{"id":513367,"date":"2018-02-02T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T19:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=513367"},"modified":"2018-02-03T21:31:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-04T04:31:08","slug":"misbehaving-men-bring-shame-to-dona-ana-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/02\/misbehaving-men-bring-shame-to-dona-ana-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Misbehaving men bring shame to Do\u00f1a Ana County"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> A boss walks into a female employee\u2019s office when she\u2019s alone, locks the door and sits on her lap while shaking his butt.<\/p>\n

An elected official lashes out on social media, implying that a woman\u2019s mom offered him sexual favors and calling the woman \u201cghetto.\u201d<\/p>\n

No, we\u2019re not talking about President Donald Trump. We\u2019re talking about powerful men in Do\u00f1a Ana County government.<\/p>\n

\"Heath

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Sheriff Kiki Vigil, a Democrat, recently sustained a complaint from a female employee that Undersheriff Ken Roberts assaulted her<\/a> with the unwanted lap dance. Roberts isn\u2019t just a male in a position of authority over his victim. He\u2019s a supervisor with a gun and a badge, which makes him even more intimidating.<\/p>\n

But Vigil didn\u2019t fire Roberts. He suspended the undersheriff without pay for 10 days and required him to apologize and go through anti-harassment training \u2013 as if Robert\u2019s sin was harassment, not assault.<\/p>\n

Roberts\u2019 behavior is unconscionable. Vigil\u2019s decision to keep him in his job is outrageous.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s County Commissioner John Vasquez, a Democrat. He\u2019s repeatedly harassed people on social media \u2013 mostly women, but also men, including me<\/a>. (Full disclosure: Vasquez also berated my girlfriend Sarah Silva last year<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Vasquez\u2019s most horrific conduct yet came in January<\/a>, when he went after Johana Bencomo, who works for the community organizing group NM CAF\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Vasquez, who has endorsed Jeff Apodaca in the Democratic primary for governor, denounced political endorsements one evening on Facebook. Bencomo asked, wait, didn\u2019t you endorse Apodaca?<\/p>\n

Vasquez lashed out, alleging Bencomo\u2019s mother had sought his endorsement and sent him \u201ca private message asking for really wierd (sic) favors.\u201d He called Bencomo \u201cghetto.\u201d He made clear that he wanted a fight: \u201cIf you want to keep going\u2026 let\u2019s start,\u201d he posted.<\/p>\n

Some have demanded Vasquez\u2019s resignation. He\u2019s defended his conduct by saying Bencomo and CAF\u00e9 are, after all, ghetto, and he has a right to speak his mind.<\/p>\n

Of course he does. As does Trump.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t make it right. Our society is built on the hope that people can engage each other with civility and respect to find compromise and move forward. That\u2019s why we have legislative chambers where, hopefully, deliberation leads to better policy.<\/p>\n

Trump might exemplify on a national scale the conduct that threatens that ideal. In Do\u00f1a Ana County, Vasquez gets that disgraceful award.<\/p>\n

A functional society also requires that people be treated with dignity. Roberts violated a woman\u2019s rights. He and Vigil have brought dishonor to the sheriff\u2019s department.<\/p>\n

What now? All the county commission could do in 2016, when then-Treasurer David Gutierrez tried to pay one of his female employees for sex, was call on him to resign<\/a>. Gutierrez balked.<\/p>\n

It took action by the district attorney and a conviction on charges of public corruption and gross immorality<\/a> to remove Gutierrez from public office.<\/p>\n

Getting rid of Roberts apparently requires unseating Vigil, who\u2019s seeking re-election this year. There\u2019s a recall provision in the N.M. Constitution<\/a> if people don\u2019t want to wait that long.<\/p>\n

Vasquez could simply knock it off. But there\u2019s no indication he intends to do that. In the meantime, there\u2019s enough evidence to argue to a judge that a recall effort should proceed on the grounds that Vasquez has violated his oath of office.<\/p>\n

Some \u2013 including prominent Republicans \u2013 are defending Vasquez. You people should be ashamed of yourselves. Vasquez, Roberts and Vigil should also be ashamed.<\/p>\n

People deserve to be treated better than this. Our county and nation depend on it.<\/p>\n

Heath Haussamen<\/a>\u00a0is NMPolitics.net\u2019s editor and publisher.\u00a0Agree with his opinion? Disagree? We welcome your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These powerful men and their defenders should be ashamed of themselves. People deserve to be treated better than this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":383420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[115,3636,3641,3642,292],"class_list":["post-513367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-john-vasquez","tag-ken-roberts","tag-kiki-vigil","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513367","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=513367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}