Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it

Posted

For those that didn’t attend or watch the Las Cruces Police Department’s town hall on Jan. 23, I highly recommend you search it on YouTube and watch it. Without the public comment, the presentation lasted about 45 minutes. It was a sobering, heartbreaking 45 minutes, outlining the dire situation Las Cruces finds itself in.

With the legislative session now underway, it is critical for residents, business owners and our own local politicians to get informed and petition the state Legislature during this 60-day session that will provide some relief for everyone involved, including the criminals themselves.

Chief Jeremy Story is passionate and protective of his officers. He researches and provides unique, out-of-the-box ideas about ways to potentially combat the explosion of crime and drugs that we now see on street corners around Las Cruces. But I also get the impression that even he is taken aback by the trajectory of our community, despite his and his officer’s tireless efforts to hold the line.

How can they continue to fight? Most people would quickly suffer fatigue, to pursue a hardened criminal for days or weeks, only to see them get out of jail before the end of their shift. And that is the reality of the situation that they are often faced with.

The criminals aren’t just those with lengthy rap sheets, although there are a plethora of those. The most tragic portion of the presentation reported that between January 2023 and September 2024, at least 10 juveniles were charged with at least 10 crimes each. One child has managed to be charged with 20 crimes in that period. Five juveniles have been charged with some form of homicide. 364 have been charged with misdemeanor battery. 75 of them have been charged with unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon.

The adult crimes are equally staggering. Seventeen murders occurred in 2024, compared to 10 in 2023. Overall, violent crime increased by 24 percent. By numbers, property crime is reported to be down, but I know for a fact that the level of fatigue of crime victims, who have suffered numerous broken windows and merchandise shoplifted, has caused crimes like these to go unreported, which unfortunately skews the data.

A very high number of crimes across our city are committed by relatively few repeat offenders. One that I myself researched was arrested 25 times between January 6, 2024 and January 20, 2025. Most of her cases were dismissed because she was found incompetent, or had been found incompetent in previous cases. I know her by sight and her condition is tragic. Her most recent mugshot shows her gaunt and filthy, aged well beyond her years. I have seen her around town, violently self-harming and acting highly erratic. Three weeks ago, she was engaged in illicit substance consumption outside a local store I visited with my small children. Her companion felt the need to remove his pants and my 5-year old daughter asked me that afternoon why she saw that man’s penis.

And yet, another attendee of the town hall labeled the chief’s town hall as containing “total propaganda” when I encountered her the next day. For her, the shocking statistics presented by police chief were dismissed that easily. And that scares me.

How many people within our community or, worse, within our governing bodies throughout New Mexico, will allow their bias to dismiss the data outright? In doing so, they condemn juveniles to a life of uninterrupted crime, repeat offenders to rot their bodies with fentanyl and meth, police officers to crushing frustration and the residents and business owners of this state to navigate the crime and drug use that knocks at the door – or breaks through yet another window. 

Road Less Traveled, opinion, Shawna Pfeiffer

X