Las Cruces police chief addresses policing of weekend protests

LAS CRUCES — “There were children at this event. There were children with guns pointed at them for three hours,” Dylan Davis told the Las Cruces City Council Monday during a regularly scheduled meeting. “What happened Friday was nothing more than a show of force meant to send a message there was no intent to protect us.”

For more than an hour, residents denounced the presence of SWAT sharpshooters during a Friday evening protest that preceded the larger and highly publicized “No Kings” demonstration over the weekend.

The comments underscored a marked difference in the police presence at two peaceful demonstrations, held less than a day apart at the same location.

Albert Johnson Park at the corner of Picacho Avenue and Main Street sits at a prominent intersection near state district court, City Hall, the public library’s main branch and numerous businesses.

Saturday’s “No Kings” demonstration protesting the Trump administration drew over 2,000 people to the park, with police presence limited mostly to bicycle officers who roamed the park and interacted with participants, even responding to a participant who fell, while a few other officers stuck close to City Hall.

A smaller protest took place Friday evening, when approximately 200 gathered to denounce mass deportation and the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency. At this event, no uniformed officers were present in the park, but demonstrators observed a SWAT officer briefly take up a position with a rifle on the roof of the fire station just across the street. Minutes after the sharpshooter abandoned that position, one was observed on the roof of Las Cruces Police Department headquarters, also across the street, and another on the balcony over the entrance to Branigan Memorial Library adjacent to the park.

The appearance of long guns pointed in the direction of demonstrators provoked discomfort and anger among participants. Some said it was ironic, as well.

“Friday’s actions were a peaceful celebration of community and recognizing the terror that armed, uniformed agents of the state create across the country,” Lucas Herndon, one of the participants, told the Journal. “LCPD just proved our point.”

Davis told the councilors that when demonstrators asked one of the sharpshooters what he was doing there, he swore at them and told them to go away. Some speakers said they felt unsafe and left the demonstration. Others questioned why police made no effort to communicate with them, especially with headquarters just a few hundred feet away.

Addressing the council, LCPD Chief Jeremy Story said the armed presence Friday was in response to social media messages conveying threats against weekend demonstrations and that the officers were dispatched to protect their safety.

“The comments that were made online were directed potentially to Saturday, but for us to make that assumption, that Friday was free and clear, I think would have been foolish,” he said.

As to communications, Story said Indivisible Las Cruces, the organizers of Saturday’s demonstration, had obtained a permit and established a point of contact for police.

“A permit’s not required, obviously, to exercise your First Amendment rights, but when a permit is pulled we have a specific organizer, we make contact, we work out a lot of stuff ahead of time,” Story said.

City councilor Johana Bencomo, who had issued a statement over the weekend saying the presence of sharpshooters Friday night “crossed a line,” called for the city and LCPD to work out a new protocol for safeguarding protests.

In the aftermath of the mass shooting in Young Park last March, Story said some in the community had criticized police for not preventing the violence and said officers were in a “Catch-22 situation,” yet he acknowledged that the visibility of the rifles had contributed to unease.

“Our goal is to be there to prevent violence so that people can exercise their First Amendment rights, which is part of the foundation of our country and who we are,” Story said.