Someone has posted a YouTube video claiming to represent the hacker group Anonymous and an assault on the Albuquerque Police Department's websites.
As a Downtown protest against APD鈥檚 use of deadly force concluded Tuesday night, officers on a man on the Westside. He died Wednesday morning.
Police Chief Gorden Eden鈥攚ho's held the position since last month鈥攕aid the man fired shots at officers first. Witnesses say he was , and a has emerged. APD said officers were responding to a call that the man was .
Hundreds of people marched last night to object to APD's killing of James Boyd, who was camping illegally in the Sandia foothills on March 16. taken from one officer鈥檚 helmet cam has gone viral, drawing national attention to Albuquerque鈥檚 police force.
Eden initially said the shooting was , but the mayor called that a . Mayor Richard Berry is asking the U.S. Department of Justice and the Las Cruces Police Department to investigate Boyd鈥檚 death. has announced that his office will also investigate the latest APD shootings.
APD said an officer trained in crisis intervention was brought to the Sandia foothills to speak with Boyd before he was killed on March 16. The department whether that officer was present when he died. http://youtu.be/LYJORZWAdg0
APD has shot , and 24 of them died. The Department of Justice has been investigating Albuquerque police鈥檚 since November 2012.
This is Albuquerque鈥檚 police force has been under scrutiny for its use of force. From 1989 to 1999, 30 fatal officer-involved shootings prompted similar outcry. Two out-of-state experts created what鈥檚 known as the , which recommended a number of reforms in 1997, many of which have not been adopted.
Residents again became vocal about the spike in officer-involved shootings around 2010 when APD shot and killed Iraq War veteran . The city eventually settled that case for $7.95 million. Since then, family members of people killed by police have regularly spoken out at City Council meetings and demanded reform.
The Council voted to request a federal investigation in 2011, but . Council President Dan Lewis demanded the mayor fire then-Police Chief Ray Schultz and began seeking a say in who the city hires to run APD. As things stand, the mayor appoints the police chief. In light of shootings in 2014, the Council is .
Though there is a Police Oversight Commission and independent review officer that examine complaints against police, the police chief holds the . An independent report in 2012 said the commission should have disciplinary power, but Berry disagreed.
A appointed by the City Council to examine the city鈥檚 police oversight process made recommendations at the end of January. The task force suggested creating a quasi-public civilian agency with a high level of independence that would:
鈥� Investigate complaints
鈥� Recommend disciplinary actions for officers
鈥� Recommend changes to policy and training
鈥� Have access to Internal Affairs data
鈥� Have the authority to subpoena documents and witnesses
A law enforcement think tank released on APD in 2011. The Police Executive Research Forum noted that though violent crime and assaults on police officers had gone down, officer-involved shootings and gone up.
No Albuquerque police officer has ever been criminally charged after an on-duty shooting. The policy of using investigative grand juries鈥攚hich don鈥檛 have the power to indict officers鈥�. The process, which had been in place for 30 years, was temporarily suspended, re-instituted, and then . A new protocol was implemented last year.
Public health organizations characterize police brutality鈥攁nd the perception of it鈥攁s a public health issue. The said police violence can cause communities to "hesitate to summon police assistance in cases of civilian-on-civilian violence, fearing the police might exacerbate the violence or further traumatize victims."
The Student National Medical Association said in that police brutality must be "recognized, investigated, and acted upon as a serious health concern because of its obvious deleterious effects on individuals, their families and communities."
