Houston pulls APS cop's commission

Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston, according to the Journal, link, has revoked his commission for an APS police officer.

In an environment where "... violent outbursts from students have increased in frequency and intensity" an APS police officer is accused of making an "unacceptable choice" in handcuffing a student who was out of control and violent.

We don't know the whole truth about what happened that day, and it is likely we never will, given APS' modus operandi in dealing with inconvenient truth.

Apparently Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston agreed with APS Supt Winston Brooks' calculation that the officer's actions were beyond the pale, no matter the circumstances. He pulled the commission he gave the APS police officer, that gave her authority as a "police officer".

Houston did not pull the commission of APS' (in secretly promoted) Chief of Police Steve Tellez, who gave the order and set the example for the use of force to remove peaceful protestors, for holding up posters in the background of a public meeting.

Unlike the officer who handcuffed the autistic student, Tellez had a lot of time to think before deciding what he was going to do when he was ordered to remove peaceful protesters. There was no threat of any imminent harm to anyone or anything.

It wasn't confusion, or anxiety, or ignorance that guided Tellez, it was a deliberate plan they had a long time to hatch.

Tellez is far more deserving of a revocation of his commission than some poor cop, in over her head in a poorly defined situation.

Yet Houston isn't going to do anything about Tellez' use force to stifle dissent, anymore than he is going to do anything about the fact that Tellez is hiding evidence of the felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators using Sheriff's Department computers, link. Just like the Journal.

For (indefensible) reasons of their own, Kent Walz and the Journal aren't going to investigate and report on Tellez' unjustified use of force on peaceful protestors, and they're not going to investigate and report upon Tellez' suppression of evidence in a felony criminal case. They are happy to "investigate" and report upon some poor cop caught in the middle of a situation far beyond her control.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?




photos Mark Bralley