Republicans duck behind anonymous retraction
Republicans in New Mexico should find new leaders or hide their heads in embarrassment. Those at the top rung of the party persuaded themselves that a flip-flop was safer politically than taking a stand against violence in the streets started by a vigilante.
The Republican response began innocently enough.
Anissa Tinnin, the Republicans’ state executive director, distributed a statement at 9:52 p.m. Monday on a shooting that had occurred during a protest in Albuquerque.
“While the Republican Party supports peaceful protests and encourages people to exercise their freedoms, this kind of violence cannot be tolerated,” Tinnin said. “This senseless shooting must be condemned, and we must adhere to law and order in our communities.”
Tinnin started with a non sequitur, but aside from that flub of syntax her statement didn’t attract much notice. It was late at night, and many people had no idea Tinnin had said anything at all.
But Tinnin, or Republican politicians around her, became nervous in a hurry.
At 10:48 p.m., less than an hour after Tinnin sent her comment, someone in the Republican Party decided what she had said about intolerable violence was too hot for consumption. State Republicans announced an about-face in a generic statement.
“Dear friends. Pending the investigation, the Republican Party of New Mexico has retracted its earlier statement regarding tonight’s shooting during a protest in Old Town, Albuquerque.”
An inanimate institution didn’t issue the first statement condemning the shooting. Tinnin did.
Someone high in the party authorized the retraction, but wouldn’t attach his or her name to it.
Maybe party leaders feared they would look wimpy on the Second Amendment if the shooting suspect, Steven Ray Baca, mounts a claim of self-defense.
As it stands, Republican leaders look wimpy for silencing one of their own after she denounced gun violence at a demonstration.
Police arrested Baca, 31, on a charge of aggravated battery with a firearm. He shot a man he’d fought with during the demonstration. The wounded man was hospitalized Tuesday in critical condition.
Baca was part of a group trying to stop demonstrators from pulling down a statue of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate. The confrontation escalated to gun violence because of Baca.
But a criminal complaint filed by Albuquerque police Detective Kelsey Lueckenhoff ignores key parts of what happened while portraying Baca in a sympathetic way.
Lueckenhoff ’s report states that “the group appeared to maliciously pursue Steven, with several of the crowd’s individuals striking Steven’s body with their hands and legs.”
The detective must have missed what preceded the fight. Lueckenhoff referring to the shooter as “Steven” is almost
as bad. I’ve read thousands of police reports but can’t recall a detective putting himself or herself on a first-name basis with the suspect in a shooting.
Reporter Marisa Demarco of KUNM sent me a fuller account of what happened, including the part Lueckenhoff omitted.
Video shows a woman who probably weighs a hundred pounds less than Baca extending her arms sideways to impede his path to the statue. Demarco said Baca attacked the woman, and video backs up this account.
“I was right behind the woman who this guy Steven grabbed from behind and threw to the ground. She hit her head really hard on the pavement and looked quite stunned,” Demarco said.
The crowd turned on Baca. Detective Lueckenhoff claimed to know nothing about the reason.
“Steven was similarly recorded, leaving the area of the statue toward the street interacting with the crowd. However, his specific type of interaction with the crowd is unknown at this time,” Lueckenhoff said.
Unknown? How many witnesses and how much video did the police department bypass?
Also missing from the police account is that several people pursuing Baca were yelling for someone to jot down his license plate number. They wanted to be able to find the beefy man who had battered a woman.
Video shows someone striking Baca with a skateboard and then tackling him.
“A second male,” Detective Lueckenhoff wrote, “is observed holding the longboard with two hands and swinging it toward the area of Steven’s head and upper body. At this time, a series of gunshots are heard, and the longboard is dropped to the ground. Steven is recorded as holding a black-colored semi-automatic handgun and firing several shots.”
The detective stated the man Baca shot was the one who had struck him with the skateboard.
Demarco knew the man Baca wounded.
“I’m hearing different things about how many times he was shot,” she said. “But when I found him lying in the street, I saw at least two bullet wounds, one on his back.”
Baca last year ran for a seat on the Albuquerque City Council. Campaigning as an advocate for increased powers for the police force, he finished fifth in a sixway race.
Former Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry lost control of his police department in 2014 after years of abuses. The U.S. Department of Justice found Albuquerque police officers had a record of using excessive force, including deadly force.
Based on this case, the Albuquerque Police Department still needs a professional monitor.
Lueckenhoff ’s criminal complaint portrays Baca as an innocent bystander targeted by a mob.
On video, Baca roughed up a woman, tried to flee and shot a man who hit him with a skateboard. It’s an ugly story.
Somehow, though, the idea that the shooter might have had good cause to crack off four rounds reached the hierarchy of the state Republican Party.
It must have a pipeline to the detective bureau.
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.
Baca last year ran for a seat on the Albuquerque City Council. Campaigning as an advocate for increased powers for the police force, he finished fifth in a six-way race.