By Eric Carter-Landin
Crime in New Mexico isn’t just a statistic—it’s a crisis affecting real people and communities. Yet, despite endless promises from lawmakers, little has changed.
I know this pain personally. My nine-month-old brother, Jacob, was murdered in 1987. The evidence was there. The suspect confessed—twice. And still, no one was held accountable. My family continues to wait for justice, like so many others across our state.
I host the True Consequences podcast, investigating crime in New Mexico. I’m also the CEO of AdvocacyCon and a co-founder of Angels’ Voices Silenced No More, organizations supporting families of the missing and murdered. Through my work, I’ve spoken with countless families let down by our justice system. After following the 2025 legislative session, it’s clear our lawmakers still don’t get it.
Yes, there were some small victories. House Bill 8 increased penalties for fentanyl trafficking, gun modification devices, and auto theft. Senate Bill 3 aimed to improve behavioral health services. These are steps in the right direction, but they don’t address the bigger problem—New Mexico’s weak approach to violent crime.
Then came the decisions that defy logic. Lawmakers passed House Bill 255, giving college stipends to former juvenile offenders, while rejecting House Bill 134, a bipartisan bill that would have held violent juvenile offenders accountable. What message does that send? Commit a violent crime, and the state will help you go to college? What about grieving families who lost loved ones to violence? It’s reckless and insulting.
The problem isn’t just bad legislation—it’s repeated inaction that allows violent crime to spiral. Law enforcement officials say a small number of repeat offenders commit a disproportionate share of violent crimes. Yet lawmakers refuse to pass tougher sentencing laws. Meanwhile, New Mexico’s violent crime rate remains twice the national average. How much worse does it have to get before something changes?
Ask any district attorney or police officer in this state, and they’ll tell you the same thing: they’re tired of arresting the same people over and over, only to watch them walk free. And New Mexicans? They’re tired of being afraid. From Albuquerque to Las Cruces to small towns, crime touches every part of our state. Families who’ve lost loved ones are left wondering why their representatives won’t act.
This isn’t complicated. We need tougher penalties for violent crimes, real consequences for juvenile offenders, and serious investment in crime prevention. But most of all, we need leaders who prioritize public safety over political games.
If you’re tired of feeling unsafe and frustrated with lawmakers making excuses instead of solutions, speak up. Call your legislators. Email them. Show up to town halls. Let them know their inaction won’t be tolerated. There are more of us than there are of them. If we make enough noise, they won’t be able to ignore us.
New Mexico deserves better than empty promises. We deserve action. And it’s time we demand it.
https://www.angelsvoicesnm.org
https://www.advocacycon.com/about
All your points on New Mexico’s crime due to lack of common sense, or consequence based laws are valid. As long as New Mexicans keep voting in the same left leaning politicians nothing will change. People need to open their eyes & start thinking for themselves .
Yes! I do agree! I don’t understand why they are turning they’re backs on our young people and praising bad behavior instead of trying to fix the problem. The incentive they are Giving is so stupid!
I think the problem is once elected, legislators do not listen to the public anymore. Money got them in office and they are now expected to do as the money tells them. Crime is big business. The money folks don’t want to see it go away. If properties are destroyed by fire or taken over by the city because of the illegal activity, then the city can sell it to their friends with the money. We need to get PAC’s out of politics and we need term limits.
Hope to see you Friday.
Join City Councilor Klarissa J. Peña for a Council District 3
“Connecting Community Forum”
Hear from City departments and officials on how government can work for you.
ALBUQUERQUE – City Council Vice President Klarissa J. Peña invites you to attend, participate, and learn at the District 3 Connecting Community Forum.
Come out and get answers to your questions and hear from officials and experts from several of the City’s departments, including Transit, Health, Housing & Homelessness, Parks and Recreation, Senior Affairs, Arts & Culture, Department of Municipal Development, Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency, Albuquerque Police, Solid Waste, Albuquerque Community Safety, and the Office of Neighborhood Coordination.
“District 3 Connecting Community Forum”
When: Friday, March 21, 2025
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Where: Nuevo Atrisco Food Park
7921 Central Avenue NW
We should get tough on crime like they did in El Salvador. Home of the Mega Prison CECOT. Holding gang banging criminals responsible in the worst possible conditions works. They used to be the deadliest country in the world…no more. Deterrents work, check it out….CECOT!
However, under Bukele’s crackdown, the government has been undercounting homicides by as much as 47 percent. This is no bureaucratic or clerical error. Since taking office, Bukele’s administration has been laser-focused on reducing homicide rates and improving perceptions of security. This was central to his administration’s negotiations with the gangs from 2019 to 2022. The government offered incarcerated gang leadership less-restrictive prison conditions, reduced sentences, visits to civilian hospitals—often to communicate with fellow gang members under the guise of receiving fake medical treatment—and a promise to not extradite them to the United States. In exchange, the gangs needed to find ways to lower the number of homicides. One of the ways in which gang leaders achieved this was to authorize fewer killings and genuinely reduce violence.
However, they also increased the practice of burying the bodies of victims in unmarked and often mass graves—in effect, reducing the number of “public killings.” According to a 2022 U.S. federal indictment, during the negotiations, “MS-13 leaders continued to authorize murders where the victims’ bodies were buried or otherwise hidden.” In May 2021, Bukele’s government formally started changing how it counted homicides. Mesa Técnica, an interagency roundtable that tabulates homicides, began excluding the discovery of clandestine or unmarked graves from its counts. In a country ravished by a 12-year civil war that ended in the 1990s, discoveries of mass graves and unidentified human remains are an all-too-common occurrence, and for as long as the government had been recording homicide data, these deaths had been included.
Facts matter! Just because your king says something, it’s doesn’t make it true!
Glad I didn’t ask you the time, you would have told me how to build a watch!
Here’s the link to an article I wrote for American Thinker comparing crime stats for NM’s five largest cities to national averages and El Paso. Ouch.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/02/the_most_dangerous_city_in_the_most_dangerous_state.html
Don’t just call VOTE them out of office. Start Recall petitions, protests in front of their offices or homes. There are too many OLD GUARD NEW Mexicans in the state government. We need less laws and more penalties 13 DWI arrests and still driving for example. The OLD GUARD DON’T WANT AN INFLUX OF NEW PEOPLE FROM OTHER STATES INVADING THEIR LITTLE FIEFDOMS. They are discouraging medical professionals from working here but they go out of state for their health care. Time for a complete change. They are too old to understand criminals don’t read or obey the laws so the majority of the time gun charges are dropped in a murder investigation for a plea to a lesser charge so the courts don’t have much to do. Any gun law that restricts a lawful average person from owning a gun or carrying a gun for protection is a invitation for a criminal to kill or hurt an innocent person. We need stiffer penalties for child criminals. Send them to reform school till they are 18 and graduate with a high school diploma. Test these kids and if they are found to be sociopaths deal with them appropriately. Mandatory sentences for auto theft min 5 years no time off for good behavior. Re-establish Prison farms so prisoners grow their won food or their faqmilies provide them food. They are in Prison as a punishment for not following the law not in prison as a spa adventure.
Unbridled crime affects everyone. I don’t know any citizens that have not been victims of the terrible crime problem in NM. From breaking and entering, auto theft, or larceny or other crime everyone you talk to that lives here has been a victim at some time. Avoid NM is becoming the Mantra of tourists, also affecting the economy!
The best way to make noise is at the voting booth. Maybe a social media blast showing the voting records running up to the next election as well as viable candidates to run against them.
Absolutely agree!! It is overwhelming and it totally defies LOGIC that our leaders are not taking more radical of steps to protect their constituents … shameful. Thank you for your voice/every voice that is speaking out!!!
JUDGES IN NM ARE WORTHLESS ! crimels need to serve prison repeat offenders need to get no good time and serve their time for each crime one after the other so if they steal 10 cars thats 18 months per car or 18 years.
Hence why the title of the video I reference above is called the definition of insanity. We keep doing the same thing over and over and we expect different results. We keep throwing people in jail and we expect different results. It’s time for change, a different approach. One that has proven results. Jails do not have proven results. In fact, when someone is released from probation or jail, they are told by the guards they will see them soon. They know it doesn’t work.
Step up and do what? The NM voters, especially the hypocritical old ones, would rather have more crime than change of leadership. THEY hate outsiders who sets examples, corrects their Mijo or grand Mijo, and thinks enabling will make things better. “We need more welfare….”
[…] I host the True Consequences podcast, investigating crime in New Mexico. I’m also the CEO of AdvocacyCon and a co-founder of Angels’ Voices Silenced No More, organizations supporting families of the missing and murdered. Through my work, I’ve spoken with countless families let down by our justice system. After following the 2025 legislative session, it’s clear our lawmakers still don’t get it. More Here […]
It doesn’t help that this state, a border state, is soft on illegal immigrants. There are MANY crimes that are performed by illegals & people they rope into their crime syndicate!!! NM — DO BETTER!!!