Some people will read the following and dismiss it as small town politics. I see it as a tale of

using police to intimidate citizens. Note the mayor took this police tape and gave a transcript to the paper’s major advertizer — he

could only have wanted them to stop advertizing, in hopes of damaging the paper financially. So much for a free press.

Sure, this

mayor is a pissant and the cop a willing stooge, but this is a story being played out all across the New and Improved AmeriCo, where the

police are merely the security guards for those with power. mjh

ABQjournal: Publisher: Taping, Report Payback
By Martin Salazar

Journal Northern Bureau

Wood was never brought in for questioning over the comments that she says

were made in jest. And the Colfax County District Attorney’s Office in Raton declined to pursue any charges against Wood after reviewing

the information, said Bill Kitts, chief of the Angel Fire Police Department.

"I think they were taping me to harass

me," Wood said in an interview Thursday.

Kitts denies the taping was politically motivated.

This

isn’t the first time the village government has been accused of retaliation.

Earlier this year, the village severed

ties with the local Chamber of Commerce in part because the chamber refused to sign a contract that would have banned it and

anyone associated with it from criticizing the village or its officials.

The latest incident occurred Sept. 22.

Marcia Wood had gone to Village Hall that afternoon in hopes of getting information for a story the paper was working on. Wood claims

Village Administrator John Pape told her he would never talk to her. Wood then went to see Mayor A.L. "Bubba" Clanton. She said

she complained that the village had been stonewalling the paper for months, and at some point told the mayor, "Bull(expletive),

Bubba." The mayor called for an officer, and officer Christina Roth showed up. The Sept. 23 report, which describes

the office visit and the recording later that night, says Wood called the mayor a liar and was escorted out. …

The report does not say why the conversation was being recorded. … Kitts said the two weren’t told they

were being recorded, and under state law, there was no obligation to do so. …

Wood said a few

days later she got a call from a friend telling her about rumors concerning the conversation. She said she later learned

that the mayor had given the report to an Angel Fire Resort employee and had instructed the employee to give it to the company’s

chief executive officer. The resort is the paper’s major advertiser, she added.

Wood said she

got a copy of the report from the resort CEO.