City councilor blasts Albuquerque police conversation caught on lapel camera

At least one Albuquerque City Council member decried a recently publicized conversation between officers — where they refer to Native Americans as “savages” and espouse violence — during Monday night’s meeting.

Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn said the April 11 discussion, captured on a lapel camera and reported Sunday by the Journal, caught “some pretty horrific comments.”

She said Albuquerque Police Department Chief Harold Medina gave her “a clear understanding” that APD doesn’t support the comments and they would investigate which officers said what “and take appropriate action.”

Fiebelkorn then brought up “interesting comments” given to the Journal by APD union President Shaun Willoughby.

“One of the quotes was that ‘they were saying inappropriate stuff like a lot of us do with our friends and family when we’re not in public. ... They’re no different than anybody else,’” she said, parroting Willoughby. “Is that the position of APD?”

APD Deputy Chief Josh Brown, who was at the council meeting, responded, “It’s not.”

Brown then issued an apology to the Native American community and Albuquerque residents in general.

“Some of those comments that you see, they’re not acceptable,” he said.

Brown then referenced “disparaging remarks” from another part of the conversation, during which the officers appeared to criticize new APD recruits as being too soft and “super-sensitive.”

“If you look, those are the officers that are — that reflection in our culture change, the broader understanding and empathy that those officers see,” Brown told Fiebelkorn, referring to the new cadets coming through APD’s academy.

Fiebelkorn said, of Willoughby’s comments about what people say behind closed doors, “I don’t know if that’s what Mr. Willoughby does, but that is not what I do and that is not what the people of Albuquerque do.”

“And it says a lot about how we, as a city, are going to treat folks when we’re in the field — being called out to help someone — if we think of them as lesser than or ‘savages’ or any of the other horrible things that were said,” she said. “The idea that that’s just how people in Albuquerque behave is not true, and I think Mr. Willoughby should know that before saying something like that in public again.”

Willoughby, on Tuesday, told the Journal the councilor took his comments “out of context” and pointed out that he also said the officers were embarrassed and their comments were made “in jest.”

“My point was not that I close the door to my house and become a racist talker, but I think it is disingenuous and it is an unrealistic expectation to expect people to always behave as if they are in the public eye, all the time,” he said.

Willoughby said the officers on the recording were “absolutely not” bad apples within the department.

“When people are around their family and friends, they probably say things that are less desirable and less politically correct, and I’m sure (Fiebelkorn) is guilty of it as well when she’s not on the dais and she’s around a group of trusted friends,” he said. “The point was that these are people, they are human beings, they made a mistake, they didn’t know they were being recorded. This stuff happens. They are people. They are not robots.”