{"id":389956,"date":"2017-07-17T10:14:13","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T16:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=389956"},"modified":"2017-07-18T11:26:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T17:26:00","slug":"feds-agree-to-meet-with-abq-black-leaders-about-controversial-sting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/07\/feds-agree-to-meet-with-abq-black-leaders-about-controversial-sting\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds agree to meet with ABQ black leaders about controversial sting"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_389960\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-389960\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/DSC05140-771x514-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Patrick Barrett\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/DSC05140-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/DSC05140-771x514-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/DSC05140-771x514-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Marjorie Childress \/ New Mexico In Depth<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrick Barrett, 2nd Vice President, NAACP and member of Sankofa Men\u2019s Leadership Exchange.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The acting U.S. Attorney in Albuquerque will hear out local black leaders and their concerns over a massive, 2016 undercover sting operation that \u201csent shockwaves\u201d through the city\u2019s black community.<\/p>\n<p>Acting U.S. Attorney James Tierney agreed to meet in a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3895077-DOJ-Letter-to-NAACP-Sankofa.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 11 letter<\/a>\u00a0to the \u00a0local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the grassroots Sankofa Men\u2019s Leadership Exchange.<\/p>\n<p>The groups\u2019 leadership contacted Tierney after a series of stories by New Mexico In Depth that examined the operation conducted by the federal bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF).<\/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\/07\/14\/feds-agree-to-meet-with-abq-black-leaders-about-controversial-atf-sting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico In Depth<\/a>. Sign up for\u00a0<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>The operation scooped up 28 African Americans \u2014 out of 103 arrested \u2014 or 27 percent, an \u201calarming\u201d statistic, Dr. Harold Bailey noted in the NAACP\u2019s letter. Bailey is the president of the local NAACP chapter.<\/p>\n<p>But the two groups shouldn\u2019t expect many answers from Tierney.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause this office is dedicated to the fair and just enforcement of the law, we are receptive to hearing your concerns even if we may not be able to respond to them at this time,\u201d Tierney wrote. U.S Department of Justice policies prohibit him and his staff from discussing \u201cpending cases, investigative techniques and information that is not part of the public record,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Those are exactly the sorts of questions the NAACP and Sankofa want addressed, according to the letters the groups sent on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3895078-NAACP-Letter-to-USAO.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 5<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3895079-Sankofa-Letter-to-USAO.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 6<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>NMID\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2017\/05\/07\/feds-sting-ensnared-many-abq-blacks-not-worst-of-the-worst\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">investigation<\/a>\u00a0found that ATF targeted an impoverished, largely minority section of southeast Albuquerque with the help of local law enforcement agencies including the Albuquerque Police Department. Most of those arrested were charged with drug crimes and, in some cases, firearms-related offenses.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the arrest of a disproportionate number of blacks, agents arrested mostly low-level drug users and people without lengthy, violent criminal records rather than the \u201cworst of the worst\u201d repeat, violent offenders federal officials said were the focus of the operation, an NMID investigation found.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Patrick Barrett, a member of Sankofa\u2019s leadership, informed Tierney in that group\u2019s letter that \u201cThis matter is of the utmost importance to the Black community in Albuquerque. Our community here is small, and has been traditionally targeted by law enforcement and marginalized in the public school system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For example, Barrett said APD officers have shot a disproportionate number of black people through the years. But authorities told black community leaders: \u201c \u2018APD has an excessive force problem, not a racial discrimination problem\u2019 \u201d \u2014 despite a showing of disparate impact regarding police shootings involving African Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the ATF sting, \u201cwith such small numbers, when our community was targeted, and 28 arrests were made, it sent shockwaves through our community,\u201d Barrett wrote.<\/p>\n<p>No meeting dates have been set with Tierney, said Barrett, who hopes federal officials schedule two meetings, one with Sankofa and another with the NAACP. Barrett is a member of both.<\/p>\n<p>To date, 65 of the 103 defendants arrested in the ATF sting have pleaded guilty; 29 have been sentenced. The other 38 have pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, APD has broken its silence on the operation \u2014 at least in part.<\/p>\n<p>For months, New Mexico\u2019s largest law enforcement agency has told NMID that it cannot comment on its role in the sting on account of orders from ATF.<\/p>\n<p>But this week, local radio station KUNM\u2019s Marisa Demarco\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/kunm.org\/post\/advocate-responds-federal-sting-targeting-minority-neighborhoods-abq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">aired an interview<\/a>\u00a0with Barrett about the black community\u2019s reaction to the operation. KUNM contacted APD for comment and received a response saying the department \u201cin no way targets any demographics in our community other than criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The acting U.S. Attorney in Albuquerque will hear out local black leaders and their concerns over a massive, 2016 undercover sting operation that \u201csent shockwaves\u201d through the city\u2019s black community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":389960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,142,143,116],"class_list":["post-389956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-albuquerque","tag-crime","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389956","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=389956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}