The excuses from retired Albuquerque police command staff, Mayor Keller and some members of the city council regarding how APD Chief of Police Harold Medina reacted to a shooting he witnessed clearly shows how out of touch they are. It is more important
for them to protect Medina at all costs, and get rid of the DOJ, innocent lives be
damned.
Mayor Keller praised Medina’s act of fleeing the shooting and gravely injuring an innocent citizen as courageous. A retired APD police deputy chief makes fun of retired APD officers who have criticized Medina’s conduct by saying they were braver than they really were. This is the hypocrisy that beat cops at APD have always dealt with. A command staff that usually did very little first responder work, then holding the beat cop to a higher level of conduct than they hold themselves.
For Medina’s apologists there are questions they should ponder. What if the victim of the shooting wasn’t a homeless person but was a small child. Would you still defend
Medina for fleeing the scene and not engaging the offender? Apparently for Mayor Keller and others, some lives are worth defending and other lives are not.
Medina stated that he fled the scene to protect his wife, who he said was in the line of fire. Medina was sitting next to his wife, therefore putting him in the line of fire. As of now, there has been no report that Medina’s police truck was hit by gunfire. The question must be asked, did Medina see the gun pointed in his direction? Or did he just
respond to his wife screaming “GUN!” and just blasted through the intersection?
Would Keller still praise Medina if instead of almost killing Todd Perchert, Medina had struck a vehicle with a pregnant mother, injuring or killing her? Maybe striking a car with
a couple small children and killing them? What if Tim Keller and his family were driving to the press conference and they were creamed by Medina’s truck? Would Keller still
praise Medina as courageous if it were Keller’s elderly parents or children? For Keller, some members of the city council and apologist retired police command staff, some lives are just more important than that of a homeless shooting victim and Todd Perchert.
It’s also more important for Keller and pals to see the DOJ leave. They believe the DOJ leaving is tied to Medina staying as chief. With this mind thought, Medina can run from
gunfire while in a police vehicle, not act to protect the person being threatened by the gunfire and almost kill an innocent person, all because he has convinced Keller that if he were to be held accountable the DOJ might not leave Albuquerque.
Finally, let me take you back to February 24, 1983, at Alvarado and Central. On that night APD Officer Gerald Cline died in service to the citizens of Albuquerque. Defending others from a man with a rifle, Cline didn’t run, he stood his ground and was
shot to death. Gerald Cline is a hero, Medina is not.
From the day an officer enters the academy until the day they retire, they are reminded daily, they may be called upon to give their life in the defense of others. It doesn’t matter who that other person is, a child, businessman, homeless addict, you are there to
defend, “to serve and protect”. This is why the community views police officers as heroes. They run to danger, not away from it. Any cop who has been on the beat knows this is true. Politicians and some police command staff members apparently don’t
understand this concept of service.
APD Officer Gerald Cline died where, 41 years later, APD Chief of Police Medina, faced with a man with a gun decided to flee and almost killed an innocent man in the process. If Keller, the city council, and retired police commanders wanted the real definition of courage, it was Jerry Cline giving his life to defend his community. Jerry Cline and his family did make a difference, no matter what Medina apologists say.
This is why so many retired APD officers, who spent their lives on the beat and not in the comfort of an office in police headquarters, are so upset with Medina’s actions and how Keller and others have defended him. Heroes don’t run away and almost kill others
in the process. Heroes, like Jerry Cline, act to protect, even when that action might cost them their life.
This isn’t Uvalde. This is Albuquerque.
Daniel Klein was an Albuquerque Police Sergeant from 1983-2003.
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Since Chief Medina ran the red light, was he given a ticket or special treatment?
He wasn’t given a ticket and he directed his own scene investigation, telling officers where to find evidence etc. Seems like speical privilege to me.
I think they need to get rid of Fred (Crash) Medina and Barney (Worthless) Keller AKA The Enabler, These Clowns make a Mockery of Law Enforcement and Day to Day Operations in Albuquerque, a City I have called home since 1962 and now it’s totally out of control and it’s no longer safe to go anywhere with these Sanctuary City Policies I don’t recall anyone being asked by the Governor who’s Also Worthless whether we want Albuquerqe a Lawless Sanctuary City that’s no longer safe to go anywhere..
This! This! This!
Thank You for posting this. I have been saying this from Day 1 of Medina bobbing and weaving around what happened and changing his statement about what happened and when. He is delusional at best and Keller is no better.
Thank You also for your memorial of Jerry Cline. It made me smile and brought back so many good memories. You’re right, Jerry was a hero. I first met him when I was in high school and played Basketball with his foster daughter. I got to know Jerry and Yolanda and they truly were wonderful people. Great role models and leaders, there to shape the lives of the kids and always there to listen if we needed to talk. I had gone into the Navy and was stationed in Japan when my mother sent me the newspaper article about Jerry being killed. It broke my heart to know such a good man had died in such a way, but like you said, they are reminded daily that they may be called upon to give their life in the defense of others, and Jerry understood that. He was a Hero. Medina can’t even spell hero much less be one. Medina and Keller both need to do this city a favor and stop down before they cause more embarrassment.
That comment says it all. Nothing needs to be added to it except action to rid Albuquerque of corrupt cops !!
I wholeheartedly agree with this opinion piece. The author nailed every single thing I’ve been saying since this first happened. I did not realize that the tie-in with the DOJ and why Keller wants to keep Medina in place. As far as I’m concerned, getting rid of Medina is well worth having to keep the DOJ involved longer. As much as I think their oversight is heavyhanded and over the top, we need to be rid of Medina.
Yeah, I’m sorry but I’m gonna be that squeaky voice that says, if that was me in that situation you are god da**ed assured I’d protect my wife first and foremost from any threat such as a average day in Albuquerque shootout on Central. The rest of the story is what it is.
Instead of running away and putting the wife in harms way of getting T-Boned, as a police officer he should have reacted directly to the threat and got out of his car and addressed it. I honestly do not believe Medina nor his wife saw the gun pointed in their direction. I have serious doubts that Medina saw the gun at all. My hunch is they heard a pop and immediately his wife screamed in his ear “GUN!” and Harold’s pucker factor went from zero to 100 in a millisecond. And because he hasn’t been on the streets for years, his first reaction was to run, instead of fight. Running caused far more harm and potentially more threats to his wife than getting out and addressing the situation would have.
The luxury of choice and privilege! The chief is a joke and should be fired. The mayor should be voted out and possibly criminally investigated. Frankly both of them and probably the next 3-4 in the chain of command at city Hall and the police department
I would hope that you wouldn’t put your wife in the situation to start with. He had NO business stopping to investigate “an argument”, to start with. If he thought is was a problem that called for police intervention then he should have called it in to dispatch and had a uniform,ed officer, on duty, dispatched to the scene. He was out of line putting his wife in that position to start with. Calls for service for fights and domestic disturbances are called into APD every single day and none of them are considered Emergancy calls and an officer is sent out when one is available. Not one of those calls is deemed “chief of police” worthy. It’s hard to even believe anything Medina says since he has changed his story to make himself look good. He can cry and feel he’s being picked on and be “pissed off” all he wants but he is no where near as pissed off as we all are seeing Keller deem the coward a hero and Medina sitting on his throne acting above the law. Send them both packing so we can work on getting Albuquerque back to the city it once was and we can be proud of.
The whole “had to flee” issue is rooted in the fact these people have invited, nurtured, embraced and continue to find money and ways to enable the “unhoused” culture and lifestyle. Of course the rest of us have to flee from “unhoused” and the gun shots that were all allowed to be established and flourish.
Some of us of will “flee” to Los Lunas, Rio Rancho or to another state. The difference is that no one will pay for the consequence of our decision to volunteer to “flee”
I’d enjoy reading an essays on how the “Detroit of the Southwest was created A historical comparison and contrast”
Now in Detroit, words like “ghetto” and “crime” have been replaced with “retail desert” and “those left behind”
Think about it.
Thus demonstrating that civilized people must exterminate societal vermin, not merely run away from it.
Or flee in terror as Medina the fucking criminal coward did.
A “hero”? May have left a “gun shot” victim, he claims was the reason to flee, without rendering Aid, and stopping an “alleged” shooter who may continue a killing spree. He should have called Law Enforcement on the ‘shooter’, instead of running a Red light and crippling a man for life. Did a S.W.A.T. team search for the “alleged” gunman? Did they find a bullet casing, or was a revolver used? Is there a blood trail from a victim, too? If anyone else, say a non-Police Chief, ran a Red light seriously injuring an Innocent civilian, claiming they were afraid of an “alleged” gun man loose on the streets, would that civilian also be called a “hero”? Would Law Enforcement give them a Free Pass? Since gun shots are common in Albuquerque, read the news for an explanation of how many daily reported by the “Shots Fired Locator” and civilians, how many Red light running victims are left on Albuquerque streets? Anyone else, would definitely have tp pay Higher Insurance rates, as we all do now, for risking the Public’s safety. Will this affect the Chief’s Personal Insurance coverage on any vehicles he drives? Is it going to be ignored by his Insurance Company? The “APD’s Drunk Driver Unit”, under his Command, had quite a few “officers” accepting Bribes by way of a lawyer and “Officer of the Court”, a term used in Judicial proceedings, yet those Offenders were allowed to Resign in shame, as he watched. How many have been arrested, for their choices, to violate our Laws? It seems as if it was pre-meditated by those Officers and the Drunk driver’s attorney in a Conspiracy, under Medina’s authority. May just be an illusion…
Temporary Puppets..lambe.
Medinas only concern is “retirement.”
“Leaked” Medina Recording – Mocking Accident Investigation and History of Disciplines. Last person to disciple him, now works for him
https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-police-chief-recorded-lets-appease-everyone-crash-investigation/60473617
Medina is “pissed” so are citizens who continuously have to be there own “HEROS” temporary puppets..LAMBE.
¡ROGUE MENTALITY FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP!