ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO: APD Has Had Many Bad Run-Ins By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

APD arrested 517 people for “refusing to obey” charges in 2007, according to a recent Journal investigation. Seventy percent of the cases were thrown out.
        Local defense attorneys derisively call the refusing to obey charge “contempt of cop” and claim APD routinely violates residents’ first amendment rights.
        Police Chief Ray Schultz says some encounters could have been avoided if officers had explained their actions.
        Schultz has said he is looking into customer service training for his department.

ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO: APD Has Had Many Bad Run-Ins

PS: The Journal pats itself on the back today of its new UpFront series (camelcase — that must have given the editors fits), which gives extra prominence to some old standbys. Kudos for including a couple of women. Perhaps Version 2.0 will feature someone under 40, black, Native American, or more than one native New Mexican. It is interesting that a feature that runs 7 days a week doesn’t have 7 authors — or 14.

Dan Herrera, Assistant Managing Editor of the Journal writes, “One reader said that UpFront was like a blog in print. Actually, we print people have been doing it quite a bit longer. [mjh: Therefore, we have nothing to learn from the blogosphere.]

“And, unlike most bloggers, our columnists travel the state doing original research, and not in their pajamas.”

Ouch! Hey, Dan, I don’t wear pajamas.

PPS: I mostly enjoyed Leslie Linthicum’s column on the big cheese, regardless of how she dressed while writing it, although her coming back with pictures of boxes that might have been empty or full of guns disappointed me. Will we see Glanbia ads in the paper starting next week? (As occurred with another major advertiser a few years ago after a huge gushing “they’re coming to town!” article appeared on the front page, above the fold.)