Street criminals aren’t only ‘bad hombres’

THE JOURNAL’S recent investigative reports by Colleen Heild have been most enlightening, as have the articles regarding crime activity in our community. To learn that a major firm felt the need to go public about the “marked deterioration in the safety and security of the Downtown Albuquerque area” is extremely troubling because of the global impact it can potentially have on the state’s economic development efforts. The city’s response of “We’ve got some bad hombres out there” seems strange. Not sure what the connotation means in this instance!

Our new district attorney brings new hope. Let’s hope he garners the support he needs to make that hope a reality.

The millions of dollars of apparent embezzlement at Desert State Life Management is perhaps even more troubling than the cases to which I alluded above, simply because of the monetary losses of totally innocent people — losses that cannot be made up due to their advanced age, something that I can certainly relate to. Recently, our retention wall on our property was deemed to be failing(because of) the land developer and his subcontractors designing and building the wall in violation of the city-granted building permit. ...When the wall fails, we will lose our largest asset without the benefit, due to our age, to ever regain it. The developer and his subcontractors could do the right thing and spare us the agony our fellow residents are going through at Desert State Life Management. Our case may not be as dramatic as the Desert State case, but the impact is the same! I will, however, refrain from calling anyone “bad hombres,” lest the connotation be misunderstood. ROBERT E. GURULE Albuquerque