Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The other day I attended a special meeting on crime. I came away thinking that we’re actually making progress.
I say that despite reports that show a sharp increase in violent crime these days. FBI data show a 25% increase in homicides nationwide in 2020, and this year is looking about as bad.
The reasons are debatable. Some blame the pandemic and its economic and social disruptions; others, the continuing proliferation of guns; and still others say it’s because law enforcement agencies have been on the defensive ever since George Floyd’s murder.
More likely, it’s a combination of all the above, and more, since violent crime can never be fully explained is one-dimensional terms.
That’s what I heard at that meeting on crime — that there are several causes, and they require various cures if we’re going to bring “law and order” back to our neighborhoods and communities.
If you ask an Albuquerque resident, what’s the biggest problem facing your city, odds are they’ll say it’s crime. FBI crime statistics have placed the Duke City ninth among U.S. cities with the highest violent crime rates, and while some APD statistics point to a drop in the city’s overall crime rate, it’s a rise in violent offenses that has created this crisis for New Mexico’s largest city.
It’s also having its effect on outlying rural communities, like mine.
On Sept. 30 in Santa Rosa, the city and its police department organized a special meeting to talk about crime. This town of about 2,500 residents just had its first homicide inside its city limits in more than a dozen years, but that’s not why the meeting was called.
This summer, Santa Rosa has seen a rise in burglaries at businesses, fires in vacant buildings and drug overdoses mainly from fentanyl. It’s not necessarily out of hand, as public perception might suggest, but it is a problem that’s frustrating just about everyone involved.
About 30 people showed up for the meeting, more than half of whom were law enforcement and city officials. The low public turnout surprised several people, including me, since residents had become more vocal about their concern for crime in our community. In fact, the meeting grew from a previous discussion at a city council meeting about illegal drugs being sold in our neighborhoods, close to our schools and just about in plain sight.
Despite the low turnout, I think the community consensus is that drugs are at the root of the crimes being committed. That and mental illness, which often goes hand in hand with drug abuse.
It reminded me of something I heard someone say not so long ago: That there isn’t a family in America that hasn’t been personally affected by drugs. Whether it’s a son or a daughter, a brother or sister, or a parent or even a grandparent, it seems we’ve all lost someone to drugs.
That puts a human face on the issue of crime, because drugs are at the heart of so many of our community’s break-ins, thefts, domestic disputes, assaults, and murders. Seeing the humanity involved, on both sides, is what I call progress.
Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at: