{"id":367765,"date":"2017-06-13T11:47:47","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T17:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=367765"},"modified":"2017-06-14T07:21:54","modified_gmt":"2017-06-14T13:21:54","slug":"black-community-wants-answers-on-atfs-albuquerque-sting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/06\/black-community-wants-answers-on-atfs-albuquerque-sting\/","title":{"rendered":"Black community wants answers on ATF\u2019s Albuquerque sting"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_367773\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-367773\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/DSC05146-1170x783-771x516.jpg\" alt=\"Leonard Waites\" width=\"771\" height=\"516\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/DSC05146-1170x783-771x516.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/DSC05146-1170x783-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/DSC05146-1170x783-768x514.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/DSC05146-1170x783.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Marjorie Childress \/ New Mexico In Depth<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leonard Waites, a member of the Albuquerque Police Oversight Board and executive director of the state Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, plans to ask questions about the ATF operation at the next oversight board.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Black community leaders and citizens want to know who invited out-of-town federal agents and informants into Albuquerque and how the decision was made to focus an undercover sting operation on an impoverished, largely minority section of the city, netting a highly disproportionate number of black defendants.<\/p>\n<p>They plan to put those and other questions into a letter to the federal bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to know exactly what happened and why,\u201d said Patrick Barrett, a member of the two organizations drafting the letter \u2014 the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Sankofa Men\u2019s Leadership Exchange, a grassroots organization of black men.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2017\/06\/12\/black-community-wants-answers-on-atfs-albuquerque-sting-say-it-was-punch-in-the-face\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico In Depth<\/a>. Sign up for <a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=1d2ab093d81b992e50978b363&amp;id=9294743d38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Barrett and others interviewed for this story were reacting to a <a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2017\/05\/07\/feds-sting-ensnared-many-abq-blacks-not-worst-of-the-worst\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NMID investigation of the sting published last month<\/a>. NMID found 28 of the 103 people arrested \u2014 or 27 percent \u2014 were black in Albuquerque, whose black population is 3 percent. Blacks composed just 5 percent of drug and gun defendants in federal court in New Mexico from 2006 through 2015. Hispanics also were overrepresented among those arrested, while whites were heavily underrepresented compared to Albuquerque\u2019s population.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, ATF appears to have arrested few if any of the high-level gun and drug runners the bureau says it sought, NMID found. Many swept up were homeless, living in cars and drug addicted. Many lacked the lengthy violent criminal histories agents say they used as a prerequisite for targeting.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2017\/05\/15\/atf-used-traveling-well-paid-informants-in-abq-sting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a follow-up story<\/a>, NMID reported that ATF imported five confidential informants \u2014 three of whom were black and two Hispanic \u2014 from out of town to help agents choose targets for the operation. The informants, at least some of whom have previous criminal histories themselves, were paid $1,400 a week or more plus bonuses and expenses.<\/p>\n<p>Federal officials called the operation an \u201cunprecedented success\u201d that took down \u201cthe worst of the worst\u201d in the city.<\/p>\n<p>But black residents interviewed by NMID called the findings \u201cappalling\u201d and \u201cdisturbing.\u201d And they vowed to seek reforms, including questioning mayoral candidates about the ATF operation at a forum in advance of the October election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter reading your article, a lot of people are alarmed by what this looks like,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it was fair at all, and I think it was racially motivated.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Black citizens, leaders and the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico said the operation echoed racial targeting by law enforcement stretching back to the 1960s and raised concerns about constitutional and civil rights violations. They also worried the ATF sting did little to blunt crime in Albuquerque, but instead damaged a tenuous trust in law enforcement among minority communities that had shown signs of improvement.<\/p>\n<p>Numerous questions remain about the operation.<\/p>\n<p>Russell Johnson, one of the ATF\u2019s lead agents on the operation, testified in court in April that \u201cindividuals with political power\u201d summoned the federal agency to combat Albuquerque\u2019s soaring violent crime rates. He did not name them, but said local agencies assisted in the operation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to know, who are these individuals who have political power?\u201d Harold Bailey, president of the Albuquerque NAACP chapter, said. \u201cWe could just eliminate a lot of these concerns about civil rights violations if you bring the proper individuals, African Americans who have standing, to the table at the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No one approached the NAACP \u2014 or any other black community groups \u2014 in advance of the operation, according to Bailey and Barrett, who is the chapter\u2019s second vice president.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe live here, we know what\u2019s going on,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cWe have the solutions to a lot of our problems. But again, we\u2019re silenced, and this is the fallout from it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ATF has repeatedly ignored NMID\u2019s requests for comment about the operation.<\/p>\n<p>Elizabeth Martinez, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, which is prosecuting the defendants arrested in the sting, declined to comment for this story. \u201cIf and when the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office receives communications from members of the community and\/or community organizations, it will respond directly to the authors of those letters,\u201d she said in an email.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman confirmed that New Mexico State Police officers \u201cassisted\u201d in the operation but would not elaborate. And a spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez said she was \u201cnot aware of or involved in\u201d the planning of the sting.<\/p>\n<p>In an email last week, APD spokeswoman Celina Espinoza declined to answer detailed questions about the department\u2019s involvement in the operation. \u201cAfter speaking with the agency in charge of the investigation, they asked that all media inquiries in this matter be referred to them,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<p>A spokeswoman for Mayor Richard Berry ignored NMID\u2019s requests for an interview, and she did not respond to questions including whether Berry was among those who invited ATF to Albuquerque.<\/p>\n<p>Berry and APD will face those questions again.<\/p>\n<p>Bailey said he plans to request a meeting with the mayor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a good working relationship with Mayor Berry, but let\u2019s just say I have some questions here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we\u2019re against law enforcement initiatives, but sometimes the right intentions can lead to the wrong results, especially for black men in America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leonard Waites, a member of the Albuquerque Police Oversight Board and executive director of the state Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, is troubled by the operation, too. He plans to ask APD officials at an upcoming oversight board meeting about the extent of their agency\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson, the ATF agent, said under oath in April that the Albuquerque Police Department and other agencies suggested <a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2017\/06\/12\/maps-atf-albuquerque-sting-in-context\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ATF target a swath of southeast Albuquerque <\/a>known as the International District or, more disparagingly, the \u201cWar Zone.\u201d APD officers were \u201cassigned\u201d to Johnson\u2019s team throughout the operation.<\/p>\n<p>The local agencies did not provide ATF with data to show that area of town had higher crime rates than others, however.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to know more. You\u2019re affecting a minority population, and that\u2019s not good to me,\u201d Waites said. \u201cI will be asking these questions through the board. After reading your article, I am really concerned about this. I\u2019m a data guy, and if you look at the data \u2014 28 African Americans when Albuquerque is 3 percent? Come on. We have a real problem here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Waites, an Albuquerque native, said black people have been racially profiled in the city for decades, and learning about the ATF sting deepened old wounds.<\/p>\n<p>He recalled a \u201clockdown\u201d in the Kirtland addition, one of the city\u2019s only predominantly black neighborhoods, after the murder of APD officer Phil Chacon in 1980.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnyone who was African American who was driving around town at that time was being stopped, pulled over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Chacon\u2019s killer was never caught.<\/p>\n<p>And just last month, Waites said, he was driving his 2005 Lexus when an APD officer pulled up next to him at a stoplight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just knew by the expression on his face that he was going to pull me over. And he did,\u201d Waites said. The officer said the registration sticker on his license plate was obscured, a claim Waites denied.<\/p>\n<p>Court records show the ticket was dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe stopped me because of profiling,\u201d Waites said. \u201cI understand it, I know what that is. And during the stop, I just made sure I did the right things to not make it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Janette McClelland, a 55-year-old transplant from South Central Los Angeles who moved to Albuquerque in 2004, said some of the ATF\u2019s tactics reminded her of methods federal law enforcement have used throughout American history, including the FBI\u2019s infamous Counter Intelligence Program of the 1950s and 1960s. Known as COINTELPRO, that ongoing operation included surveillance and using black informants to infiltrate black civil rights and black power groups.<\/p>\n<p>In the 2016 Albuquerque sting, ATF agents sent black confidential informants into black-owned barbershops, a soul food restaurant and into a park in a black neighborhood to look for targets, NMID found.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s appalling. It\u2019s disheartening,\u201d McClelland said. \u201cYou want people to build trust in your law enforcement, your public officials. But after this happens, how the hell can we trust them? This is how cities explode. Back home, the city would have exploded. And this city is going to explode.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also lamented what she called the slow response to news of the sting operation from local black leaders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn LA, Maxine Waters would be on their ass right then and there,\u201d McClelland said. \u201cNation of Islam would be on their ass. Urban League would be on their ass. There would be a press conference right then and there. That\u2019s not the case here, and that\u2019s disheartening, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McClelland, who spent several months homeless after losing a job in 2012, now lives in a weekly-pay motel off Gibson Boulevard near Kirtland Air Force Base. The motel sits in the area of town ATF targeted, and McClelland said things do not feel any safer since agents pulled up their stakes last summer after the four-month operation.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s no surprise, said Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU-NM. Studies have shown that targeted law enforcement operations such as the ATF sting have not accomplished their declared goals.<\/p>\n<p>The NMID investigation \u201creads like an artifact of the failed war on drugs that has done little to reduce crime or recidivism and has contributed to widespread misery in the lives of so many poor families,\u201d Simonson said. \u201cOn so many levels, it runs afoul of basic values in our Constitution. I\u2019m thinking particularly about the 14th Amendment and equal protection under the law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>People in Albuquerque\u2019s minority neighborhoods already distrust law enforcement, he said, after decades of negative experiences with APD. As details of the ATF sting spread in those communities, residents could grow unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement in the fight against crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow ironic that, in a minority-majority state, you can nonetheless identify a trend of racial profiling \u2014 even against that backdrop,\u201d Simonson said. \u201cThat is pretty alarming. It really stands as a great and terrible example of why we need a deep and far-ranging conversation about the logic of our criminal justice system and how it should be reformed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barrett, of Sankofa and the NAACP, said black groups had built some trust between their communities and local officials and law enforcement in recent years. He pointed to suggestions APD adopted from the organizations\u2019 members to improve the Police Academy and athe collaboration with the Berry administration to remove a Confederate flag in Old Town.<\/p>\n<p>There have been \u201ctangible wins\u201d for black organizations through a series of meetings with city leaders, Barrett said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut when this story comes out, it was like a punch in the face,\u201d he said. \u201cThe trust that the community\u2019s been trying to build is corroded again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barrett and Bailey said they plan to notify the national NAACP about the sting operation as they seek answers from federal officials. And Sankofa, the grassroots organization in Albuquerque, wants to hear from candidates running to succeed Berry as mayor at a forum planned for August, Barrett said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe definitely want to them to address this,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cWe want to take steps to make sure this type of stuff doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McClelland said she hopes exposure of the ATF\u2019s tactics and the results of the agency\u2019s operation will spark a public debate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope this is a wakeup call for the black community,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope they call out the officials, call out the ministers, call out the organizations: speak to us, help us. Our leaders should go to officials and law enforcement and tell them to stop marginalizing us, stop penalizing us for being black. Listen to us. Provide a dialogue, some alternatives. Help us get off the streets. Help us with our housing. Tell them they\u2019ve got to do better, they\u2019ve got to be accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The sting netted a highly disproportionate number of black defendants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":367773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,142,203,143],"class_list":["post-367765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-albuquerque","tag-crime","tag-law-enforcement","tag-race-and-ethnicity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}