It’s right to hold vigilantes accountable

District Attorney Raúl Torrez isn’t walking away from a tough case in Bernalillo County. On Monday, Torrez announced that Steven Ray Baca, accused of shooting a protester last month during a demonstration over a Don Juan de Oñate statue, will have to answer for his actions in court, despite his claims of self-defense.

Torrez amended the complaint against Baca, charging him with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in connection with the shooting of one protester. He also faces a charge of battery for his tussle with a woman and a charge of unlawful carrying of a firearm.

Even more encouraging, Torrez is joining with local lawyers and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center to address a bigger issue — how to manage so-called militias made up of armed civilians who believe they have the right to take the law into their own hands.

The protest was part of a series of demonstrations last month against monuments and statues to Spanish colonizers. First, demonstrators cheered in Alcalde as a statue of Oñate was removed by Rio Arriba County authorities for safekeeping. Oñate’s cruelty to Native people has been well documented. To many in New Mexico, the early conquistador is unworthy of a public honor.

In Albuquerque, protesters also wanted the statue removed. A gathering that began peacefully grew increasingly fraught. The presence of armed members of the New Mexico Civil Guard — ostensibly there to protect property — did not ease tensions. (In contrast, a demonstration on the Santa Fe Plaza, also against monuments to violent colonizers, lacked visible militia members and was free of conflict, despite later vandalism after the gathering.)

Baca, who militia members say is not affiliated with the group, became visibly upset on video as protesters began trying to pull down the Oñate statue. The situation escalated, with Baca eventually pulling out a gun and firing after one protester hit him with a skateboard. All of this is captured on cellphone video, so jurors will have a lot to weigh as they make their decision on Baca’s guilt — it might be they decide he was defending himself.

Not so fast, says the DA. Because Baca started the conflict, Torrez said, the shooting cannot be described as self-defense. The case is worth pursuing because we don’t want provocateurs in our midst, starting fights and then crying “self-defense” after they shoot.

That’s why the efforts to rein in armed militia groups are welcome — the threat of violence is even more real as numbers of armed men and women grow. These secretive groups are a mystery. The members of the New Mexico Civil Guard are self-selected. They choose where they patrol and who receives their brand of “justice.” They decide what arms to carry, how much to practice and who to allow in the group.

We, the citizens of the state of New Mexico, know nothing about the members, their abilities with weapons or their motivations. We did not ask them to protect us. For many, the presence of strangers dressed in camouflage and armed with weapons of war feels less like protection and more like intimidation.

The DA says his office is in a position to seek an injunction against the New Mexico Civil Guard to forbid members from acting as “an unlawful military unit” and to prohibit the group from “causing a public nuisance.”

We wish them success, but we also encourage Attorney General Hector Balderas and state lawmakers to look for long-term ways of regulating these armed groups. The Second Amendment, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, allows the individual right to bear arms. That’s without dispute, although justices have made clear that right can be regulated.

For now, we appreciate efforts to keep rogue actors — whether an individual or an armed group — away from the rest of us. New Mexico has a Wild West past. We don’t need vigilantes in our present.