ABQ Journal Dinelli Guest Opinion Column “City leaders should be very disturbed by officer’s remarks”; Culture of Aggression Alive And Well Within APD

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On Sunday, August 11, the Albuquerque Journal published on its editorial pages the following Pete Dinell guest opinion column along with a screenshot from an APD lapel camera:

JOURNAL HEADLINE: “City leaders should be very disturbed by officer’s remarks”

By Pete Dinelli, city resident

“APD Internal Affairs is investigating audio from one officer’s body camera that recorded a racist conversation between officers after the April 11 police officer killing of a suspect resisting arrest. Unbeknownst to the officers, their conversation was recorded when one officer who had fatally shot the 30-year-old suspect forgot to turn off his lapel camera.

The officers disparage the man just killed as a “honky” with “a weird accent” expressing relief that the man wasn’t black “because of the optics.”  The comments included referring to Native Americans as “savages”.  Officers were not segregated separately for interviews with one ostensibly being coached on what to say to the Multi-Agency Task Force called in to investigate.

The most disturbing comments on the audio made by one officer are these:

“I like violent encounters with violent people. That’s why I became a cop. I didn’t come to [F-expletive] help old ladies who can’t cross the [F-expletive]  road.  I want to take actual shitheads that are actually doing stuff off the street. If it means you shoot some of them, so be it.”

Remarks on police violence like these from any APD cop should be the most disturbing to the APD high command, elected officials and the general public. The comments reflect a philosophy that should disqualify any person from becoming a police officer in the first place. The comments reflect that APD’s Culture of Aggression found by the Department of Justice 10 years ago is alive and well within APD rank and file.

 All the comments were severely condemned by Mayor Tim Keller, the ACLU and Native American rights advocates.  The police union president disgustedly defended the comments saying “These guys were joking around, they were decompressing, they were saying inappropriate stuff, like a lot of us do with our friends and family when we’re not in public.”

For upwards of 10 years, APD has been under a federal court approved settlement agreement mandating 271 reforms after a Department of Justice investigation found that APD had engaged in a pattern of “excessive use of force” and “deadly force” and finding a “culture of aggression.” The city has spent millions on reform efforts, has created and staffed new divisions to hold APD officers accountable, rewrote use of force policies and procedures and trained APD officers in constitutional policing practices. APD is on the cusp of the case being dismissed.

Despite the significant gains made by APD in the implementation of the reforms, APD police officer shootings and the killing of civilians is occurring at a deeply troubling rate.  The nonprofit Mapping Police Violence reported that last year that APD was ranked No. 1 in police officers killing civilians in a listing of 50 largest cities in the United States.

Racist remarks and glorification of police violence made by any APD officer must be condemn in no uncertain terms. Remarks such as these by police cannot be tolerated. They must be dealt with swiftly and decidedly.

It’s likely the Multi-Agency Task Force investigating the police shooting will ultimately find that the shooting was justified and that the officers will not be disciplined for use of deadly force. However, such a finding does not excuse APD officers from not following required protocol after the use of deadly force or the use of racial slurs and the glorification of violence.  

APD may be on the verge of dismissal of the federal court approved settlement agreement, but this incident and the fact that APD is ranked number one in the country for deadly force police shootings is a reflection APD’s Culture of Aggression is alive and well.”

Pete Dinelli is a former Albuquerque city councilor, former chief public safety officer and former chief deputy district attorney. You can read his daily news and commentary blog at www.PeteDinelli.com.

Many thanks to the Albuquerque Journal for publishing the guest column.

The link to a related blog article with greater detail on the facts of shooting and what was said is here:

Activated APD Video Camera And Open Mike Captures Racial Slurs And Glorification Of Violence By APD Officers Immediately After Civilian Killing; APD’s Culture Of Aggression Still Lives On After 10 Years Of Court Approved Settlement Agreement Reforms; Racism Within APD Must Be Condemned And Eradicated

 

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About

Pete Dinelli was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is of Italian and Hispanic descent. He is a 1970 graduate of Del Norte High School, a 1974 graduate of Eastern New Mexico University with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and a 1977 graduate of St. Mary's School of Law, San Antonio, Texas. Pete has a 40 year history of community involvement and service as an elected and appointed official and as a practicing attorney in Albuquerque. Pete and his wife Betty Case Dinelli have been married since 1984 and they have two adult sons, Mark, who is an attorney and George, who is an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). Pete has been a licensed New Mexico attorney since 1978. Pete has over 27 years of municipal and state government service. Pete’s service to Albuquerque has been extensive. He has been an elected Albuquerque City Councilor, serving as Vice President. He has served as a Worker’s Compensation Judge with Statewide jurisdiction. Pete has been a prosecutor for 15 years and has served as a Bernalillo County Chief Deputy District Attorney, as an Assistant Attorney General and Assistant District Attorney and as a Deputy City Attorney. For eight years, Pete was employed with the City of Albuquerque both as a Deputy City Attorney and Chief Public Safety Officer overseeing the city departments of police, fire, 911 emergency call center and the emergency operations center. While with the City of Albuquerque Legal Department, Pete served as Director of the Safe City Strike Force and Interim Director of the 911 Emergency Operations Center. Pete’s community involvement includes being a past President of the Albuquerque Kiwanis Club, past President of the Our Lady of Fatima School Board, and Board of Directors of the Albuquerque Museum Foundation.