On a hillside overlooking this shimmering city
a year ago, a 29-year-old homeless man called James Boyd
pitched his tent. He was a schizophrenic. Friends said he sought solace
in nature to help deal with his condition. A nearby resident called the
police to report someone camping along the walking trail.
After a four-hour standoff with
20 police, it seemed they'd talked him into coming down.
But even as he picked up his bags, what's recorded by one officer's lapel cam
reveals an absurd escalation. One of the police throws a flash-bang device
on the command "do it"
Disoriented, Boyd takes out a pocket knife.
Two officers open fire. Now gravely wounded, you can just hear James say
"please don't hurt me, I can't move"
Before baton rounds are fired into his body
and the dog is set loose.
The body camera that caught
the killing of James Matthew Boyd is irrefutable
evidence that the City of Albuquerque Police Department
was absolutely out of control. It really exposed
the culture of aggression and excessive force that had been festering in the
city of Albuquerque for over two decades.
"Mr Boyd deserved respect..." One year on and James Boyd supporters hold a vigil in the very
place he was killed
In a rare judgment, the district attorney has pressed murder charges against the
two officers who they believe fired the fatal shots.
"And so I would call upon the police
stop killing your brothers and sisters."
The city's police force is now under direct guidance from federal authorities
Looking at the bigger picture the Department of Justice has found the
police here in Albuquerque systematically use excessive violence
Officers are too ready to reach for their guns and when they do
they're too ready to shoot someone dead. As one family told us in the land of
Breaking Bad
you don't call 911,
you don't know how it's gonna end.
How did the excessive violence culture creep in?
I think it grew by tolerance
and it happens through indifference
Tom Grover left the department three years ago and is now one of its biggest
critics
what happened and was confirming this department now did not happen over the
course of months it happened over the course of years
He says political pressure to crack down on crime led to a rapid
expansion at the force
but many of those who joined should never have become officers
Personnel got hired that had no business being police officers
they contribute to misconduct happening and no one really
are responding or showing that they had any care about this misconduct
Neither the men or the police chief agreed to an interview
but at a press conference shortly after James Boyd's killing
the mayor promised meaningful change. "I've put over 60 reforms into place in my first
four years in office and we know
that has made a positive impact but you know frankly the James Boyd
officer-involved shooting incident really was a game-changer
What we're trying to do: build a monitoring system
build that community trust so people know that we're taking this
not just seriously, but we're taking aggressive action to make meaningful changes.
The rate of crime in albuquerque is twice the national average
with gangs, drugs, robberies, and shootings.
This is the view from a police lapel cam
of just a routine traffic stop in January. The officer is shot four times
and forced to the ground before
firing back. The driver was later caught and charged with attempted murder.
He's entered a plea of not guilty. Candidate for district
attorney and former senior cop Edmund Perea.
describes an emboldened criminal class. "He's more of a brazen criminal
we have criminals who are willing to challenge the police and so it places
the police officers
in a very tough situation and in some cases forces them to
resort to the use of use of deadly force."
And after 9/11 the kind of force police could deploy
changed when they gained access to military hardware
"Even police departments became more concerned with
domestic terrorism and so their focus in training became more
on the terrorism aspect as opposed to
the community interaction, community connection."
Sunrose Drive in suburban Albuquerque looked more like a war zone
the day police killed 27-year-old Christopher Torres
in his back garden. "Tonight the SWAT team and the bomb squad are in Northwest
Albuquerque in a neighborhood where police shot and killed a man"
Stephen and
Rinetta Torres were at work
the day two plainclothes police came to serve a warrant on their son
and instead shot and killed him. "This is where it all happened less than two
minutes
from the time they came to our house to the time bigshot
christopher was less than two minutes
a neighborhood who watched the scene unfold through a hole in the fence
told his family police punched and struggled with him
a court found no evidence the police acted in self-defence
"How it actually escalated to shots being fired
there's no explanation. The officer who shot him said that Christopher was
struggling so he shot him the first time
he continued to struggle so he shot in the second time
even after the second shot he was still struggling probably to free himself from
this officer sitting on top of them
and the officer who shot him said he shot in the third time
he didn't struggle anymore." And how close was the officer when he fired those shots?
There were actually
marks from the barrel of the gun on his back
I mean, the gun was pressed right against his back
"Here you can see the bomb squad is set up on the scene police are giving no
explanation as to why"
In truth the police operation intensified
with flash grenades and SWAT teams on neighbors roofs
well after Christopher was already dead. "They had the
armored car here! What do you need an armored car for? police helicopter
it was an amazing show of force for something that already
happened and was over and done with" "so what you conclude
is that I think they probably understood they probably made a really big
error and they were trying to make it look like something so much more than
what they had been a yet
and that's what they're getting yes the police never faced criminal charges but
a district court judge found the two detectives
unnecessarily escalated the situation with their own
aggression he awarded the family six million dollars in compensation
but the city is currently challenging that the justice department is insisting
on fundamental change
more training new guidelines on when force is appropriate
and it or the unit said to the hillside to deal with James Boyd
disbanded but retired police officer Sam costar lows warns have a subculture
fiercely resistant to change
He's still dealing himself with the guilt of standing by
as fellow officers resorted to violence. "The fact that I
didn't do any this stuff but I witnessed it all the time
and I didn't have the guts to come forward. So me thinking I was a good
police officer is no better in than the rest of them.
I was just as guilty they were. In fact I was asked this morning
is there such thing as a person going in to be a good cop
I said once you're in you're not a good cop any more
What happens next in Albuquerque is of national importance
but in a place where policing is militarized
mental illness can make you a target, traffic stops become shoot-outs,
the wrong people become cops, and violence hides behind a culture of
silence
The challenges are immense.