[FRIAM] albuquerque

[Steve Smith]

> The Bernalillo County sheriff invited them in.

I just watched a brief interview with the BC Sheriff.   On one hand he
"sounded" fairly reasonable and talked about "improving relations with
federal agencies to help with the violent crime and gun violence, etc."
and implied that nothing like Portland would happen, but then began to
hmmm and haww (glen's terms) about whether these Federal Agents might
show up at protests.   He stated "Portland is about politics, this is
about violent crime".

When asked about his political affiliations, he claimed Democrat, but
when asked about what D policies he agrees with (or not) he hmmm's and
hawwed again and said he "is not a legislator, but if you want to ask me
questions about law enforcement... yadda yadda" but was immediately
asked if he was going to resign (as requested by many in response to
this move) and he used that opportunity to announce that he was
"planning to run for Mayor".   It seemed odd to claim "I'm just a humble
sheriff with no interest or knowledge of legislation or governance" and
then pivot to 'I think I could run this city well'".  

I don't live in ABQ but I have lived very close to the hotbed of (mostly
drug-fueled?) crime in the Espanola Valley area for 40 years and
previously on the border of AZ/MX (albeit before the Peso crashed or the
war on drugs was launched), and I am sympathetic with the challenges of
"honest citizens" and LEO in the face of the kind of crime fueled by
narcotic-trafficking (both the range of altered states of participants
and the huge concentrations of $$ involved).    I'm pretty
Libertarianish when it comes to "illegal" drugs, but having lived near,
and observed how the *traffic* around it is hugely damaging to a
community, I have mixed feelings.   I was never a huge fan of Gary
Johnson as Gov or Pres Candidate but his stance on decriminalization was
a breath of fresh air.  

The point is that while I am confident that Trump's public
announcement/deployment to these cities is entirely political, I'm not
sure that everyone who is receptive to that (e.g. BC Sheriff) is
responding politically... it likely exposes their biases, but there is a
good chance the are *also* trying to do their job, just as the Dem
Mayors and Governors he's trying to provoke or disrupt are trying to do
a job (manage a state/city in these very disrupted times).  

It is a terrible shame that the political posturing (thrashing?) that DT
is generating causes so much "crack the whip" around the country
(world)...  I think if there IS a genius in that thick skull, it is in
managing all the whiplash in a way that froths the public attention
badly enough to allow other things to go unnoticed.

- Steve



>
> __________
>
> Ed Angel
>
> Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab)
> Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico
>
> 1017 Sierra Pinon
> Santa Fe, NM 87501
> 505-984-0136 (home)		 	edward.angel at gmail.com
> 505-453-4944 (cell) 				http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel
>
>> On Jul 24, 2020, at 7:00 AM, Prof David West <profwest at fastmail.fm> wrote:
>>
>> what did they do to merit Trump sending them federal troops?
>>
>> davew
>>
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