At Monday’s Las Cruces City Council meeting, several residents spoke out against police with high powered weapons above and overlooking Albert Johnson Park Friday evening during a protest against nationwide ICE raids.
While Saturday’s protest in Albert Johnson Park, in front of Brannigan Library in Las Cruces, was part of the nationwide “No Kings” protest against President Donald Trump’s policies, residents in the same park Friday evening protested increased ICE raids across the country. However, police with high-powered rifles spotted overlooking and pointed at the park from atop the library and other locations were spotted by those in attendance, which unnerved several who spoke about it during the public comments portion of Monday’s city council meeting. District 2 resident Lucas Herndon explained why the police presence made him and others feel uneasy.
“No, uneasy is not the right word. It scared people,” Herndon said. “People were scared. There were kids and elders at the event. (Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy) Story said, ‘The officers should not have been visible with their rifles, but they were there to keep those exercising their First Amendment rights safe.’ The officers weren’t just “visible” they were endangering people downrange of their weapons.”
Later during city council member board reports and comments, Chief Story stressed that the city was not only dealing with different organizers on Friday than on Saturday’s “No Kings” protest, but were also cognizant of online threats and comments that were directed against the Saturday protestors, which was a factor in Friday’s security decisions.
“Those comments were pretty overt, some of them very overt comments of violence against the protestors,” said Chief Story. “Our goals is to be there to prevent violence, that people can exercise their first amendment rights, which is part of the foundation of our country and who we are. The officer should not have been present with their rifles in the way that they were, because that obviously creates a lot of issues weren’t necessary and a lot of decision that’s not necessary. And so we will continue to protect people, even people who dehumanize police officers. We’ll be there for them when they call and we’ll still respond, we’ll still protect them, regardless of their views.”
Las Cruces Mayor Eric Enriquez stressed that the police presence was ultimately for the public’s safety.
“I have a different perspective and a different view when it comes to public safety,” said Mayor Enriquez. “And I understand that large gatherings and crowd control can be very difficult, and so you have to have a vantage point. And that vantage point are aerial sites where you can see properly and see what’s going on, and address any issues in a rapid fashion. So it may have come across that it looked intimidating, but I know Chief (Story) and his staff were here to protect and to serve, and to make sure all residents were safe.”
In other business, the City Council passed a resolution adopting a retention and destruction policy for the Las Cruces Police Department, and authorizing destruction of all video that has met retention. Before voting on it, District 6 councilor Yvonne Flores expressed concerns about the resolution if it passed.
“What if some evidence comes up after three years or whatever the date—I guess it’s like an expungement—but what if evidence comes up later? What happens with that? And there’s no way of storing this without it…is it taking up a lot of, like, buildings worth of space or something?”
Chief Story addressed those concerns.
“We are the only police department in the state that retains video indefinitely, that I’m aware of,” Chief Story said. “The state law requires retention of non-evidentiary video for 120 days. We’ve kept every video ever recorded going back almost 15 years with our original body cameras. So that’s created, one, a storage issue; and it also creates an IPRA (Inspection of Public Records Act) issue, on a staff that’s already overburdened.”
The council ended up unanimously passing the resolution. The council also passed a resolution authorizing the write-off of uncollectable utility, general billing, accounts receivable bad checks, and library accounts receivable from the fiscal year 2019 in the amount of over $281 thousand.
The next regular session city council meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 7.
