Friday, June 14, 2024

Ongoing Police Brutality Leads To Riot By Latinos In Albuquerque


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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