Juneteenth celebrations, Desert Hope residents speak out and police demographics

This year's Juneteenth festivities kicked off Tuesday with a week-long jazz arts festival, and were accompanied by New Mexico State University's celebration of the new holiday on Friday.

On the stage outside Corbett Center Student Union, students and community members gathered for an evening of music, poetry, speakers and more.

Juneteenth commemorates news of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States reaching Galveston, Texas, in the 19th century. It became an official federal holiday in 2020 when President Joe Biden signed legislation in the wake of several Black citizens being killed by police and the social justice movements that followed.

NMSU themed this year's Juneteenth celebration "Remember a Legacy to Continue the Journey.”

Our summer intern, Annya Loya, covered the event at NMSU. Here's what she said about her experience:

Last Friday, I got the opportunity to attend the jazz arts festival and the New Mexico State University’s second Juneteenth celebration and it was a wonderful, educational experience. I wasn’t much of jazz music fan but Derrick Lee’s workshop really changed my perspective.

The musicians' ability to improvise and follow each other within seconds of listening was crazy to me. They had no sheets, no guidance from each other, someone played and the others followed as if they rehearsed a bunch of times. It made me realize I never stood a chance with the dust-covered guitar I have back home. It hyped me up for the NMSU celebration which was right after.

There were multiple moments in that night that made for a great event, and NMSU’s beautiful campus did not hurt a lot. Both students and faculty put up an amazing program that involved guest speakers, dance performances, poetry and more.  First I got to interview Patrick Turner, one of the main organizers and it felt great listening to how proud he was of the turnout and the students involved. He said that he just wanted to bring the community closer together, which I believe it worked.

One of my favorite moments was listening to Roy Collins, NMSU’s general counsel, about the history of Juneteenth and his connection to Galveston, Texas. Collins’ presentation was powerful and made me understand so much more about the holiday. As an immigrant, I only knew so much about American history, so this was more than an assignment to me, it was an educational moment. Listening to Roy share his perspective and getting to interview him after was the highlight of the night. Another one, of course, was the West African Drum & Dance. A beautiful performance that only got better when students joined in and danced as well. Part of me really wanted to join them and dance but I kept telling myself “you’re working, you’re working.” I totally regret it because it looked like so much fun! The rest of the program went smoothly and I’m really happy I got to witness it all.

To end the night, there was a moment of silence and a vigil for both black and brown people who had lost their lives due to discrimination. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the families of the Buffalo and Texas shootings were mentioned and it was heartbreaking. Guests chanted “black and brown lives matter” after each name. The NMSU and Las Cruces community really came together in that moment. I’m really glad I was assigned to cover Juneteenth and I look forward to seeing more events where Las Cruces community show their support for one another.

Desert Hope residents respond to community complaints

Mostly, Paul Bryce has lived in Las Cruces. He’s struggled with housing. He says he’s lived in the city about seven or eight years, but he can’t be certain.

“When you're out on the street, a day turns into a week, turns into a month, turns into a year,” Bryce, 55, who’s originally from California, said. “So I’m just guessing.”

But for the last 10 months, Bryce has had a place to call his own. He was one of over two dozen people to move into the Desert Hope Apartments on Pecos Street last August, when the complex opened to tenants. Desert Hope is a 40-unit affordable housing development serving previously unhoused people.It's one block east of Solano Drive between Idaho Avenue and Foster Road.

“I've gone through the whole process, from a bush down at the river, to Camp Hope, to Desert Hope. I've seen the whole thing,” Bryce said. “I see what (Mesilla Valley) Community of Hope does — phenomenal. If anybody wanted to restart over, anywhere, this is the place to start.”

It’s been a shame then, according to Bryce and others who live and work at the complex, that the property has been neglected by the agency that owns it.

“There's only a handful of people (at Desert Hope) that are really the issues, and I can't really fault them. Because the way society is today, the way the economy is today, people are going to do what they're going to do,” Bryce said. “But to do it without impunity. That's not right.”

It's difficult for the residents of Desert Hope, one block east of Solano Drive between Idaho Avenue and Foster Road.

Our reporter Michael McDevitt has covered this story. He said:

This story is another example of how to more accurately and compassionately reframe our coverage. While this behemoth of a feature came from a public comment at a public safety town hall, the final product is much different than its genesis.

I started down the path of investigating this story by responding to complaints from neighbors about the Desert Hope Apartments. They seemed to be complaining about the behavior and increased presence of unhoused people in their area stemming from these apartments. I expected to find a classic “not in my backyard” type story. To my surprise, some residents at Desert Hope told me they were also fed up with conditions there, leading to my discovery of what I think was the real story, the lack of management from the public housing authority described in my piece — contributing to both the conditions inside and surrounding the property.

Las Cruces Police likely lack diversity

LAS CRUCES - For 38 seconds after making contact, the officer who would fatally shoot Amelia Baca used the same command phrase, spoken in English, about half a dozen times.

"Drop the knife, do it now," he commanded, standing a few feet from the woman holding two knives and experiencing a mental health crisis. "Drop the f---ing knife."

It's unclear if Baca, 75, understood any of the officer's commands. In addition to suffering from a form of dementia, Baca was a Spanish speaker. Her family confirmed both facts at a news conference in May.

The experience of a Spanish-speaking resident confronted by a non-Spanish-speaking officer is not an anomaly in Las Cruces. Data from the Las Cruces Police Department provided to the Sun-News upon request show that 10 percent of officers (20 out of 200) are department-certified as Spanish speakers. That means that Spanish-speaking residents of Las Cruces calling for police service have a one in ten chance of receiving a certified Spanish-speaking officer. Over 40,000 residents of Las Cruces use a language other than English while at home, according to the 2020 Census.

LCPD Chief Miguel Dominguez said that, while just one in ten officers are certified, the use of the language in conversational and written forms is likely much higher. He said that certification, which comes with a salary increase of $1,040 per year, requires completing a series of scenarios demonstrating competency in Spanish. One such test is a simulated field sobriety stop.

Reporter Justin Garcia, who covers public safety for the Sun-News, has been covering this story. He said:

This was one of those stories where a lot more went into the research aspect than made it into the story. I spent the better part of Thursday researching the theory of representative bureaucracy. The idea is that public workforces like police departments or tax collectors or garbage collectors should come from similar backgrounds as the public they serve. 

This way, the thinking goes, individuals with an affinity for their groups can advocate and ensure that their group's needs are met. Pretty simple right? One might even call it common sense. But here's the problem: some public workforces (especially police departments) rely on socializing members to think and act a certain way. The same way that the army boot camp training works to reprogram the minds of soldiers, police departments try to reprogram cadets to follow commands and protocols within the department. Homogenous ways of thinking, especially about what a "bad guy" looks and sounds like can leech on to this socializing and completely undermine the goals of representative workforce. 

Hillsboro, Kingston residents respond to fire threats

 It's been over a month since the Black Fire was discovered in the Gila National Forest and while the blaze continues to threaten communities and natural structures, monsoonal flooding is now a concern for the residents who live at the southern edge of the forest.

Nearly the entirety of Gila National Forest land in Sierra County has been “destroyed,” according to Lt. Joshua Baker with the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office. He was one of the speakers at a community meeting held in Hillsboro Thursday evening. Residents of Hillsboro, Kingston and surrounding communities packed into the Hillsboro Community Center to hear from fire and county officials.

According to the Friday update from the U.S. Forest Service, the Black Fire has charred 324,132 acres — nearly half the size of Rhode Island — with 50% of the perimeter now contained. Over 1,300 personnel are working to preserve areas and hold off the fire from growing further. The blaze continues to be the second largest wildfire in the state, following the Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire in northern New Mexico. That fire has burned 340,980 acres in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and is 72% contained.

“We've all heard of that fire up in Santa Fe. That's two fires (the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak wildfires started separately and later combined), right, that’s over 300,000 (acres). This (Black Fire) is one fire,” said Aaron Hulburd, incident commandeer for the wildfire. “I would think this is the largest fire in New Mexico history in single fires. It's pretty impressive.”

Reporter Leah Romero traveled to Hillsboro last week to talk to residents during that meeting. Leah said:

I headed up to Hillsboro Thursday afternoon for the latest community meeting on the Black Fire. I had been trying to get in contact with people from that general area to talk about their experiences living with the fire so close to their homes. I had also never been to that part of the state before.

Fire and county officials spoke to a packed community center in Hillsboro. Residents of Kingston attended as well. Experts highlighted the upcoming monsoon season and the precipitation that would inevitably come into the wildfire's area. Flash flooding is a concern for residents, as well as the possibility of the nearby watershed becoming damaged.

It was a bit rainy Thursday evening and as I drove around the community and into Kingston, clouds and smoke made the skies look hazy. It was also obvious that the communities were close as they mingled together. And their gratefulness for the fire response was seen in the thank you signs that were posted along the main road.

GO bond process

Residents appeared before the city council Monday to push for the inclusion of their preferred projects on the ballot in this year's general obligation bond election.

This November, Las Crucens will go to the polls to decide which projects will be paid for through GO bond financing. GO bonds are issued by the city and paid back through a temporary increase in property taxes.

In 2018, city voters approved four GO bond-funded projects for a cumulative $35.6 million.

During a Las Cruces City Council work session June 13, councilors heard an update from Architectural Research Consultants, a firm hired by the city to solicit and survey the public to come up with a slate of potential GO bond project ideas, as well as estimate costs and help the city arrive at a final project list.

Reporter Michael McDevitt covered this story for the Sun-News. He said:

This, to me, is a story about who gets listened to at the local level and how the city attempts to gauge public needs and respond to them proportionally.

City councilors wondered aloud Monday if the public input methods for this year’s general obligation bonds were sufficiently representative of the population. Though affordable housing was among the top of the funding requests this year, an East Mesa fire station and sports complex seem to be poised to receive comparatively huge proportions of the potential funding, and though a citizen coalition for affordable housing packed several rows, the pickleball-playing community showed up in equal strength at the meeting.

I’ve heard concerns about the supposedly bilingual GO bond survey being poorly translated, and I’ve heard renters didn't receive flyers about the bonds since they don't get utility bills. I can’t say if either of those are true just yet — as a reporter I check everything. I mention them for this reason — these are the more important questions I believe I should be asking on this story, more important than the ratio of new soccer fields to pickleball courts.

On behalf of all of us at the Las Cruces Sun-News, thank you for taking the time to read this week's newsletter.

Damien Willis is a Lead Reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at 575-541-5443, dwillis@lcsun-news.com or @DamienWillis on Twitter.