June 13, 1971 – Albuquerque, NM Festering
resentment over police harassment and brutality toward the Chicano residents led
to a riot in Roosevelt Park that escalated downtown with looting and buildings
being damaged. Eventually, the New Mexico National Guard was called in to quell
the violence.
On this Sunday there was to be a series of
concerts in Roosevelt Park and both uniformed and undercover officers mixed with
the crowd of nearly 1,000. This happened while the activist group Black Berets
met with the police chief and city officials.
Even though top officials spoke to the crowd that
morning regarding changes they recognized needed to occur the police presence
appeared to make any promises outright lies.
Through the afternoon police made many arrests for
underage drinking. “Officers started putting on strong pressure, and some of
the guys got fed up,” said Richard Moore, minister of justice for the Black
Berets. So when undercover officers attempted to arrest a Latino teen for
selling a joint the brewing anger spilled over with bottle and rock throwing
and shouts of “Chicano Power!”
The Black Berets then tried to calm the crowd and
speak to the police and try and calm the situation, but it hots into the air
and called for dispersal, when the crowd then began to edge near the police
shots were fired into the crowd. Nine people were wounded, and the police were
quickly overwhelmed by the crowd as they flipped over and set fire to a police
car. The crowd moved from the park and headed downtown towards the newly
constructed Police-Municipal Courts Building.
When the crowd reached the police headquarters
Police Chief Dan Byrd agreed to meet with representatives to see if the
situation could be cooled off. The crowd was now running on anger and
began splintering off with several hundred going down on Central Avenue where
they began breaking glass on store fronts and looting the stores. Store owners arrived
armed to defend their property. This reaction caused Chief Byrd to call
Governor Bruce King and request the aid of the National Guard.
As the night progressed a liquor store was burned
to the ground, the Radio Shack and Woolworth’s heavily damaged. The Police and
Courts building had all the windows smashed out. Throughout the riot Chief Byrd
and City Manager Richard Wilson attempted to negotiate and end to the chaos to
no avail.
National Guardsmen arrived to support the police on
Monday morning as the violence continued with more businesses looted and burned.
The school district offices were also burned.
Slowly the combined efforts of peaceful
negotiations and the National Guard support quelled the riot. Nearly 600 people
were arrested in the violence with 35 hospitalized, including the 9 shot by
police initially at Roosevelt Park. The riot caused an estimated 5 million
dollars in damage in the business district and another million at the school
district offices. There was no report on the cost of damage to the municipal
building.
The riot did lead to some reforms at the Albuquerque
Police Department, led by Lt. Gov. Robert Mondragon, “I know we have police
brutality in Albuquerque,” he said. “Police brutality is not alleged—it is
factual.”
However, whether these reforms worked or not is in
serious question as 50 years later the Albuquerque Police Department is still
operating under a federal consent decree to reform and independent monitors have questioned
the culture of the police department.
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