The Albuquerque Journal’s 8/4/24 article describing a 4/11/24 conversation between APD officers immediately following an officer involved shooting pulls back the curtain on a dark police subculture that has existed within APD for decades, and which continues to pose an active threat to the community. This subculture is characterized by a “good versus bad” attitude toward the public in which the “bad” are mostly racial minorities, people in mental health and other crises, addicts, and economically disadvantaged people. To think and talk about these people as if they are “bad,” in other words to vilify or dehumanize them, is morally problematic. It is also extremely dangerous because at the same time that it divides the public into good and bad, this police subculture is aggressive, viewing violence as a generally acceptable way of responding to those it perceives as bad. “I want to take actual shitheads that are actually doing stuff off the streets,” says the unnamed officer after the 4/11/24 shooting, “[i]f that means we shoot some of them, so be it.”
The police subculture revealed in the 4/11/24 recording is not unique to APD and it is not new; it has afflicted police departments and communities all over the world for many decades. Currently in the US, this subculture self-identifies with the image of the “thin blue line” flag, which in its original form consists of an American flag that is black and white with the exception of a single blue horizontal stripe in the middle. While this image carries different connotations to different people, including many innocuous ones, it is widely used by the political far right and the police subculture described above. APD Officer Alex Couch, who along with Officer Chance Gore needlessly shot and killed Jesus Crosby on 11/10/22, testified at his deposition that the blue line “acts as a line between the good and bad.” Both he and Officer Angelo Lovato, who needlessly shot and killed Pete Martinez on 11/25/23, were displaying thin blue line flags on their uniforms when they made their respective decisions to misuse deadly force.
Chief Medina has testified that it was against APD’s uniform policy for these officers to be wearing the thin blue line flag or any unofficial symbol while on duty. Last year, the Los Angeles Police Department banned the thin blue line image from its ranks.
In its 2014 Findings Letter, the Department of Justice called out a “culture of aggression” within APD, which it found to be responsible for the Department’s disproportionate use of excessive deadly force, particularly against people in crisis. A decade of mandatory reform efforts have built up the machinery needed to combat the thin blue line subculture. But over that same time frame, well-documented and deliberate failures by APD’s leadership to implement reforms related to accountability and supervision has enabled the subculture to persist, flourish, and continue to kill. In addition to complying with reforms, the City has an independent obligation to the community to identify and root out the aggressive police culture that triggered the need for those reforms in the first place.
The Fine Law Firm represents the families of Jesus Crosby and Jacob Martinez, who were killed by unnecessary and unreasonable deadly force while experiencing mental health crises. Call our Albuquerque personal injury attorneys today for a free consultation.