Chaos on Civic Plaza!

By Dan Klein

– Law-abiding citizens no longer have constitutional rights when Keller’s mob attacks them.

– The violations of constitutional policing belong with the chief and Mayor Keller, who are clearly showing all of us that their mob has more rights than the rest of us.

This is the only way I can describe the current state of affairs at the Albuquerque Police Department. APD’s response to the recent mob on Civic Plaza has shown the entire city that the sergeants and beat cops know how to police in a constitutional manner, but APD command and Mayor Tim Keller have no clue. This is the cultural problem at APD. The problem is with a far-left progressive mayor and his police chief who have decided to side with the mob on every occasion. Law-abiding citizens no longer have constitutional rights when Keller’s mob attacks them.

The current mess began on April 11, when a protest planned by white power groups never materialized on Civic Plaza. To protest the white power group was a large group of counter protesters. The white power protest was supposed to be a national event, but it never materialized anywhere, which makes me question who really planned it?

(Photo: Deyontae Williams. Photo by Daily Lobo.)

Appearing across the street from Civic Plaza during this time was a man with his family, which included a couple of small children. The man, Deyontae Williams, was open carrying a rifle with a sign that said, “All Guns Matter.” New Mexico is an open-carry state, therefore the man was not violating any laws. Some members of the mob on Civic Plaza saw the man and charged at him, shouting and screaming and surrounding him and his children. At this time APD Emergency Response Team members, led by a veteran sergeant, moved to rescue the family from the scene as they were concerned for their safety. At the same time someone from APD command and Mayor Tim Keller’s office were watching in the Real Time Crime Center bunker and decided that this man needed to be charged with a crime, which an APD social media person promptly tweeted out. Armed man cited at Civic Plaza Black Lives Matter protest (krqe.com) The person made this decision and the person who did the tweet have never been named.

APD’s ERT team successfully removed the man and his children from the screaming, shouting crowd and removed them to safety. The veteran sergeant, who understands that constitutional policing means you don’t charge people with fake crimes just because you don’t like their political stance, did not ID, nor cite this man. The APD sergeant made the right call. Mayor Keller and Chief Medina were furious! They had just tweeted how woke they were to their mob on Civic Plaza and how dare this lone sergeant embarrass them that way.

The APD ERT sergeant was immediately relieved of duty, his gun and badge taken from him. I suppose constitutional policing is only for Keller’s and Medina’s mob, the rest of us do not have the same constitutional rights. Remember, New Mexico is an open carry state and this man was not violating any law.

Keller and Medina were not prepared for the backlash by APD officers. When the sergeant was relieved of duty, several members (17 in some reports, to include two sergeants and a lieutenant) had had enough. They immediately resigned from the ERT Squad. These officers, including one command staff officer, understood what constitutional policing is all about and they knew what Keller and Medina were trying to do was a clear violation of Deyontae Williams's constitutional rights. APD officers know constitutional policing, Keller and Medina don’t.

To add insult to injury, APD Chief Medina told the media, Man arrested at protest says his rights were violated (koat.com) the sergeant had his gun and badge taken away for about a day because he was told to detain Williams after he showed up at a protest with a rifle and his two children.

Again, let me stress, Deyontae Williams, showing up with a rifle and his children at a protest is NOT ILLEGAL in New Mexico. APD had no legal right to detain, nor ID Deyontae Williams as he did not commit any crime.

KOAT is now reporting that Williams has been charged with Abandonment or Cruelty to a Child, WHAT? Did Medina make this decision? Was Medina ordered by Keller to charge Williams? Based upon what facts? Williams was clearly using his constitutional right to make a peaceful statement, and if Medina and Keller want to charge anyone with putting the children in danger they should cite the members of their mob who surrounded and threatened Williams. But these are Keller's people, you can bet that won’t happen. In Keller's Albuquerque the mob has a free pass to do whatever they want.

Albuquerque is turning into Seattle and Portland.

In a statement to KOAT Deyontae Williams said the following, “Those men (APD officers), they didn’t do anything wrong especially that sergeant, he did what he was supposed to do. He sworn an oath to the constitution and wanted to help me and saw that I didn’t do anything wrong, and (the sergeant) was very good to me and my family.” Williams went on to say that APD did everything right at the protest but charging him after the fact is a violation of his constitutional rights.

“The sergeant was upholding the constitution, doing what he swore an oath to do, Williams said, “he let me go because he didn’t see any issues that I had done, he didn’t see that I had committed any crimes.”

As of today New Mexico Courts website does not show Williams as being charged with any crimes occurring from the April 11, 2021, protest. Medina and Keller would be smart to follow the Constitution and let this go. Their actions against the APD sergeant has already cost them by having ERT members resign in protest, they don’t need to dig this hole deeper by trumping up charges against Williams, which will only cost the taxpayers thousands to settle.

I hope the Department of Justice, James Ginger and Judge Browning are following this incident. It will clearly show them that the problems at APD don’t lay with sergeants and officers (as Medina and others commonly allege), but the violations of constitutional policing belong with the chief and Mayor Keller, who are clearly showing all of us that their mob has more rights than the rest of us.

And I have to ask, where is the New Mexico ACLU? Isn’t this the type of constitutional violation that they are supposed to protect New Mexico citizens from? Or does the NM ACLU only stand up for New Mexicans that they politically side with?

In my next column we will see how Chief Medina tries to put the toothpaste back in the tube when he calls a meeting with the ERT officers.