Armed vigilantes under scrutiny after statue protester shot in New Mexico

[ansible]

Source: guardian

Officials are scrutinizing armed vigilante groups in New Mexico following the shooting of a protester calling for the removal of a controversial colonial statue. Police are examining whether the shooter belonged to New Mexico Civil Guard, whose members were out in force at the Monday demonstration in Albuquerque. The group has become a familiar and controversial presence at protests over racial injustice across the state. Protesters have accused it , and other militias, of intimidating and profiling people of color.

“I am horrified and disgusted beyond words by the reports of violence and the protest,” the New Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, tweeted in response to the Monday shooting, adding that the “heavily armed individuals” were there for one reason: “To menace protesters and to present an unsanctioned show of unregulated force.” “The ranks of these militias are populated with ex-cops and military,” said David Correia, a University of New Mexico police violence researcher. “They understand themselves as police, and police understand them as police.”

Officials say that Steven Ray Baca, 31, shot a protester as he and others attempted to bring down a statue of the Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate, for many a symbol of racism and oppression. Baca is the son of the former sheriff of Bernalillo county. The shooting occurred during a clash between demonstrators and the NM Civil Guard, who were seen creating a protective circle around the gunmen following the shooting. Thirteen guns and 34 magazines of ammunition were recovered at the scene. The group has denied any role in the shooting or connection to Baca.



Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/17/armed-vigilantes-under-scrutiny-after-statue-protester-shot-new-mexico

[dalton99a]

1. "Albuquerque police officers thanked them for being part of the protest"

[LizBeth]

2. On the radio the police said armed friendly. That says it all. On the radio talking about a shooting

and they describe the shooter as an armed friendly.

[BComplex]

3. Busted! Now we need to clean out their ranks and get rid of all the neonazis and white supremacists

in that police department.

[LizBeth]

4. +1. The place to start. At the core of the issue.

[BComplex]

6. FBI had already determined that these groups had intentionally infiltrated every police department

where they were able to get a foothold. Trump tried to (and is still trying to) make the FBI the bad guys for investigating his russian connections and the neonazis, and he knows full well about the white nationalists and the police. Bill Barr is every bit a piece of this coverup.

It's a cancer on our nation, and our tax dollars are supporting it without our consent. It needs to be ferreted out in every policing jurisdiction...city, county, state and federal.

[LizBeth]

8. I was on the Gov site for Oregon. The Gov was talking police reform. We had a situation here

where the cops were going after the protesters who broke curfew in Salem Or. The police told the militia men standing by them to go into a business or in their cares so it would not look like favoritism when they went after the protesters. I reminded the Gov that this and what happened in NM calling armed thugs.attempted murders armed friendlies was at the core of the injustices of the police force. Thinking these rw white men are on their side and all the rest of us, liberals and blacks are the enemy is at the heart of the abuses.

[Warpy]

5. Too funny! The cops aren't overwhelmingly white here

What they need to clean up is cop culture and that's going to take money being poured in for training, plus pulling the fangs of the union so bad ones can be fired more easily.

I think they might be starting to relearn a very hard lesson here in the wild west, that vigilante groups were never friendly, even if they knew individual members. The shooter was a process server and skip tracer, so they knew him. That didn't make him a friend, not when he showed up ready to kill other people at random.

In related news, video taken from multiple angles has surfaced, so the shooter's self defense fiction is out the window.

[maxsolomon]

7. Scrutiny? Not SCRUTINY!

FFS, they're PARAMILITARY groups that are threatening and, now, attacking their fellow citizens.

If this were Central America, we'd call them Death Squads.

[NCjack]

9. Expect AG Barr to rush in with his magnifying glass, searching for Antifa.

[Roc2020]

10. No less than attempted murder charge

time to take the gloves off with these militia groups that really are most close to armed terrorists. there is a another reckoning coming under Biden.

[Jersey Devlin]

11. "...and police understand them as police."

Well then it's time for some New Understanding, ain't it?

[rockfordfile]

12. All pf them should be arrested. They're terrorist

[Baclava]

13. Wild Wild West, 'Shooting charge dropped against suspected New Mexico shooter'

(Reuters) - A New Mexico prosecutor on Wednesday dropped a shooting charge against an Albuquerque man suspected of shooting a protester and called for further investigations after allegations the protester was armed at the time he was shot.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-mexico-protest/shooting-charge-dropped-against-suspected-new-mexico-shooter-idUSKBN23P08W