What's going on, Albuquerque?

Dear APD: Please, Please Stop Crying

Hello everyone. My name is John. I deliver pizzas in Albuquerque for a living. This often entails driving to dangerous neighborhoods, alone, often at night and with pockets full of cash. I don’t have back up. I don’t have a take home car. I make less than the average field officer.

You can say I put my life on the line every day—for pizza.

I’m working hard to pay my tuition. I’m also working hard to pay my taxes.

But it’s been hard for me to sympathize with Albuquerque Police lately as they cry over their take-home cars. Some of these guys are making much more than I do. Some of them drive Hummers, Jaguars and Cadillacs. I know. They live in my parents’ neighborhood.

Now that I read about the city reversing it’s take-home car policy, I can only wonder if police really have our best interests in their hearts.

Shouldn’t they feel the sacrifice like my family? My father was laid off from a call center. My hours were cut at work. I don’t have benefits.

I’m really getting sick and tired of them crying about this.

And if you’re a cop, and you decide to respond to this message with “But we put our lives on the line for you” and “you criticize, but you’re the first to call 911” arguments, please spare me.

Anybody else feel the same way?

Tags: apd, cars, home, pizza, take

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by ramon t on January 28, 2011 at 6:38pm

No. Educate yourself. Work hard. Get that job that pays well and has benefits. And quit bemoaning those that make a decent living. I've had those tough jobs. I worked doing demolition of drug houses in some of the toughest neighborhoods in LA. We all have had tough times. Make the best of your life, live how you'd like. But, quit complaining about those that protect us. Good grief.

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Permalink Reply by Blakeington on January 28, 2011 at 9:00pm

RIght on, John! (Didn't mean to rhyme, but there it is.) One of my biggest peeves is watching cops break the rules on the road with such arrogance and nonchalance, and APD is notorious for bad road manners. Just last week, while following an APD unit, I watched him refuse to use his blinker three times, through three consecutive lane shifts, while making his way through the Big Eye. I copied down his car number, and was about to file a complaint with the department, but it ended up on the bottom of my pages-long list of things to do. I feel your pain for paying for what is obviously the biggest clown show on earth, when what we want to be paying for is real protection, respect and service, which APD does not deliver. Thanks for calling out those who pretend to protect us, when really what they do is cite us for the same infractions they so freely indulge in, at our expense. Your hard-earned money should stay in your pocket, as you'd probably be safer not giving it to APD. And you've got it right: It is our job to complain about those who protect us, when they're not doing their jobs.

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Permalink Reply by hettie on January 28, 2011 at 10:16pm

"when really what they do is cite us for the same infractions they so freely indulge in, at our expense."

this is my chief issue with apd. I watch officers in cars chatting away on their cell phones and bike cops who ride on the sidewalk along central between yale and cornell (that's a business district, which means by law they need to dismount or ride in the street) and it just pisses me off. the number of officers who don't know the law they are tasked to uphold is disappointing. apologists who claim we need to shut up because these officers "protect" us are deluding themselves. officers arrive after crimes have been committed--sometimes long after (ask anyone who's called in a report about a break in or car theft) the crime is done.

the millions of dollars the city has paid out as a result of lawsuits against apd ought to give every defender of apd reason for pause. there isn't a single source that catalogs the total amount of settlements as a result of apd actions, but here's an article citing about $700,000 dollars paid out in response to suits against apd, and another referring to a case from 5 years ago resulting in a $1.3 million settlement, as well as this one about $685,000 in settlements for multiple illegal seizure of property cases. wanna drive your car home? great, stop costing taxpayers money by violating peoples' civil rights and/or engaging in misconduct. the position of power that police hold in civil society is indeed a special one. it's one that means officers should be held--and should hold themselves--to a higher standard of conduct than non-officers. disagree? well, don't become a cop.

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Permalink Reply by ramon t on January 29, 2011 at 7:19am

The thing is, the OP wasn't complaining about any of which you typed. His complaint was about the money they make, the benefits they have and the type of personal vehicles they have at home. All of which is asinine. Let's start a similar rant about teachers? How would that go over with you? Not very well i'm guessing. Lumping all teachers in with the few crappy ones and the administration wouldn't be fair.

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Permalink Reply by hettie on January 30, 2011 at 12:18am

"The thing is, the OP wasn't complaining about any of which you typed."

welcome to the internet.

how about this one? if officers want so badly to budget in the take-home program, they should refrain from engaging in behaviors which cost the city millions in settlements.

also, the assertion that officers who break the laws they are tasked to uphold are "the few crappy ones" just isn't accurate. cops on their cell phones while driving is a citywide phenomenon. bike cops who don't obey bike laws can be seen in downtown, in nob hill and in uptown (I've never actually seen a bike cop elsewhere). you really expect people to believe that's just a handful of officers? nope.

as for bitching about teachers, there's just not a comparison to be made. police officers hold a very unique position in society with comes with a set of powerful privileges and, at the very least, they should conform to standards of conduct they expect from the public, if not higher standards. and unless you can point to multiple cases where the actions of teachers cost the school district hundreds of thousands--if not millions--of dollars in settlements on an annual basis, I'm not sure you can actually start that rant. but good luck.

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Permalink Reply by ramon t on January 30, 2011 at 9:38pm

Teachers can cost us a lot more. What they do on a day to day basis shape our youths minds every day. Isn't that a unique powerful position in society? The state graduation rate costs the state billions of dollars every year in lost tax revenues. Thankfully we do have a choice to send our kids to private school. How many stories do we read about teachers having relations with students every year? How many other stories do we see that are similarly horrible towards our youth by teachers every year? Not counting the non-stories about the teachers that just don't give a chit, which equally costs the public billions. Did the teachers union receive a raise the last two years when so many American were not or losing their jobs?

But hey, continue your fun little rant against the hard working peace officers. I totally understand it is kosher here on dcf unlike calling out our education system.

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Permalink Reply by Masshole in Fringecrest on January 30, 2011 at 11:42pm

I'm gonna call foul on this one. That's not a fair characterization of this site as a whole, nor a fair response to hettie's echoing of a commenter's criticism of APD, which was presented with instances that supported that singular notion that police officers here freely indulge in infractions that they hold us accountable for-- It is not a "fun little rant", but a response to another poster's related issue with police conduct.

Your original comment fairly let them know that you have an opposing view and that they they might seek to put that negative energy into something more productive to affect their own life. Good on you. Similarly, and equally respectfully, others felt differently. But one is not appreciated more or less than any other in the eyes of this moderator.

Likewise, I don't think that any DCF posts in the past related to concerns about APD have shown the disrespect that you assert here. The original post and the subsequent negative comments here about APD are all raised to elicit discussion and consideration, and perhaps to let the OP know that others do in fact feel the same way as they do, as far as I can tell.

Second to lastly, hettie wasn't speaking ill of "hard working peace officers" she was actually hoping that more officers conducted themselves as such in the first place. On that point it would appear as though you two actually agree.

And finally, it just plain doesn't endear you to the DCF volunteer moderators, admins and mainly peaceful (albeit possibly testy when defending what they deem to be an unfair characterization of their points) discussion participants when you denigrate Duke City Fix by (falsely) claiming, without supporting evidence, that we would wantonly defend education whilst seeking to defame police officers. Furthermore, it's kind of absurd, frankly.

What we all desire here on Duke City Fix, is to discuss the divers issues of the place that we love, Albuquerque- even if the subject matter cannot always be positive, and to treat each other with respect, so that the casual reader doesn't feel as thought they have stumbled upon city-data.com or the comments section of some of our local news websites....

I'm sure you can appreciate that.

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Permalink Reply by ramon t on January 31, 2011 at 9:00am

"albeit possibly testy when defending what they deem to be an unfair characterization of their points"

That was the point of my post. It is easy to unfairly characterize any profession. Teachers do some of the hardest work in the public sector but it is easy to unfairly lump all the good ones in with the few that are bad. Just as is done with our police officers.

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Permalink Reply by Krista on January 31, 2011 at 9:12am

"Thankfully we do have a choice to send our kids to private school."

That doesn't sound like it was what you were saying...

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Permalink Reply by ramon t on January 31, 2011 at 9:17am

m'kay.

Permalink Reply by ramon t on January 31, 2011 at 9:17am

And I do apologize for for turning this into city-data.com lite.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Torres on January 31, 2011 at 4:35pm

"Thankfully we do have a choice to send our kids to private school"

Private school is good, but I have to state that it is no answer to the problem of the US educational deficiency. As a student at UNM I have met many individuals who can't understand why we consider private schools to be so good. In their countries students in private schools are there because they cannot perform under the rigors of their public school requirements. Additionally, if all our children were to make the switch to a private school, the US would still be behind many nations in education because even private school curricula are not up to par with those nations ranked highest in education. The truth is that, excluding the few students who do value their education and strive to meet or exceed performance benchmarks, students do not want to learn or even be in school. School has become a social club for many causing the decay of this important institution. Inevitably, this will also be true in private schools considering the tenacious nature of human behavior.

As for APD, I agree with hettie completely. As a officer of the law, one holds the position of a community leader. As a leader one should never ask another to do what they are not willing to do. That means that if we are to follow various laws or ordinances, then the police also need to follow them. From the original post, considering the additional risk of damage to public property, police vehicles should be stored in an appropriate location until the officers need to use them.

In conclusion, many ideas concerning proper conduct are confounded by the human factor. As long as a human, any human, is a position of power, there will be an element of misconduct.