Crime is rising in a tough city. It’s time to suppport local law enforcement

We need to take responsibility for our actions and community

IN REGARD to the “BCSO in Crisis” article published Nov. 26: Just weeks ago, the Albuquerque Journal reported the prevalence of crime in Albuquerque and highlighted the uptick in violent crime. It’s good to question the use of force and at the same time to realize we as a community need to take responsibility for our actions and take better care of our mentally ill, homeless, and teach our children right from wrong.

Many of these shootings involve repeat offenders. What is the judicial system doing to keep violent criminals off the streets and provide rehabilitation? Each time these stories are printed, it is suggested APD or BCSO should not use force; however, these are life-and-death situations.

We as a community should not be like Rodney Tenorio, who (BCSO says) beat his girlfriend in front of children, (then) stabbed a man, ran over a different man with his car and then came back to the scene to finish off the man he had previously stabbed.

(BCSO says) Raymond Cruz was shot and killed after he broke into a home after fleeing from officers, then took the homeowners hostage and in his effort to get away rammed deputies with his car. Ask yourself what would he have done with the hostages if he got away?

(And BCSO says) Kendall Duran had a gun pointed at his father and was shot and not killed after not responding to commands.

There is a shocking percentage of Albuquerque’s population who are poor, uneducated and without hope. They have nothing to lose and so they behave that way. We ignore the needs of each other, the needs of our community, and we leave APD and BCSO to deal with the mess that has escalated to a point that the officer has to use force.

Let’s call on our churches to lift up the homeless and addicted. Do what’s necessary to get mental health providers to come back to the Albuquerque area. Volunteer in the community to make it safer. Start a Neighborhood Watch. Stop leaving your car unlocked and warming up in the driveway. Pay attention to your kids, and keep them away from gangs and drugs.

Take responsibility for your actions, Albuquerque. MICHELLE MONTANO Albuquerque

ABQ Journal should support our law enforcement officers

I WAS VERY disturbed to read the lead story in the Sunday Journal, Nov. 26, “BCSO In Crisis.” When a BCSO deputy puts on their uniform and clocks in to work, they never know what they are going to encounter on their shift. Your article, and specifically the seeming support of the “victim” of officer-involved shooting deaths, is nothing short of deplorable.

When describing the incident and using words such as “reportedly” and “suspected” when referring to the criminal, your journalists are, to say the least, stretching the truth. The suspects “reportedly” involved in the crimes have rap sheets longer than my arm and probably that of the Jolly Green Giant. These are serial criminals, committing serial crimes at will.

The deputies’ only crime is doing their job, stopping such crimes as abduction, attempted murder, aggravated theft, domestic assault and who knows what else, often facing death, or serious injury for their service?

Do the ABQ Journal journalists really think that BCSO deputies, and for that matter APD officers, are just a bunch of “Dirty Harrys” seeking retribution? Time to step up to the plate ABQJournal, Support our law enforcement! ALAN J. WRIGHT Albuquerque

All of us must correct rules that threaten stability, safety

AFTER READING yet another hit piece targeting the split-second decisions of the men and the women of the BCSO who have taken a solemn oath to serve and protect, my wife and I are considering canceling our over-25-year subscription with your publication.

Your coverage … and your opinion pieces have continually badgered our dedicated law enforcement personnel who are repeatedly placed in harm’s way because of their efforts to protect the citizenry and to maintain a fleeting hold on society’s ordered design.

Your editorial opinions and the slant of a majority of your journalists’ articles continually convey to the public that the decisions made by our law enforcement personnel, when they are confronted with the use of force or refusal to submit to lawful orders by individuals involved in criminal activity, are inappropriate.

It is easy for many members of the political and the community elite to Monday-morning quarterback the nano-second decision of a deputy or police officer put into a situation(s) — more frequently recently by the catch-and-release rules of a N.M. Supreme Court in crisis — to use force on an individual who is a threat to the safety of the community and to the sworn officers hired to enforce the laws.

The individuals we as taxpayers employ to enforce the laws of our community are attempting to do the best they can under the continual barrage of social justice activists within and without the dysfunctional post-arrest judicial system.

From arresting the illegal drug-induced repeat violent crime law breakers, through dealing with a defense bar bent on molding the facts to suit its agenda either to spring a client or win the litigation lottery by filing a wrongful-something lawsuit, to the District and Metro Court judges — either social justice or law-and-order leaning — who are expected to abide by rules extrapolated from a recently voter-passed amendment to the N.M. Constitution by the five lawyers on the N.M. Supreme Court, our brave and human protectors of our social order attempt to do their best and give their all so we may be free from harm.

Full disclosure: I support law enforcement — I am retired law enforcement and have family members still serving and protecting — and (I ask for) the accountability of all the officers of the court, law enforcement, news media and our elected officials to tell the truth about all the entities responsible for the out-of-control-crime problem in Bernalillo County and to strive to correct the rules or policies that are threatening the stability of our community and the safety of all the inhabitants. PAUL JESSEN Albuquerque