On Social Justice
If you read yesterday’s Journal story, you might have thought the Albuquerque streets were safer: APD officer pulls his gun, but doesn’t fire: Man claimed he was armed but he only had a cellphone (Albuquerque Journal, April 24, 2014). It goes on, “Another officer pulled gun then a Taser, but no shots were fired.” A spokesman for the ACLU said, “It sounds like officers handled that exactly how it had to be handled. The defused rather than escalated the situation.” Apparently the man rushed out, confronted and pushed an officer but the cops didn’t shoot him.
Lessons learned? No, ladies and gentlemen, no.
Today’s “headlines: Armed man told officers, ‘Shoot me! Shoot me!’” And they did. “The man shot and killed by Albuquerque police Thursday night was brandishing a bloodied box cutter and asking them to shoot him before two officers fired what sounded like six shots at him, officials said Friday afternoon.” (Albuquerque Journal, May 24, 2014). So, another homeless man, drinking, fighting with his girlfriend, cut a Good Samaritan, trying to intervene, with a knife or box cutter. Then he charged police and died in what passersby described as a hail of gunfire. No tasers, no clubs, no ACLU benediction for the bloodthirsty cops.
But that’s not what Taosenos are talking about. No they are talking about The Taos News, which excellent local weekly printed mug shots ad nauseam above the fold so everyone could study the anonymous faces as they passed by blue news boxes on the street. By eliminating the names, The Taos News focused effectively not on individuals but on stereotyping the local community. Course the Editor could have published the wall of shame inside with names to satisfy the need for news.
Having lost all credibility by endorsing the incumbent and former mayor, who got shellacked for good reason in a recent election, The Taos News has published a tabloid attack on the local community. The former mayor, a democrat and a legend, according to his publicity, claims in television commercials that republican Gov. Susana Martinez is “one of us.” Only 15% of 25,000 registered voters in Taos County are republicans and local party regulars are angry at Martinez, who, like The Taos News, endorsed the loser mayor in the recent municipal election.
To underscore this claim and the hostility the local weekly perpetuates against the local community, notice how The Taos News has been whining about the refusal by Taos Municipal Schools to release an investigation of the alleged Special Ed scandal. Yet, when the prior school board tried to focus attention on scandals at CRAB Hall, the biased reporting of Matt Van Buren or The Taos News and its groupies at CRAB Hall prevented the public from learning the facts.
The disgraced former Mayor jumped on the hysteria created by The Taos News and visited with the Gov. and tried to have the school board removed. And The Taos News supported him and his cronies, who all sided with corrupt administrators at the Taos Municipal Schools. Now a new reporter, less biased, has recognized the decades old problem and cover-up of the Special Ed scandal. Still the Editor wrote an encomium of the former Special Ed director when she died (RIP).
Ignorance, class bias, and personal grievances are no excuse for an editorial staff when it comes to running a newspaper. And in a community, where we have lots of charming rogues and any number of politicos, who like to manipulate and bully the public or retaliate against those who publish their peccadilloes, we must take the good with the bad. In this latest issue, The Taos News not only antagonized the Hispanic natives but also angered their own advertisers, who would rather not present the community on the front page to second homers and tourists as a crime ridden drug-infested den (which it is).
The real criminals in Taos, however, engage in white collar crime, whether violating the procurement code and conflict of issue prohibitions, or who hide behind the law and live like parasites on the backs of those, who, due to a lack of education or imagination, get caught up in the American story of illegal trade and burglary or murderous crimes of passion. I’m not saying blue-collar criminals shouldn’t do their time. But crime runs up and down the spine of the community from the street to the executive suites. Not everyone knows the difference between right and wrong, nor were they listening to the parable about what should be rendered to God and what to Caesar. But many of them advertise in The Taos News.
Taos is a prime example of social injustices perpetuated by poverty and abject materialism, juxtaposed to the culture of glamorous visitors and the tourist trade. The schizophrenic and patronizing media capitalizes on the “easy story” of crime, a symptom of society, without researching the causes and effects that contribute to the malaise. Look at the Taos News’ Winter Guide or Summer Guide and you won’t recognize the photo-shopped community. Where do we live? In their community or ours?
From experience and observation, due to documentation and reporting, I can say that locals see the alleged criminal “justice” system, especially the DA’s office, as biased and unfair or politically motivated in terms of prosecution. The failures of the public school administration are well documented. Whether your look at test scores, dropout rates, or the Special Ed abuses, the scandals are legend. But one can’t blame the citizens, who serve on the school board, for a historic culture of corrupt practices at TMS.
At the Town and County, we have political entities in the midst of what you might call a transition to reform and modernization. Whether one looks at public safety, E911-Dispatch or the proposed cross-wind runway, land use regs at the County, Trudy Healy’s appointment to the County’s Water Advisory Committee, or the Town’s plans for the Plaza and reforming the town’s marketing program, all these programs speak to the future. Still the hoary HCH board, like the good old boys at the gerrymandered Coop, avoids transparency. Yet we hear Chevron Mining has plans for expansion and that TSV is moving to accommodate the 21st Century.
As for social justice, we can be thankful that we don’t live in Albuquerque.