community at even a faster pace,”

According to Medina, the assistance from the National Guard will free up 20 to 30 officers for law enforcement and crime-fighting, he said, adding that some officers have to hold scene perimeters for several hours.

Chief Medina made assurances during the April 8 briefing that the National Guardsmen “[will] not have law enforcement authority” and “cannot take law enforcement action.” Medina said this:

“I just don’t want this to turn into, ‘Oh my God, the National Guard is here to save the city.’ No, the National Guard is here to help clear up officers.”

When asked if the situation constituted a true emergency, Medina said this:

“On a weekly basis, I look at all of the media’s stories. I hear ‘crime crisis.’ I hear ‘crime is out of control.’ So I would say that … there is a perception that there is an emergency in the community that is out there.”

During the April 8 news briefing Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said the guardsmen will be unarmed and wear polo shirts instead of uniforms and “will not be involved in community interaction or use military vehicles.” Keller said this:

“What we want to do is double down on what’s working … and what’s working is technology and civilians … freeing up officers to fight crime and keep those statistics going in this powerfully good direction. … A short-term way to help with that is by the National Guardsmen helping out. … We’re hoping [this pilot project] is going to be effective, but if it’s not, we will just send people home. … We invited these folks in to see if the program will help Albuquerque. If it is helpful, we may look at this in other areas.”

Mayor Keller said another bonus is the city doesn’t have to pay for the guardsmen, and it won’t impact APD’s budget.

Chief Medina and Mayor Keller could not give a timeline on how long the guardsmen would be needed. However  Medina said the hope is to get to 1,000 APD  officers which  currently has around 850 by the time the NMNG leaves.

THE ACLU RESPONSE

The ACLU of New Mexico was quick to  criticized the governor’s authorization to deploy National Guard personnel to Albuquerque calling it “a show of force, not a show of solutions.” Daniel Williams, policy advocate at the ACLU of New Mexico, issued the following statement:

“All of us deserve to be safe at home, at work, and in our community. We, like so many in Albuquerque, know that that’s not always the case in our city. However, Governor Lujan Grisham’s deployment of the National Guard to support Albuquerque police is a show of force, not a show of solutions. New Mexico already has one of the highest per capita rates of people killed by police in the nation. History has shown that military collaboration with local law enforcement often leads to increased civil rights violations, racial profiling, and criminalization of vulnerable populations, particularly those experiencing homelessness and poverty.”

“The governor’s past policy proposals too often have centered on efforts to criminalize and institutionalize unhoused New Mexicans, without a commensurate emphasis on solving the root causes of crime. New Mexicans should be confident that their governor is truly working to keep them safe, not doubling down on failed strategies that will fuel mass incarceration and multiply the harms our communities already endure. In a state so heavily impacted by police violence, the answer to safety cannot and will not be found in increased police presence, especially not through collaboration with the military.” 

“Our neighbors deserve an urgent outpouring of services and support by those trained and equipped to properly provide it. All of us will be safer when all of us are housed. All of us will be safer when all of us have access to good healthcare. All of us will be safer when all of us are economically secure. We join our partners and New Mexicans across the state in asking the governor and all of our leaders to double down on putting resources toward these meaningful solutions, rather than continuing to criminalize the most vulnerable among us.” 

REPUBLICAN REACTION

Republican State Senator Nicole Tobiassen, R-Albuquerque sharply criticized the deployment of the National Guard by the Governor and issued the following statement:

“Albuquerque’s crime crisis is a testament to the absolute failure of Mayor Keller and his progressive policies. It’s sad that his own police chief had to go over his head and seek state resources in order to try and keep up with the rampant violent crime, drug trafficking, juvenile crime, and gang activity that plagues our city. Mayor Keller and the progressive Democrats’ failed leadership have made our community into a literal war zone and we must change course before not even state resources can combat the chaos allowed in Albuquerque. This plea for help comes on the heels of a legislative session where Democrat lawmakers denied or killed every single substantive public safety proposal. Elections have consequences and city residents have seen enough. 

Links to quoted or relied upon news sources are here:

https://www.governor.state.nm.us/2025/04/08/governor-authorizes-national-guard-to-support-albuquerque-police-department/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_d29478ca-ace6-47b2-a868-48f1e8ac190b.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

https://www.kob.com/news/top-news/governor-authorizes-deployment-of-national-guard-to-support-apd/

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/new-mexico-governor-authorizes-national-guard-deployment-to-albuquerque/

https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-crime-national-guard-police/64423121

FUNCTION AND PURPOSE OF NEW MEXICO NATIONAL GUARD

The New Mexico Army National Guard is a part-time state-based military component that serves a dual mission. Each Guard unit serves under the command of the governor to respond to natural disasters or other state emergencies. In addition, Guard units can be activated to defend the nation when needed.

The National Guard’s main mission is  to respond to domestic emergencies and combat missions. National Guard personnel are state officers exercising state authority. The national guard does not have authority to make any law enforcement arrests and essentially engages in military or marshal law functions when necessary to restore order. The New Mexico National Guard is the militia of the U.S. state of New Mexico. Comprising the New Mexico Army National Guard and the New Mexico Air National Guard, it is part of the National Guard of the United States, a reserve force under both state and federal jurisdiction.

https://nationalguard.com/new-mexico

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_National_Guard

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

NOT THE FUNCTION OF THE NATIONAL GUARD

Chief Medina made assurances during the April 8 briefing that the National Guardsmen “[will] not have law enforcement authority” and “cannot take law enforcement action.”  Chief Medina has no authority to dictate to the National Guard and its an affront to the purpose of the National Guard. Simply put, it is not the function of the New Mexico National Guard to become “police service aides” patrolling the streets of Albuquerque in polo shirts and out of uniform at the Governor’s whim and at Medina and Keller’s request.

The Governor is deploying 70 National Guard to free up 20 to 30 APD Officers.  The Governor’s Executive Order sets a dangerous precedent and it is an abuse of  National Guard Resources and some would say an abuse of power. The Governor should immediately withdraw her Executive Order and instead of dispatching the National Guard, she should deploy New Mexico State Police to the city as she has done in the past. The city needs law enforcement who can make arrests, not public safety aids.

MAYOR KELLER AND CHIEF MEDINA’S APD TRAIN WRECK. 

The National Guard assisting the  Albuquerque Police Department is in response to ongoing public safety challenges in the city, particularly along the Central Avenue corridor. What APD needs is an increase in law enforcement personnel to carry out its mission.

During the April 8 news conference on the Governor deploying the National Guard, both Mayor Keller and Chief Medina tried to emphasize that the deployment of the National Guard was temporary and an effort to assist APD to combat crime. Chief Medina said the hope is to have 1,000 APD officers, which currently has around 850 by the time the NMNG leaves. No one should bet on the deployment of the National Guard to help APD as being successful nor on APD having 1,000  police officers any time soon let alone when the National Guard leaves.

Seven years ago when Keller first ran for Mayor, then New Mexico State Auditor Tim Keller, candidate for Albuquerque Mayor, had this to say about the city’s high crime rates and APD numbers:

“It’s unfortunate, but crime is absolutely out of control. It’s the mayor’s job to actually address crime in Albuquerque, and that’s what I want to do as the next mayor.”

Proclaiming violent crime was out of control, Keller said that he could get crime down and that he would increase APD sworn from the then 850 to 1,200. Violent crime continues to spike and is out of control seven years later with APD currently at about 800 sworn officers.

APD has fallen off the cliff under Keller’s leadership over the last 7 years. Mayor Keller and Chief Harold Medina have seriously mismanaged the ongoing train wreck known as APD with the department still dangerously understaffed at about  800 cops despite seven years of increased budgets, salary increases, and lucrative bonus pay. Keller has literally thrown money at the problem, yet the department continues to languish. This coming from the Mayor who promised 1,200 cops during his first term. During a recent APD Academy graduation, Keller promised 1,000 cops by the end of the year which is not at all likely given expected retirements.

The city’s ongoing homicide and violent crime rates continue to be at historical highs and people simply do not feel safe in their homes as the fentanyl crisis surges. Although the city recorded a19% drop in homicides last year, the city’s homicides spiked under Keller despite his policies. Following are the raw numbers of homicide from the 8 years since Keller became Mayor in 2017:

• 2017: 70 homicides
• 2018: 69 homicides
• 2019: 80 homicides
• 2020: 78 homicides
• 2021: 110 homicides
• 2022: 120 homicides
• 2023: 93 homicides
• 2024: 89 homicides

The truth is APD is very top heavy with mid to upper management.  According to sources within APD, the city has only about 250  sworn police officers out of the current 800  sworn who  actually are  patrolling the streets in three shifts 24 hours a day. Confidential source within APD have confirmed that many area commands often have as few as 3 sworn police patrolling entire area commands in 8 hours shifts, especially in high call volume area commands.

Rather than asking the Governor to send the National Guard to the City to patrol the streets of Albuquerque, Mayor  Keller and Chief  Medina should order all APD mid-management, including Lieutenants, Deputy Commanders, Commanders and Deputy Chiefs and order all detectives into uniform, and order them to get the hell out from behind their desks and mandate that they patrol streets of Albuquerque and make arrests at least 4 hours a day and assist with the very duties that they want the National Guard to perform. It’s called management of your limited personnel resources to deal with a crisis as opposed to Keller and Medina’s mismanagement.

On April 7, Albuquerque defense attorney Rudolph “Rudy” Chavez agreed to forgo a public hearing on allegations by the New Mexico Supreme Court Disciplinary Board alleging his involvement in the DWI bribery and extortion conspiracy case under investigation by federal authorities. Instead, Chavez accepted an “indefinite suspension” of his law license.

Chavez is the second lawyer to face disciplinary action by the  New  Mexico Supreme Court relating to the federal bribery of law enforcement cases alleging a scheme to dismiss DWI cases. Chaves has not been criminally charged in the federal case. Chavez agreed to his suspension from the practice of law without admitting any of the allegations made in the Complaint for Suspension filed by the NM Supreme Court  Disciplinary Counsel.

Chavez  served as an assistant county attorney from 1989 to 1993. He  started his own firm in 1993. He has practiced both criminal and civil law.

PETITION TO SUSPEND LICENSE

It was on March 6 that the Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the New Mexico Supreme Court Disciplinary Board filed a petition with the New Mexico Supreme Court for the suspension of the law license of Attorney Rudolph “Rudy” Chavez.

The Disciplinary Board alleged that Chavez worked with former Albuquerque Police Officer Honorio Alba, Jr. and paralegal Ricardo “Rick” Mendez to get an accused drunk driver’s cases dismissed with the payment of bribes to law enforcement. The petition filed by the State Bar Disciplinary Counsel alleges  that “upon information and belief” Rudolph “Rudy” Chavez is the party identified as a co-conspirator in both Ricardo “Rick”  Mendez’s and former APD Police Officer Honorio Alba Jr. federal plea agreements.

On February 7, Honorio Alba Jr. plead guilty to the federal charges of racketeering, bribery, extortion and conspiracy-related charges and faces up to 130 years  in prison. In his plea agreement  Alba admits that he worked “in concert” with Ricardo “Rick” Mendez, and attorney Thomas Clear and “another Albuquerque defense attorney” to ensure a man he arrested in April 2023 avoided criminal and administrative consequences related to his offense.

In the criminal information plead to by Alba, a DWI  suspect  identified as “Z.W.”said he knew nothing about any criminal conspiracy and said “Rudy Chavez did nothing to make me question his integrity.”   “Z.W.” said he was never told “anything that didn’t sit well with me.”  None the less, “Z.W.” said his attorney Rudy Chavez was able to get his DWI case dismissed the day of trial without explanation. Ricardo “Rick”  Mendez in his plea agreement also mentions the case of “Z.W.”

“ZW” was identified as Zachary Williams. The State Bar  Disciplinary Counsel petition states that Rudy Chavez represented client Zachary Williams in that case and noted that Alba was the arresting officer. Alba also stated that he “relied on attorney co-conspirators to handle any aspect of the scheme and the enterprise that required an attorney present in court or at administrative hearings” such as those conducted by the state Motor Vehicle Department, which oversees driver’s license privileges.

Honorio Alba Jr  conducted a DWI stop of Zachary Williams on a Sunday night in April 2023.  At that time of his arrest by Honorio Alba Jr., Zachary Williams already had two DWI convictions on his record. Because of the arrest he was facing a 3rd DWI offense, along with reckless driving, no proof of insurance, and possession of open container charges filed by Alba. Zachary Williams said that he paid Rudolph “Rudy” Chavez $8,000 to represent him, which he claimed was lower than other attorneys he spoke with.

Williams said that Chavez told him the price was that high because it was his third DWI.  Zachary Williams  said he was dressed in a suit in January 2024  to go to court for trial but was told by Chavez his case was dismissed the day of trial with no real explanation as to why. According to court documents, the decision to dismiss  was “in the interest of justice.”

Chavez took over a number of Clear’s cases after the feds raided Clear’s law office in January 2024. The two also worked on several cases together going back to June 2006.

The State Disciplinary Counsel essentially “connected the dots” from the plea agreements with the charges handled identifying the defendant and then identified Rudy Chavez  as the defense attorney involved with the DWI Enterprise. The petition filed by Chief Disciplinary Counsel Anne L. Taylor alleges in part:

“Given the length and nature of the enterprise and the allegations against Rudolph “Rudy” Chavez , as well as the hundreds of dismissed DWI criminal cases as a result of the enterprise, the continued practice of law by Rudolph “Rudy” Chavez will result in the substantial probability of harm, loss or damage to the public.”

CHAVEZ REPONSE TO PETITION SEEKING SUSPENSION

On March 17, attorney Rudy Chavez filed his response to the petition seeking his suspension from the practice of law. He denied any involvement in the decades-old criminal conspiracy where law enforcement officers took bribes to make sure suspects they arrested for DWI were never convicted.

In his written reply to the New Mexico Supreme Court, Chavez asserts there is no evidence of his involvement in the bribery scheme. Chavez argues the one drunk driving case the Disciplinary Counsel  used to conclude he was involved in the public corruption scandal has “zero features” of the scandal.  He said two of the key players who mentioned that case to federal investigators gave false statements.

Chavez points out in his written response to the Supreme Court that it does not add up with how the scheme operated. From confessions and pleas agreement filed in the federal case, the officer or attorney Thomas Clear III’s paralegal, Ricardo ‘Rick’ Mendez, would usually contact the defendant. But in his plea agreement, Mendez said in the specific case involving Chavez, attorneys Clear and Chavez still planned to pay the officer to let the driver off the hook. Alba confirmed that plan in his plea agreement.

Chavez wrote in his response “It is unreasonable and untrue to claim that payments were made” regarding an administrative hearing for the driver to keep his license because the driver never requested that hearing. In the scheme itself  that’s one of the first proceedings officers were paid not to attend. Chavez said he wasn’t even hired until weeks after that hearing would have taken place.

Chavez’s response states in particular “Upon information and belief, Mr. Clear has denied (Chavez’s) involvement in the subject matter related to the federal prosecution.” Both Chavez and Clear have operated their own law firms over many years , and there were times the attorneys collaborated on cases, court records show.

Chavez argued in his response “It’s curious why these false statements were included in their sworn pleas.” On payment, he said he billed the driver his usual rate of $350 an hour. Regarding the criminal case, the court record shows one delay, the trial. Chavez explained the driver got sick so the judge rescheduled the trial. It was moved more than a month later to January 17, 2024. That was a day before the public learned of this public corruption scandal. On that day, he said he received notice the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case. A list from the DA showed it’s one of hundreds the office had to dismiss after several police officers, were deemed no longer credible in court by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In one of Chavez’s final points to the court, he stated simply that neither he nor the driver ever paid off  attorney Thomas Clear, Ricardo Mendez, or Honoria Alba to miss any hearings. While Mendez’s plea agreement mentions Chavez’s case, that does not appear in Clear’s plea.

NEW MEXICO SUPREME COURT FIRST ISSUES TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF CHAVEZ LAW LICENSE

On March 18, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled 4-1 to immediately but temporarily suspend the law license of  Rudolph “Rudy” Chavez over allegations linking him to the  an ongoing  federal bribery and conspiracy case to dismiss DWI. The court set an April 7 hearing to listen to oral arguments on the petition filed by the Disciplinary Board of the New Mexico Supreme Court seeking his suspension from  the practice of law. On April 7, Rudolph “Rudy” Chavez agreed to forego the evidentiary hearing and accepted an “indefinite suspension” of his law license.

PLEA AGREEMENTS IN FEDERAL DWI ENTERPRISE

To date, more than 260 DWI cases have been dismissed by the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office  because they were filed by Albuquerque Police Officers, a Bernalillo County Sheriff Deputy and a New Mexico State police officers all implicated and under investigation as part of the FBI’s continuing investigation of the criminal DWI Enterprise scheme.

Eighteen law enforcement officers consisting of 14  APD Officers, 3 BCSO officers, including the undersheriff, and one NMSP Sergeant, have been implicated, resigned or retired.

On February 8, former APD Officers Honorio Alba Jr. and Joshua Montaño were arraigned in U.S. District Court on federal charges and entered guilty pleas under  Plea and Disposition Agreements. Both Montaño and Alba pleaded guilty to racketeering, bribery, extortion and conspiracy-related charges and face up to 130 years in prison.

On February 12, former APD Officer Neill Elsman, was arraigned in U.S Magistrate Court and plead guilty as charged to 5  counts including accepting bribes, conspiracy and extortion. Elsman, who started working for APD in 2014 and joined the DWI Unit in 2019 resigned last August ahead of an Internal Affairs Interview. Elsman resigned from the Albuquerque Police Department after returning from military leave.

On February 25, 2025  BCSO  Deputy Jeff Hammerel, 39, resigned from the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) and quickly plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, two counts of extortion and two counts of bribery. Hammerel admits his role in the racketeering DWI Enterprise to dismiss cases for bribes to help criminal Defense Attorney Thomas Clear III to get DWI cases dismissed. Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen announced that Hammerel had resigned before pleading guilty as charged.

The three APD officers and one BCSO Deputy plead guilty as charged with no sentencing agreement for their involvement in the DWI Enterprise and accepting bribes to dismiss DWI cases. Depending on the charges plead to, they face between 70 to 130 years in prison.

On January  24, Ricardo “Rick” Mendez, 53, the private investigator for attorney Thomas Clear III, plead guilty to all the charges contained in the criminal Information including racketeering, bribery of an agent receiving federal funds, aiding and abetting, interference with commerce by extortion under color of official right and to conspiracy.

On February 12, DWI defense attorney Thomas Clear III, 67, was arraigned in U.S Magistrate Court and plead guilty as charged to bribery of APD officers, racketeering conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and interference with commerce by extortion. He admitted his  involvement in the bribery and conspiracy “DWI Enterprise” scheme to dismiss DWI cases.

Clear plead guilty to 9 federal charges including racketeering (RICO) conspiracy, bribery, and extortion. Clear faces up to 130 years in prison and $2 million in fines. The criminal charges and the guilty plea came one day after Clear was suspended from practicing law by the New Mexico Supreme Court over allegations that he paid officers bribes to get his clients’ DWI cases dropped.

In his Plea Agreement, Clear admits that for nearly 30 years he led a criminal racketeering enterprise that paid off generations of law enforcement officers to get his clients’ DWI cases thrown out. Clear  admits to running the “DWI Enterprise” since at least 1995. The DWI Enterprise scheme was run out of Clear’s law office.

On February 7, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a “Complaint for Forfeiture” for the  home containing attorney Clear’s law offices located on Aztec Road in the middle of a Northeast Heights neighborhood.

On March 11, Clear was formally disbarred from the practice of law by the New Mexico Supreme Court. The US Attorney also filed a forfeiture action and seized a home used by Clear as his law office as part of the racketeering case.

Both Mendez and Clear faced  up to 130 years in prison and are awaiting sentencing.

Links to quoted or relied upon news sources are here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_fc350a4d-0e08-4cf7-8692-6d61d7bc752b.html

https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-attorney-suspended-police-dwi-scandal/64413511

https://www.krqe.com/news/investigations/albuquerque-lawyer-claims-false-statements-implicated-him-in-dwi-scheme/

https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-dwi-enterprise-second-attorney/64153072

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_5ccd5a90-0364-11f0-81e5-b7ac58ef1f01.html

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

And the beat goes on with the largest law enforcement corruption case in the city’s history involving the Albuquerque Police Department (APD), the Bernalillo County Sheriff’ Department (BCSO)  and the New Mexico State Police.  Over a 3 month period, federal  charges have been filed against Thomas Clear, III and his paralegal Ricardo “Rick” Mendez, and both  plead guilty as charged. Clear has been suspended from the practice of law and his law offices forfeited. Three former APD Officers have been charged and plead guilty as charged. One BCSO officer has been charged and plead guilty.  All defendants charged face from 70 to 130 years in prison. The New Mexico United States Attorney and the FBI  have said they are moving forward with even more charges and expect more to plead guilty.

APD’S BASTION OF “DIRTY AND CORRUPT COPS”

There is absolutely no doubt that APD’s reputation has been trashed to a major extent because of this scandal. APD is  viewed by many as again having just another bastion of “dirty and corrupt cops” who have brought dishonor to their department and their badge and to the department’s professed values of “Pride, Integrity, Fairness and Respect”.  There is little doubt that this whole DWI dismissal bribery scandal has shaken the public’s faith in our criminal justice system and APD to its core. Now the public is learning that BCSO and New Mexico State Police Officers may also be involved.

NO PUBLIC OUTCRY

What is truly shocking is that there has been very little to no public outrage over what has been going on and the corruption within all 3 of our largest  law enforcement agencies. No protests, no condemnations from the general public, civic organizations, business organizations, civil rights and minority rights organizations, neighborhood associations and community policy councils. No outrage expressed by elected officials like the  Albuquerque City Councilors, Bernalillo County Commissioners, the District Attorney, the Attorney General, the Governor and our congressional delegation and members of the legislature. Nothing, nada.

No one is demanding accountability nor the resignations of those who are supposed to be in charge. Mayor Tim Keller and APD Chief of Police Harold Medina in particular have pivoted, deflected and blamed all others for what has been happening within APD under their tenure for the last seven years. Mayor Keller for his part runs around with a smile on his face and a grin in his voice as he runs for a third term refusing to hold Chief Medina responsible for his mismanagement of APD. It’s as if the public and our elected officials now accept that law enforcement corruption is the norm and not the exception.

CONCLUSION

The only way that any semblance of faith can be restored and for people to begin trusting APD and law enforcement in general again is if all the police officers involved in this scandal are held accountable and the lawyers involved are held accountable. That will only happen with aggressive prosecutions, convictions, and lengthy  prison sentences for the law enforcement officers and attorneys involved in the “DWI Enterprise” scheme.  Until then, do not expect any public outrage by the public or elected officials.

NEWS ITEM: On Saturday April 5,  a “Hands Off!” rally was held at  Downtown Civic Plaza in Albuquerque with well over a 1,000 people in attendance. The rally was merely one of more than 1,000 held across the country in a mass mobilization “to demand a stop to the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country” organizers said. Similar rallies took place at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe and in Las Cruces and in major cities coast to coast all over the United States. People all over the country protested in mass in unity against President Donald Trump and  Elon Musk, the world’s riches man. They protested against the Trump mass layoffs, judicial overreach, immigration crackdowns and mass deportations, foreign wars, cuts to social security, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, the dismantling of the federal government, the tariffs imposed on all countries including America’s closest allies and the chaos and disruption Trump has brought since being sworn in for a second term.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/global-hands-off-protests-donald-trump-elon-musk-rcna199847

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/huge-crowds-gather-hands-off-rallies-nationwide-protest/story?id=120523176

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/06/us/video/anti-donald-trump-elon-musk-hands-off-protest-digvid

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_2144aa8f-6e14-4704-beba-1fffbf4d05be.html

JAEMES SHANLEY GUEST OPINION COLUMN

Following is a guest opinion column written by Jaemes Shanley. Mr. Shanley gave consent to publish his guest column on www.PeteDinelli.com and he was not compensated for it. The column captures much of the sure essence of what the “Hands Off” protests were all about and what caused the movement. Mr. Shanley’s biography can be found in the postscript to his article and it reflects a person who has  worked a lifetime in the private sector in sales and marketing for various corporations in the United States, Australia, and Japan and whose work required extensive travel throughout Asia Pacific and Latin America routinely in more than 30 countries.

EDITOR’S DISCALIMER: The opinions expressed by Mr. Shanley are not necessarily those held by www.PeteDinelli.com. The guest column is being published as a public service announcement.

HEADLINE: THE AUDACITY OF CONTEMPT

BY JAEMES SHANLEY

When your head is exploding it’s hard to think straight…

We are still in only the 12th week of the Trump regime, what used to be government of the people, by the people, for the people.  The affronts are so many and so diverse as to cascade with each day’s news cycle onto our consciousness like fragments from the rapid unscheduled disassembly of a Space X Starship.  People, pundits, and Democratic Party leaders seem at a loss to know which piece to grasp. In our outrage, confusion, and anxiety we are failing to re-assemble those pieces into a coherent image of the missile that is headed straight for the heart of US preeminence and leadership of a democratically inclined world order.

155,247,302 votes were cast in the 2024 US Presidential election.  77,302,580 (49.8%) were cast for Trump/Vance.  77,944,722 (50.2%) were cast for other people, 48.3% for Harris/Walz.  That is a popular vote victory and, in this instance, a bigger electoral college victory.  It is not a “mandate” for the agenda now being executed, unless you feel contempt for at least half the country and ordained by such a narrow margin to apply every lever of power you can seize to impose on the United States its greatest national security vulnerability in more than 100 years.

CHINA’S ASCENDENCE

We have known for more than a decade that China’s ascendence has made its leaders more vocal in their resentment of US global “hegemony”.  We have heard the same from their junior partner in the axis of autocracy, Vladimir Putin. Xi Jinpeng has articulated an intention to make China the dominant world power before the middle of this century.  Moreover, instead of simply agitating his populace with sloganeering, Xi and the CCC have been acting on strategy to realize their objective.  From rare earths to batteries to EV’s to quantum computing to A.I., not to mention their military expansion and muscle-flexing (toward Taiwan especially), they are demonstrating daily their capacity to hold parity with or surpass the US.  We are naïve to believe constricting chip or other technologies will not spur them to innovate around the obstacles with their own R&D and breakthroughs.  Deep Seek and BYD’s recently announced EV battery and charging system that can deliver 400 miles of driving range in a 5-minute charge should, among other achievements, be snapping us to attention.

No living citizen of the United States has personal experience of a time when our country was not the world’s most influential power … economically, technologically, industrially, scientifically, culturally, and militarily … usually all of those at the same time. It has become such a “given” for most Americans that we forget this extraordinary state of affairs was realized by a nation with less than 5% of the world’s population living on 6% of the world’s land mass.

Though we have prevailed at the forefront through two world wars, the race to the moon, the cold war with Soviet era communism, and the first two phases of the digital technology revolution, we are confronted now by a rival of unprecedented potency.

Arithmetic is not an ideological pursuit.  There is very basic “math” defining the current US-China reality.

*gathered from online resources including CIA World Fact Book, Wikipedia, US Treasury Dept., CEIC Data, BCG, CSET and others

THE PACE OF CHANGE AND THE EXTERNAL DEBT

There are two points most salient:  The pace of change and the External Debt.  China’s military spending will inevitably eclipse the US and US External Debt will metastasize quickly to a debilitating economic cancer if the US loses its standing as holder of the world’s reserve currency.  It is worth recalling the former position of the British pound sterling and that Argentina was among the world’s wealthiest countries per capita prior to 1930.

Confronted by this challenge we have democratically elected a leader who is embarked on an agenda he and his enablers claim will Make America Great Again, as if looking backwards while at the wheel did not guarantee driving off a cliff.

Slip on the shoes of Xi Jinpeng to imagine a “wish list” of US government missteps and the tactical underpinnings that will propel China to sole world dominance:

1.     Disunify the US population

• Direct the frustrations and ire of Americans toward each other
• Make political division render having 1/4^th China’s population functionally equivalent to 1/8^th

2.        Undermine trust and confidence in the US as an alliance partner

• Insult, threaten, abandon or attack closest allies
• Act with more empathy toward Russia than toward NATO allies
• Dispatch the Secretary of Defense and Vice President to Europe to channel the spirits of
• Neville Chamberlain and Oswald Mosley in their debut performance for allies Bludgeon trading partners with a punitive tariff program

3.        Amplify global perception of the US as an aggressor nation

• Manufacture a new Manifest Destiny targeting allies (Canada, Greenland, Panama)
• Flatter dictators
• Manifest gross hypocrisy in contrasting stances on wars in Ukraine and Gaza

4.        Destroy or replace US programs of material assistance to third world countries

• Transform US image of life saving to life ending for the world’s most vulnerable
• Destroy the front-line force of US soft power (USAID) and watch China step in to take up the slack, starting with the earthquake in Myanmar.

5. Silence US global informational propaganda programs

•  Shut down Voice of America to clear the way for foreign state suppression of free speech

6. Exploit US global supply chain dependencies to harm the most vulnerable Americans and expand economic inequality

• Impose tariffs on essential consumer goods that trigger tariff reciprocity on essential exports

7.      Diminish foundational academic research to weaken US techno-commercial power

• Gut university graduate and institutional R&D grants
• Drastically and abruptly downsize US federal agency science & research functions Replace scientists with idealogues throughout federal government agencies

8. Exploit internal divisions and disinformation to distract US population from China’s dominance of critical future industries

• Support denial of climate science and impacts of warming
• Disorient and disrupt support for education, thus maintaining declining performance in STEM Obsessively attack and degrade the US societal diversity which undergirds its overperformance across myriad domains of human endeavor

Rewrite history by executive order to keep eyes on the past and off the future

9.      Undermine public confidence in qualified and experienced administrators and run government thru obsequious amateur political appointees lacking the competence and mature judgement to efficiently operate the country

• Under cover of a manufactured “deep state” conspiracy theory, drive independent specialists and experts out of key government agencies.
• Produce snafu’s and departmental dysfunctions that will make public more receptive to contracting of vast government functions to private companies of the “owner class” Undermine public confidence in federal support for disaster relief as climate change makes disasters more frequent
• Politicize the US military with ideologically driven firings and replacements at senior levels, gutting its core professionalism and ultimately its battlefield competence.

10.   Amplify Americans’ perception and acceptance of an oligarchic/ plutocratic drift in power concentration and government control

• Brazenly embrace and support purchase of elections (national and local; legislative and judicial) through campaign funding by members of the “billionaire class”
• Dispense (contemptuously) with any adherence to “conflict of interest” or “divestiture” conventions among elected or appointed officials.
• Fully pardon Jan. 6 insurrectionists while promising “severe consequences” for anyone vandalizing Tesla’s.
• Undermine voting rights and oversight to rig future elections

11.   Let “America First” produce “America Alone”

China is unquestionably our rival.  That does not make China our enemy.  The interests of both nations and the world at large are far better served by collaboration to overcome global challenges (climate, health, prosperity, environment, resources) than by confrontational hostility.  The commonality of interest is stitched together by the threads of intertwined economies.

As Trump’s tariffs cut those threads, the common interests and restraints will unravel.  Collaboration and peaceful coexistence will demand a degree of power parity which requires the U.S., given the basic math of our respective demographics and economics, to embrace, not alienate, our allies in order to check any rational temptation to use military vs. diplomatic means to resolve disagreements.  What should be intuitively obvious is inescapable common sense when, again, viewing “the math”.

* CIA World Fact Book

The leadership capable of guiding the forces of democracy and a benevolent world order is not that of a would-be emperor using his thumb in a gladiatorial arena.  It is, most essentially, a leadership grounded in respect, not contempt, for truth and facts.

GEORGE WASHINGTON V. DONALD TRUMP

Consider the irony that almost 250 years from our nation’s founding and first Presidency under George Washington, we are being led by a man who took such an opposite lesson from the apocryphal story of chopping down the cherry tree, so formative of the notion of truth-telling to my (and his) generation growing up. Most of us, even as children, could perceive essential virtue in the courage to speak honestly regardless of the consequences. For Donald Trump, perhaps on the advice of Roy Cohn, it was a lesson describing the path of “suckers” and “losers”.

Not that long ago it was considered an outrageous “mortal sin” for a President of the United States to lie to the American people. Since Trump’s first term in office, it is merely a routine updating of fact-checking stats. What too many of us, the audience and recipients of all this lying and disinformation, seem unwilling to acknowledge is that it is an expression toward all of us of total contempt.  We are deemed by those who purport to lead us as being so predictably susceptible to manipulative misinformation that we can be herded into acquiescence or dismissed as radical leftists.  Our information eco-system has become so fragmented, polarized, and pervasive that we occupy “bespoke realities” (as described in Renee DiResta’s Invisible Rulers), as dissociated from one another as separate planets.

WALTER CRONKITE OR STEVE BANNON

We have traded Walter Cronkite, Huntley Brinkley, Barbara Walters, and Roger Mudd for an ever-expanding information propagation complex operated by the likes of Joe Rogan, Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, and Tucker Carlson, while we resist acknowledging the latter group’s primary motivation is money, influence and power, not the ideological “virtue” they would have us swallow.  In their contemptuous worldview, the relegation of facts to a category of quaint irrelevance is a core tenet.  There is heartbreaking irony in the willingness with which millions of Americans have thus embraced a new paradigm of “free speech” that draws more on the mechanisms of Putin’s Russia (described in Peter Pomerantsev’s Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible) than the intent of America’s founders.

SECOND IN COMMAND ELON MUSK

To hijack a nation, a Commander must have Captains. It speaks more volumes about Trump’s idolatry of dollars that he should choose as his de facto second in command the world’s richest man.  Again, the seeming contradictions between perceptions and behavior are confounding.

Is Elon Musk not the most visionary, innovative, courageous, and effective industrialist of our age?  That was Elon Musk: 1.0, the one whose brilliance and virtues realized the world’s first large scale Electric Vehicle manufacturing company in spite of short sellers and naysayers, who put his fortune on the line to lead a transformation of the possibilities and economics of space travel, who resigned in disgust from the first Trump administration’s advisory council of prominent business executives after Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Accord, whose satellite internet service was made available to Ukraine without hesitation to secure its battlefield communications in the face of Russia’s invasion.

Today we are living under the chainsaw of Elon Musk: 2.0. Not all upgrades are improvements. This version is not driven by the visionary genius behind Tesla, Space X, and Starlink.  It is motored by the “darkness” his biographers describe.  We all have demons.  With Musk 2.0 we are witnessing the rebirth of technocratic ideology, masquerading in a MAGA hat, unleashed from the pinnacle of economic and industrial power.  This Musk, liberated extravagantly from the constraints of money, is nonetheless servant to his grievances, ancestry, and gnawing appetite for attention and influence.  Stunted as a human being by near absence of emotional intelligence, he acquires Twitter not as a financial transaction but as a platform he can control and algorithmically manipulate to maximize his personal acquisition of followers and validation.

Musk retains the cognitive intelligence to apprehend that the doctrine of contempt for truth will be far more conducive to sating his emotional needs than any form of honesty.  He recognizes in Donald Trump today, not a climate change denier, but a purchasable pathway to prominence and influence he could never otherwise achieve.  Thus do we have the spectacle of the world’s richest man taking on, as his first target for “Government Efficiency”, not the $1.7 trillion allocated to notoriously over budget and behind schedule Pentagon weapons system programs, for which he is unimpeachably qualified by his Space X innovations to address with positive effect (better systems, faster, and at lower cost), but the less than $70 billion annual budget of USAID, the tip of America’s soft power spear, directed at life-saving health and safety initiatives for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.  Where will this rank in America’s hall of shame?  DOGE’s priority of targets and track record so far screams that it is faster, easier, and more fun to use a chainsaw than a scalpel and to hell with those who are unjustly hurt (national interest among them).

The portrait of the billionaire “tech bros”, gathered in their vassalization at Trump’s inauguration, will stand for posterity in stark contrast with John Trumball’s painting of our Founders in Declaration of Independence.   It is perhaps understandable that people, (coincidentally all men), who were able to achieve extraordinary wealth and influence because they built companies in a nation committed to free enterprise, should morph into moguls who decide they should be not only freed from fair taxation but should be elevated to greater power and influence as the Olympians of a new technocratic world order …  the same failed vision that produced fascism in the 1930’s.  The talents and predilections of wealth creation are not those required for democratic governance.  We don’t give enough credit and admiration to the likes of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Gordon Moore, Andy Grove and the long list of tech titans of yore who built companies and fortunes while changing the world, without feeling the need to control it.

NEED FOR BIPARTISAN GOVERNMENT 

If there was ever a time when national unity and functioning bipartisan government, girded by Constitutionally defined separation of powers and checks and balances, was needed it is now.  The relentless doubling down on this regime’s misguided bet of our future as a nation should, even at this early stage, clearly signal we are being unmoored not just from truth but from safety.

The situation is not improved when the other side (Democratic Party leaders and influencers) embraces a counter strategy of:

A). Defending the policies and positions that lost them the 2024 election.

B). Being unwilling to acknowledge their contribution to decades of decline in US economic and governance vitality as applied to the middle class, and

C). “Fighting” under each and every banner deemed convenient in the moment, be it “billionaires”, “oligarchy”, “fascism”, “working families” (suggesting billionaires don’t work), “reproductive rights”, “Elon Musk”, “due process”, “rule of law”, “LGBTQ rights”, “security breach”, or other marginal minutiae.

That is not to say those issues don’t matter, but they are not impacting every American and other issues are. The entire public is being held hostage to incessant partisan nitpicking over the malfeasance of the moment, like spectators at a ping pong match, while elected leaders fail to articulate a rational prioritizing of policy solutions to the existential threats to our nation and world, a credible alternative vision which can be persuasive amid this turbulence.  There are abundant blueprints available from which to build a compelling platform to pull the nation and the American people out of this morass; but the time to “get our act together” is running out.

Because the regime is just getting warmed up.

Their attention is directed at the free press.  From funding for public broadcasting, to excluding press access to the administration, to favoring the organs of the ideologically aligned or captured, we can expect every possible suppression to be exerted on truth and transparency, with the acquiescence or active assistance of social media platforms.

The rule of law as we have known it can no longer be taken for granted.  The judiciary, blue state governments, “non-aligned” law firms, universities, and opposition voices will be targeted and punished by any means the regime can manufacture.  Legal residents can be misapprehended and deported in acknowledged error before “due process” is even considered.

The mid-term elections cannot be taken for granted.  As its favorability ratings decline, efforts will be amplified and accelerated to secure the regime’s Project 2025 goal of entrenching an extreme MAGA Republican lock on power for an indefinite future, with or without the Constitution.

For those 77,944,722 Americans who did not vote for this debacle and the growing number with “buyers’ remorse”, the next 94 weeks (if we assume midterms occur) appear bleak.  Letters to our elected leaders, gatherings to protest, and especially sending donations in response to incessant solicitations from Democrats without a coherent platform, feel like pathetic hand gestures in the face of a tsunami.

The architects and functionaries of this Orwellian nightmare are counting on our sense of impotence.  They depend on our collective “shock and awe”, delivered “at muzzle velocity”, distracting us from recognition of the latent power of the “voting” each of us does daily.

Exit poll data indicates that the 50.2% of voters who did not want Trump/Vance punch above their weight economically and in their share of consumer spending.  Consumer spending is 70% of US GDP.  Perhaps it is time for us to stand up and be counted, not just figuratively but literally and daily. If the regime is willing to jeopardize with impunity our welfare and safety, individually and as a nation, then maybe we should reward their contempt for us with some applied shock therapy to the system they seek to subvert and own.  The votes we cast each day with our dollars will be counted.

WHAT WE CHOOSE MATTERS

We choose whether our dollars reward the businesses of would-be oligarchs.

We choose whether we want an unfettered free press or free shipping.

We choose to click (or not) on social media feeds that yield advertising revenue.

We choose to maintain active accounts on social media platforms controlled and manipulated by owners to amplify disinformation and distort attention rankings.

We choose to goose or gouge the economy with the amount, place and timing of our spending.

As we cower for cover from the fallout of the contempt directed toward us by our own elected leaders, we can be certain of one thing.  A house divided against itself will not stand.  No regime consumed by retribution and wanton indulgence of power at the expense of its citizens and friends can hope to stand strong in the face of a rival with the population and power of China.  No regime can make any nation “great” if it does not prioritize ensuring its own people are all fed, housed, healthy, educated, and safe.  We have a 250-year track record demonstrating the force multiplying effect of a constitutional democracy in meeting challenges set before it, but our high achievements have occurred only when the “United” part was in operation.

Absent a course correction, the United States and all it stands for and has been in the world for the past 100 years is headed for an ignominious fate, akin to her namesake ocean liner which once proudly sailed the Atlantic, still holds the record for crossing speed, and will soon be a sunken artificial reef off the coast of Florida.   At the age of 10, I sat on her aft deck with my parents and viewed the Statue of Liberty for the first time as we sailed out of New York headed for England, unaware I would not return for seven years.  That torch held aloft as a beacon to the world could hardly be fathomed in its symbolism by my pre-adolescent mind, yet I could feel its pull and potency.  It is not only to the rest of the world she is calling out “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Will we gather our wits, reconvene under the umbrella of truth, facts, and common sense, and roll up our sleeves, individually and collectively, to refurbish our nation and ensure the metaphorical light from Lady Liberty guides us back to our goodness and illuminates the world?

______________________

BIOGRAPHY

Jaemes Shanley is a resident of the Mark Twain neighborhood located in the mid heights. He first arrived in Albuquerque in August 1969, after graduating High School in England, to attend UNM from which he graduated in 1973. His parents followed a year later, and his father retired in Albuquerque after a 30-year career as a US Naval aviator.  In 1971 they purchased a home in the Mark Twain neighborhood where they resided for the remainder of their lives. Jaemes worked a lifetime in the private sector in sales and marketing for various corporations in the United States, Australia, and Japan. His work required extensive travel throughout Asia Pacific and Latin America routinely on the ground in more than 30 countries. Jaemes and his wife returned to Albuquerque in September 2006 to renovate and take up residence in his parent’s Mark Twain neighborhood home where they reside today, becoming actively involved with Neighborhood Associations.

On December 27, 2024 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates.   Following are the key findings of the report:

NUMBER OF PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS

“The number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2024 was the highest ever recorded. A total of 771,480 people, or about 23 of every 10,000 people in the United States,  experienced homelessness in an emergency shelter, safe haven, transitional housing program, or in unsheltered locations across the country.”

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

“Several factors likely contributed to this historically high number. Our worsening national affordable housing crisis, rising inflation, stagnating wages among middle- and lower-income households, and the persisting effects of systemic racism have stretched homelessness services systems to their limits. Additional public health crises, natural disasters that displaced people from their homes, rising numbers of people immigrating to the U.S., and the end to homelessness prevention programs put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the end of the expanded child tax credit, have exacerbated this already stressed system.”

RECORD LEVELS IN ALL POPULATIONS

“Nearly all populations reached record levels. Homelessness among people in families with children, individuals, individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness, people staying in unsheltered locations, people staying in sheltered locations, and unaccompanied youth all reached the highest recorded numbers in 2024.”

MORE CHILDREN FOUND HOMELESS

“People in families with children had the largest single year increase in homelessness. Between 2023 and 2024, 39% more people in families with children experienced homelessness. Overall, the number of people experiencing homelessness increased by 18%. Nearly 150,000 children experienced homelessness on a single night in 2024, reflecting a 33% percent increase ,or 32,618 more children, over 2023.  Between 2023 and 2024, children, defined as those  under the age of 18,  were the age group that experienced the largest increase in homelessness.”

NUMBER OF HOMELESS VETERANS DOWN

“Veterans were the only population to report continued declines in homelessness.  Between 2023 and 2024, the number of veterans experiencing homelessness declined by 8%, or 2,692 fewer veterans. The number of veterans experiencing homelessness has declined by 55% since data collection about veteran homelessness began in 2009. The declines in sheltered and unsheltered experiences of homelessness were similar, (56% and 54%). These declines are the result of targeted and sustained funding to reduce veteran homelessness.”

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

HUD ANALYSIS ON VETERANS

“Through targeted funding and interventions that utilize evidence-based practices, homelessness among veterans dropped to the lowest number on record. There was a nearly 8% decrease,  from 35,574 in 2023 to 32,882 in 2024,  in the number of veterans experiencing homelessness. Among unsheltered veterans, the number dropped nearly 11%,  rom 15,507 in 2023 to 13,851 in 2024. In 2024,  HUD  helped connect nearly 90,000 veteran households to stable, rental homes through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it has permanently housed 47,925 Veterans experiencing homelessness in FY2024  marking the largest number of veterans housed in a single year since FY 2019.”

https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_24_327

HOMELESS BY AGE

About 1 in every 5 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2024 was age 55 or older. More than 104,000 people experiencing homelessness were between the ages of  55 to 64, and just over 42,150 people were over age 64. Nearly half of adults aged 55 or older, 46%, were experiencing unsheltered homelessness in places not meant for human habitation.

RACE AND ETHNICITY

People who identify as Black, African American, or African continue to be overrepresented among the population experiencing homelessness. People who identify as Black made up just 12% of the total U.S. population and 21% of the U.S. population living in poverty but were 32% of all people experiencing homelessness.

However, the share of people experiencing homelessness who identify as Black of any ethnicity decreased from 37% of all people experiencing homelessness in 2023. This change could partially be due to changes in the way race and ethnicity was reported this year and the inclusion of additional reporting categories. However, in recent years, many Communities of Care (CoCs) have engaged in additional technical assistance to correct bias in the allocation of housing and prevention resources. This decline could also reflect the effects of those and other local efforts to more fairly distribute resources

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

CHRONIC PATTERNS OF HOMELESSNESS

One in every 3 individuals experiencing homelessness reported having experienced chronic patterns of homelessness, or 152,585 people. This is the highest number of individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness counted in the annual Point In Time survey. Individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness have increased by 27% since data was first collected in 2007. A whopping 65%  of all individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness, or more than 99,500 people, were counted in unsheltered locations. This is also the highest number recorded since data collection began.

Click to access 2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

NATIONAL INVENTORY OF BEDS

“The national inventory of beds for people currently experiencing homelessness increased by 13% between 2023 and 2024. This increase was driven by increases in emergency shelter beds, which increased by 18% between 2023 and 2024 and have doubled since 2007. Transitional housing, meanwhile, has steadily decreased over time, declining by 4% between 2023 and 2024 and by 60% since 2007. However, this reduction since 2007 does not necessarily mean that transitional housing beds were completely removed from the national inventory.

Often transitional housing programs realize they function more like emergency shelter and convert their project type to align better with the way they actually function. In other cases, transitional housing programs converted to permanent housing projects, including transition-in-place and rapid rehousing. Nearly 60% of the national inventory of beds is for people formerly experiencing homelessness.

Rapid rehousing (RRH), permanent supportive housing (PSH), and other permanent housing (OPH) programs make up 57%  of all beds reported in the housing inventory count (HIC) and people in these programs are not counted as experiencing homelessness in the PIT count data. Between 2023 and 2024 total inventory for these programs increased by 3%, with the largest increase among OPH programs, 14,735 more beds. This reflects significant investments into OPH through the Emergency Housing Voucher program. PSH makes up the largest share of all inventory for people formerly experiencing homelessness at 58%. While nationally the supply of PSH beds has more than doubled since 2007, there are still areas where the need for permanent housing has outpaced the supply.”

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

NEW MEXICO STATISTICS

Following are the statistics for the state of New Mexico gleaned from the HUD 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report with the pages of the report identified:

The estimated NUMBER OF PEOPLE experiencing homelessness in New Mexico in 2024 was reported as 4,641. (page 8).

The PERCENTAGE of people experiencing homelessness in New Mexico who were  UNSHELTERED in 2024 was 48% (page8)

In New Mexico the number of People Experiencing Homelessness from 2023-2024 increased by 789  (page 9), an 11% to 25% increase.

The ESTIMATE OF THE NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS experiencing homelessness in New Mexico in  2024 was reported as  3,744  or a 65% to 74% range  increase. (Page 20 of report)

Th percentages of the number of  individuals experiencing homelessness who were  UNSHELTERED in New Mexico in 2024 was 57% or a 31% to  50% range. (Page 21 of report)

The largest increase change in the Number of Individuals Experiencing Homelessness in New Mexico from 2023-2024 was 933 more than a 25% increase. (Page 21 of report)

The estimates of People in Families with Children Experiencing Homelessness  in New Mexico in 2024 was 887 or a 0% to 24% range. (Page 32 of report.)

The percentages of People in Families with Children Experiencing Homelessness Who Are Unsheltered in New Mexico in 2024 was 12% or a 5% to 15% range. (Page 32  of report)

The change in the Number of People in Families with Children Experiencing Homelessness  in New Mexico DECLINED by 144 from 2023 to 2024. (Page 32  of report).

The link to the  2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates is here:

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_24_327

Links to relied upon or quoted news sources are here:

Click to access 2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_24_327

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-12-30/the-number-of-homeless-people-in-the-u-s-has-increased

https://www.wxow.com/news/us-homelessness-up-18-as-affordable-housing-remains-out-of-reach-for-many-people/article_4f7105b3-d7c8-5e69-b5c4-2f8ec929579c.html

https://apnews.com/article/homelessness-population-count-2024-hud-migrants-2e0e2b4503b754612a1d0b3b73abf75f

ALBUQUERQUE’S “POINT IN TIME”  HOMELESS NUMBERS

On July 31, 2024 the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness released the 2024 Point-In-Time (PIT) Report for the numbers of unhoused in Albuquerque. The  PIT count occurred on the night of January 29, 2024.  The link to review the entire 62-page 2024 PIT report is here:

https://www.nmceh.org/_files/ugd/2e9419_b4f165dd991a4b7aada59938d8488dbe.pdf

HOUSEHOLDS COUNTED IN ALBUQUERQUE

The 2024 PIT survey reported that the total count of HOUSEHOLDS experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque on January 29, 2024 was 2,248.  (Households include those with or without children or only children.)  The breakdown is as follows:

• Emergency Shelters: 1,018
• Transitional Housing: 174
• Unsheltered: 1,056

TOTAL HOUSEHOLDS: 2,248

PERSONS COUNTED IN ALBUQUERQUE

The 2024 PIT survey reported that the total count of PERSONS experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque on January 29, 2024 was 2,740 broken down in 3 categories.

• Emergency Shelters: 1,289
• Transitional Housing: 220
• Unsheltered: 1,231

TOTAL PERSONS: 2,740

UNSHELTERED BREAKDOWN

The data breakdown for the 2024 Albuquerque UNSHELTERED was reported as follows:

• 960 (78%) were considered chronically homeless.
• 727 (22%) were not considered chronically homeless.
• 106 (8.6%) had served in the military.
• 927 (75.3%) had NOT served in the military.
• 669 (56.6%) were experiencing homelessness for the first time.
• 525 (42.6%) were NOT experiencing homelessness for the first time.

ALBQUERQUE UNSHELTERED COUNTS YEAR TO YEAR

The data breakdown for Albuquerque’s UNSHELTERED for the past 2 years is as follows:

• 2023:  977
• 2024: 1231

https://www.nmceh.org/_files/ugd/2e9419_b4f165dd991a4b7aada59938d8488dbe.pdf  (page 8 and 16)

ALBUQUERQUE UNSHELTERED ADULTS WITH DISABLING CONDITIONS

The data breakdown for the 2024 Albuquerque UNSHELTERED with disabling conditions was reported as follows:

• Adults with serious mental condition: 44.4%
• Adults with substance abuse disorder:  40%
• Adults with with another disabling condition: 25.8%
• Adults with HIV/AIDS: 1.3%

Note that a combined whopping 84.4% of all unsheltered adults were reported as  suffering from serious mental illness or substance abuse disorder.

https://www.nmceh.org/_files/ugd/2e9419_b4f165dd991a4b7aada59938d8488dbe.pdf  (page 11)

THOSE WHO MOVED TO NEW MEXICO FROM ELSEWHERE

For the first time, the PIT tried to gage the migration of the unhoused to New Mexico from other states.  Individuals who stated they moved to New Mexico from somewhere else were asked whether or not they were experiencing homelessness when they moved to the State. They responded as follows:

• 82 (24.8%) said they were homeless before moving to the state.
• 212 (63.8%) said they were not homeless before moving to the state.
• 77 (11.4%) refused to answer

BARRIERS TO HOUSING LISTED

Unhoused respondents were asked to list the barriers they are currently experiencing that are preventing them from obtaining housing. The response options were developed during multiple meetings with community planning groups and based on responses to a similar 2023 survey question. The responses were as follows:

• Access to services: 439 responses (42%)
• Access to communication: 263 responses 25%
• Available housing is in unsafe neighborhoods: 119 responses 11%
• Credit issues: 150 responses 14%
• Criminal record: 220 responses 21%
• Deposit/Application fees: 316 responses 30%
• Lack of vouchers (rental subsidies: 333 responses 32%
• Missing documentation: 374 responses 35%
• No housing for large households: 33 responses 3%
• Pet deposits/Pet Rent: 57 responses 5%
• Pets not allowed/Breed Restrictions: 48 responses 5%
• Rental history: 144 responses 14%
• Rental prices: 340 responses 32%
• Safety/Security: 77 responses 7%
• Substance Use Disorder: 283 responses 27%
• Lack of employment: 45 responses 4%
• Disabled: 34 responses 3%
• No mailing address: 31 3%
• Lack of income: 30 3%
• Homeless by choice: 30 responses 3%
• Ineffective service landscape: 25 responses 2%
• Lack of transportation: 14 responses 1%
• Discrimination: 8 responses 1%

ENCAMPMENT CLEANUPS AND REMOVAL

For the very first time, Albuquerque’s Unhoused were asked how many times has their encampment been decommissioned (removed) by the city over  the last year. Following are the statistics:

• 69 reported once
• 98 report twice
• 67 reported three times
• 55 reported 4 times
• 497 report 5 time or more

ITEMS LOST AS A RESULT OF CITY CLEAN UPS

The unhouse surveyed were asked what types of items they lost during encampment removals. Losing these items can hinder progress toward housing and cause emotional distress, especially when sentimental items are involved.  The response categories are not mutually exclusive and respondents were allowed to select more than one that applied.

• 81% said they lost their birth certificate.
• 5% said they lost a phone or tablet.
• 4% said they lost personal or sentimental items.
• 5% said they lost prescription medications.
• 9% said they lost social security cards.
• 6 said they lost a state ID or driver’s license.

NEW MEXICO STATUTES AND CITY ORDINANCES

New Mexico Statutes and City Ordinances that have been enacted to protect the general public health, safety, and welfare and to protect the public’s peaceful use and enjoyment of property rights. All the laws cited have been on the books for decades and are applicable and are enforced against all citizens and not just the unhoused. The specific statutes are:

1. NMSA 1978, Section 30-14-1 (1995), defining criminal trespass on public and private property.
2. NMSA 1978, Section 30-14-4 (1969), defining wrongful use of property used for a public purpose and owned by the state, its subdivisions, and any religious, charitable, educational, or recreational association.
3. Albuquerque City Ordinance 12-2-3, defining criminal trespass on public and private property.
4. Albuquerque City Ordinance 8-2-7-13, prohibiting the placement of items on a sidewalk so as to restrict its free use by pedestrians.
5. Albuquerque City Ordinance 10-1-1-10, prohibiting being in a park at nighttime when it is closed to public use.
6. Albuquerque City Ordinance 12-2-7, prohibiting hindering persons passing along any street, sidewalk, or public way.
7. Albuquerque City Ordinance 5-8-6, prohibiting camping on open space lands and regional preserves.
8. Albuquerque City Ordinance 10-1-1-3, prohibiting the erection of structures in city parks.

All the above laws are classified as “non-violent crimes” and are misdemeanors.  The filing of criminal charges by law enforcement are discretionary when the crime occurs in their presence. The City of Albuquerque and the Albuquerque Police Department has agreed that only citations will be issued and no arrests will be made for violations of the 8 statutes and city ordinance as part of a court approved settlement in  a decades old federal civil rights lawsuit dealing with jail overcrowding.

US SUPREME COURT CASE GRANTS PASS V. JOHNSON

On June 28, the United State Supreme Court announced its ruling in the case of Grants Pass v. Johnson where the court held that local laws effectively criminalizing homelessness do not violate the U.S. Constitution and do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

The case challenged a municipality’s ability to bar people from sleeping or camping in public areas, such as sidewalks and parks. The case is strikingly similar in facts and circumstances and laws to the case filed against the City of Albuquerque over the closure of Coronado Park.

The case came from the rural Oregon town of Grants Pass, which appealed a ruling striking down local ordinances that fined people $295 for sleeping outside after tents began crowding public parks. The homeless plaintiffs argued that Grants Pass, a town with just one 138-bed overnight shelter,  criminalized them for behavior they couldn’t avoid: sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go.

Meanwhile, municipalities across the western United States argued that court rulings hampered their ability to quickly respond to public health and safety issues related to homeless encampments.  The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over the nine Western states, ruled in 2018 that such bans violate the Eighth Amendment in areas where there aren’t enough shelter beds.

The United States Supreme Court considered whether cities can enforce laws and take action against or punish the unhoused for sleeping outside in public spaces when shelter space is lacking. The case is the most significant case heard by the high court in decades on the rights of the unhoused and comes as a rising number of people in the United States are without a permanent place to live.

In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court  reversed a ruling by a San Francisco-based appeals court that found outdoor sleeping bans amount to “cruel and unusual punishment” under the United States Constitution. The majority found that the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment does not extend to bans on outdoor sleeping in public places such as parks and streets.  The Supreme Court ruled  that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors, even in West Coast areas where shelter space is lacking.

CITY’S FINANCIAL COMMITMENT TO THE HOMELESS

Since becoming Mayor in 2017, Mayor Tim Keller has made the homeless the top priority perhaps only second to public safety. During the past 7 years of his tenure, the city has established two 24/7 homeless shelters, including purchasing the Loveless Gibson Medical Center for $15 million to convert it into a homeless shelter and he has spent upwards of $90 million to renovate it. The city is funding and operating 2 major shelters for the homeless, one fully operational with 450 beds and one when once remodeling is completed fully operational  will assist upwards 1,000 homeless and accommodate at least 330 a night.

Originally, it was the city’s Family Community Services Department (FCS) Department that provided assistance to the homeless. In fiscal year 2021-2022, the department spent $35,145,851 on homeless initiatives. In 2022-2023 fiscal year the department spent $59,498,915 on homeless initiatives.

On June 23, 2022 Mayor Tim Keller announced that the city was adding $48 million to the FY23 budget to address housing and homelessness issues in Albuquerque.  Key appropriations included in the $48 million were as follows:

• $20.7 million for affordable and supportive housing   
• $1.5 million for improvements to the Westside Emergency Housing Center
• $4 million to expand the Wellness Hotel Program
• $7 million for a youth shelter
• $6.8 million for medical respite and sobering centers
• $7 million for Gateway Phases I and II, and improvements to the Gibson Gateway Shelter facility
• $555,000 for services including mental health and food insecurity prevention

The link to the quoted source is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/family/news/mayor-keller-signs-off-on-major-housing-and-homelessness-investments

Effective July 1, 2024, the Family and Community Services Department was split to create two departments:  Health, Housing and Homelessness (HHH)  and the Youth and Family Services (YFS). The Health, Housing and Homelessness Department (HHH) provides a range of services to the unhoused. The services offered by the department directly or by contract with community providers include:

• Behavioral health services, which encompass mental health and substance abuse treatment and prevention.
• Homeless services.
• Domestic violence support.
• Health care.
• Gang/violence intervention and prevention.
• Public health services.
• Rental assistance and affordable housing developments.

HHH also operates four Health and Social Service Centers and the HHH department employs upwards of 100 full time employees.

The enacted FY/25 General Fund budget for the HHH Department is $52.2 million, which includes $48 million for strategic support, health and human services, affordable housing, mental health services, emergency shelter, homeless support services, Gibson Health HUB operating, and substance use services from Family and Community Services Department, and $4.2 million for a move of Gibson Health HUB maintenance division form General Service Department.

The HHH departments FY/25 budget which began on July 1, 20224 includes:

• $13.3 million of FY/24 one-time funding transferred from Family and Community Services, including $265 thousand for strategic support,
• $110 thousand for health and human services,
• $8.5 million for affordable housing,
• $1.5 million for mental health services,
• $1.2 million for emergency shelter,
• $200 thousand for substance use services,
• $1 million for homeless support services and $500 thousand for the Gateway Phase 1 and Engagement Center at Gibson Health Hub.

The FY/25 HHH Department budget increases recurring funding of $250 thousand for Family Housing Navigation Center/Shelter (Wellness-2), and recurring funding of $250 thousand for Gibson Health HUB maintenance. The proposed budget adjusts program appropriations of $776 thousand in FY/25 based on projected savings.

The Gateway Homeless shelter on Gibson, the city’s one-stop shop for shelter, housing and employment services, has been appropriated $10.7 million in total funding fiscal year 2025.

The Westside Emergency Housing Center was appropriated $1.5 million.

The proposed budget includes $8 million in one-time funding for supportive housing and voucher programs, plus $100,000 for emergency housing vouchers for victims of domestic violence.

Other major budget highlights for the homelessness, housing and behavioral health include the following:

• $900,000 nonrecurring to fully fund the Assisted Outpatient Treatment program.
• $730,000 in recurring funding for operation of the Medical Sobering Center at the Gateway Shelter.
• $100,000 nonrecurring for emergency housing vouchers for victims of domestic violence.
• “Full funding” for service contracts for mental health, substance abuse, early intervention and prevention programs, domestic violence shelters and services, sexual assault services, health and social service providers, and services to abused, neglected, and abandoned youth.
• $1.5 million in recurring funding for the Medical Respite facility at the  Gateway Center.
• $100,000 nonrecurring for the development of a technology system that enables the city and providers to coordinate on the provision of social services to people experiencing homelessness and behavioral health challenges.
• $500,000 nonrecurring to fund Albuquerque Street Connect. According to the mayor’s office, Street Connect is a “proven program” that focuses on establishing ongoing relationships with people experiencing homelessness to help them into supportive housing.

You can review all city hall department budgets at this link: 

Click to access fy24-proposed-web-version.pdf

According to the City budgets for the years 2021 to 2024, the Keller administration has spent over $300 million in the last 4 years on homeless shelters, programs, and the city purchasing and remodeling motels for low-income housing. Keller insisted on buying the old Lovelace hospital on Gibson for his Gateway Homeless shelter and he has spent upwards of $90 million to remodel it because of asbestos removal.

Keller has taken an “all the above approach” to deal with the city’s homeless. The city will have a total of 5 shelters  to deal with the homeless that should be operating as an integrated system:

• The Gibson Gateway shelter
• The Gateway West shelter
• The Family Gateway shelter
• The Youth Homeless shelter
• The Recovery Shelter

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH REFORM PACKAGE 

During the 2025 New Mexico Legislature, the state enacted the Behavioral Health Reform Package consisting of 3 Senate Bills that make sweeping changes to how New Mexico’s mental health and drug abuse treatment programs are run statewide. The following is a description of each of the enacted Senate Bills:

Senate Bill 1: This bill creates the Behavioral Health Trust Fund for the state of New Mexico to support mental health and substance abuse treatment, prevention, and intervention programs throughout the state. The behavioral health trust fund will be invested by the State Investment Council. The trust fund will distribute 5% of its annual value to fund the programs and support investments in necessary infrastructure, technology, and workforce development to facilitate the expansion of services. The fund could also help New Mexico unlock matching funds from federal, local, and private sources. One major change made  to Senate Bill 1 was  removing a $1 billion appropriation for the new proposed trust fund.  Money for the new fund will be provided in a separate budget bill during this year’s 60-day session.

Senate Bill 2: This bill allocates $200 million to expand regional behavioral health services such as crisis response and outpatient care. The bill appropriates the funding to the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts and various state agencies to set up a new framework for behavioral health programs statewide. Senate Bill 2  was not part of the signing ceremony but never the less is part of the behavioral health reform package and  is part of general fund appropriations. It is assured passage in short order by the legislative leadership.

Senate Bill 3: This bill requires regional plans be crafted for providing mental health and substance abuse treatment. The plans would be overseen by the state judicial branch and would include time lines and regional funding priorities.

The legislation was  signed by the Governor Lujan Grisham  on February 27 and it  will take effect June 20, 2025.

The 2025 legislature also enacted House Bill 4  which is the criminal competency legislation that is part of the Omnibus crime package . It gives prosecutors more options to involuntarily commit people into a locked psychiatric facility if they are found to be dangerous to themselves or others and unable to stand trial. The courts will now have more options when dealing with suspects who are deemed incompetent to stand trial  instead of simply releasing them back on the streets. Under House Bill 4, when a court determines that a defendant is not competent to proceed in a criminal case the court shall determine if the defendant is dangerous.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The blunt reality is that Mayor Tim Keller, with all of his good intentions, 5 shelters and millions being spent on programs and services, is essentially proclaiming the unhoused to be “wards of the city” when such a responsibility should be undertaken by the state or federal governments. The city is assuming a financial burden that is not sustainable in the long run and it is becoming too big of a drain on city resources to the determent of essential, basic services.

The recent annual Point-In-Time homeless survey count found an 18% to 25% increase in the homeless with upwards of 3,000 chronic homeless in the city. It has been reported by those taking the survey itself that 75% refuse city services wanting to be left alone to continue living on the streets.  A whopping  combined total of  84.4% of all unsheltered adults were reported as  suffering from serious mental illness or substance abuse disorder. (44.4% adults with serious mental condition + 40% Adults with substance abuse disorder = 84.4%)

Despite Keller’s spending efforts to assist the unhoused, the city’s homeless numbers continue to spike and are out of control as the crisis worsens as the unhoused refuse services and as they take over our streets and parks. The $300 million spent to help 3,000 to 5,000 homeless with 75% refusing services would have gone a long way to finance community centers, senior citizen centers, police and fire substations, preschool or after school programs, senior citizen programs, and police and fire programs.

Mayor Keller has allowed the unhoused to proliferate city streets, parks and open space declining to aggressively enforce city and state vagrancy laws and make arrests as allowed by a United States Supreme Court ruling. Keller allowed Coronado Park to become the city’s de facto city sanction homeless encampment before he declared it to be the most dangerous place in the state forgetting it was he who sanctioned it and then he was forced to close it down because of out-of-control violent crime and illicit drug use.

Being unhoused is not a crime. Government, be it federal, state or local, have a moral obligation to help and assist the unhoused, especially those that are mentally ill or who are drug addicted. But that does not mean you make them “wards of the city”  to provide any and all assistance they want, how they want it and at their beckon call.

The unhoused are not above the law. They cannot be allowed to just ignore the law, illegally camp wherever they want for as long as they want and as they choose, when they totally reject any and all government housing or shelter assistance. The City has every right to enforce its laws on behalf of its citizens to preserve and protect the public health, safety and welfare of all its citizens.

Unlawful encampment squatters who refuse city services and all alternatives to living on the street, who want to camp at city parks, on city streets in alleys and trespass in open space give the city no choice but to take action and force them to move on.  Allowing the homeless to use, congregate and camp anywhere they want for as long as they want in violation of city laws and ordinances should never be considered as an option to deal with the homeless crisis given all the resources the city is dedicating the millions being spent to assist the homeless.

Too many elected and government officials and organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Association of New Mexico, have no problem and see nothing wrong with  homeless adults simply living their life as they choose, where they want to camp for as long as they can get away with it, without any government nor family interference and especially no government rules and no regulations. They could not careless the negative impact such conduct has on others and others property rights.

No municipality should ever be required to just simply ignore and to not enforce anti-camping ordinances, vagrancy laws, civil nuisance abatement laws and criminal laws designed to protect the general public’s health, safety and welfare of a community.

Squatters who have no interest in any offers of shelter, beds, motel vouchers or alternatives to living on the street really give the city no choice but to make it totally inconvenient for them to “squat” anywhere they want and force them to move on. After repeated attempts to force them to move on citations, arrests are in order.

CIVIL MENTAL HEALTH COMMITMENTS VIABLE SOLUTION

The 2024 legislature enacted the Behavioral Health Package which will fund a half billion dollar trust fund to build behavioral health facilities an hire personnel in 3 regions. The county also has Behavioral Health Tax where facilities are also suppose to being built. The city was nuts to convert the old Lovelace hospital to a 24/7 shelter and should have kept it as a hospital and use the 200 patient rooms for civil mental health commitments.

The 2025 legislature also enacted House Bill 4  which is the criminal competency legislation that is part of the Omnibus Crime Package.  It expands the definition of “serious danger to self and others”  and District Attorneys can get people committed for longer periods of time and compel treatment. The Courts will be in charge and they are committed to getting the job done.

A whopping 84.4% of all unsheltered adults in Albuquerque are  reported as  suffering from serious mental illness or substance abuse disorder. This translates into  posing a serious threat to their own safety or the safety of others.  Rather than emphasizing temporary housing as Mayor Keller has done with his integrated shelter program, the city should take steps to implement a “civil mental health commitment” program to deal with the unhoused who are suffering from mental illness and drug addiction to get them the treatment and care they need and get them off the streets once and for all.

The links to a related articles are here:

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham Signs Into Law The Behavioral Health Care Package And Omnibus Crime Package; Like Oliver Twist Asks For More; Changes To Children’s Code And Juvenile Justice System Stuck In Committee; Other Pending Legislation; More Must And Can Be Done To Address Crime

City Has Upwards Of 2,740 Unhoused, Balance Of State Has 1,907 Unhoused; Numbers Should Be Manageable But Only Getting Worse; Survey Includes Data On ABQ’s Efforts To Dismantle Encampments And Personal Belongings Of Unhoused; City Should Enforce Vagrancy Laws

Point In Time Survey Reveals ABQ’s Homeless Encampment Clean Up Efforts; City Policy And Process To Remove Homeless Encampments Outlined; More Must Be Done Enforcing Vagrancy Laws As Allowed By The United States Supreme Court