An excerpt

Every year the local alt-weekly does a sort of year-end wrap-up, where they briefly recap what they deem to have been some of the most significant stories of the year. It's nice, if only because the Santa Fe Reporter is the only vaguely worthwhile news publication in the state*.

Anyway. One of the year's top stories is the rather unsurprising news that law enforcement in northern New Mexico is, uh, challenged. They start with a brief recap of some late-breaking news in which the county sheriff admitted he'd been selling sheriff's department property on e-Bay in order to try to keep his house out of foreclosure. Then we get this: 

If Solano’s shenanigans were characterized by discreet cunning, former Santa Fe Police Officer David Smoker’s violent assault on a handcuffed teenager last January seemed to result from a total lapse in self-control. Smoker was caught on video beating 17-year-old Brendon Singer. 

Oof. Yeah, you defend yourself against that handcuffed kid. But wait - there's more! 

The Santa Fe Police Department terminated Smoker and Officer Robert Hollingsworth, and suspended Officer David Rael, because Hollingsworth and Rael failed to stop the attack. The incident reverberated in the March city mayoral election, when the video was made public; the city police union supported Mayor David Coss challenger Asenath Kepler. The union had opposed the terminations.

Nothing like a bit of groupthink. But, um, wait! There's more. 

Lt. Stephen Ryan, who conducted the internal investigation into the beating, was later put on paid administrative leave for a year and a half after being charged with driving under the influence. When his conviction was overturned in October, City Manager Robert Romero put him back in the internal investigations section, angering the Santa Fe Police Officers Association.

....Yes, the guy who was responsible for investigating alleged misconduct by other officers was then charged with drunk driving. And then put back into the same position. Did he get to investigate his own misconduct the first time around? 

Meanwhile, just down the road in Albuquerque, we have city police officers passing out drunk in their cars on the side of the interstate and getting sent home with a few stern words. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Land of Enchantment.

*A couple months ago our local daily newspaper ran a headline about an ex-con's ongoing attempts to avoid reincarnation, which was a bit baffling until you realized that they meant reincarceration, which may or may not be a word to begin with. No one was really surprised.