So today has finally come…where the Justice Department will release their findings into the Albuquerque Police Department shootings.(The findings were released on Thursday April 10th and the Fed’s are seeking a consent decree to spell out major reforms at APD as their report was a major assault on the practices of APD under the leadership of Mayor Berry. APD has failed tremendously under Berry) I did not intend to write about this today….the TV news is full of this….but an column by Leslie Linthicum in today’s Albuquerque Journal caught me eye. She was talking about Monday’s City Council meeting and the absence of our leader, our Mayor Richard Berry. The Mayor decided not to come and hear the deep concerns of the people of this city that gathered at the public meeting to voice their concerns about APD and how the Mayor has dealt with this ugly situation. No show Berry: I have a huge problem with this. Leaders are to face the heat, face the people. President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that said, “If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen”. Maybe it is time the Mayor resign. His newly appointed Police Chief Gorden Edens was their and took all the heat, even thou he has just been on the job a short time. Edens showed great leadership, taking all the flack for the Mayor. It has always bothered me that at Albuquerque City Council meetings the Mayor is not required to be there. I feel the Mayor should be at all these meetings, it should be in the City Charter. The Mayor failed to show, saying he was talking to a group about problems at APD. Bad choice Mayor. You are deeply responsible for what has happened in this City. Under your watch, your second term as Mayor……with all the of the 37 APD shootings, including 23 fatalities, since 2010 happening under your leadership…
One speaker at Monday nights meeting reminded those that had gathered that Mayor Berry vetoed a City Council resolution in 2011 that would have invited the Department of Justice to investigate APD.
Leslie kind’a wrapped up her thoughts with a comment from Mike Gomez, whose son was one of the 23 men killed by APD since 2010.
Gomez said this to the City Council, “We warned you, but you sit there and you look at your cellphones. You look at you iPads. You don’t listen to us.”
And Mayor Berry did not have the sensitivity to show.
If you can’t stand the heat get out of the Kitchen.