Submitted by Pilar Tirado Murray, East Mt. resident
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Merritt Hamilton Allen’s tart, intelligent and tongue-in-cheek take on New Mexico politics is always a pleasure to read and last week’s column (“APD: A Cautionary Tale”) was no exception. The “crisis communication pro tips” she offers to the Albuquerque Police Department and 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman can be summed up in two words: stop talking. The problem with that approach is that APD and the DA answer to the public. Citizens have a right to know what’s going on in government even it if it’s not “a good look” for those who manage it. Shutting down questions about non-appearances that made New Mexico unsafer and went on for a decade unreported by state officials misses the point. I, for one, am grateful that DA Sam Bregman, APD Chief Harold Medina and Chief Public Defender Ben Bauer have all issued press releases on the subject. What these leaders choose to say tells us as much as what they don’t. And that’s what helps us keep them accountable.
Case in point, why has Bregman vociferously gone after Medina without mentioning that the bulk of the police officer pay-offs took place under former DA, current Attorney General and fellow Democrat Raul Torrez’s watch? Why did it take a disaffected female client to point out what lower-earning APD officers and other regular courtroom attendees could not have helped but see, week after week, month after month, for nearly ten years? How can the Chief Public Defender talk indignantly about ethics, consciously creating a mile-wide distance between himself and this mess when according to LOPD’s own website Bauer’s office was “overseen, guided and supported” by an organization that Tom Clear led and which regularly renewed Bauer’s contract? Finally, and most importantly, why DIDN’T Chief Medina adopt his own monitoring program to ensure that his officers were routinely cooperating with prosecutors and appearing in court on time, as scheduled as they are required to do in response to legally enforceable subpoenas?
These are the questions that the public should be asking and the press should be pursuing. As for smaller communities being immune from corruption, think again: in a place where everyone knows each other’s business, there will always be someone who “has” something on someone else and will use it to their advantage, creating a culture of fear where people would rather hold their tongue than speak up about something that causes harm. A smaller community is more transparent but it’s not the size of a police department, the prestige of its prosecutor, or the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil posture of a public defender that protects it from corruption; it’s the courage and character of citizens who hold their leaders—officers or otherwise–to account.