The View from the West Mesa

N ew Mexi cans were ordered to stay in their homes except for essential business. Curbside deliveries were not authorized exceptions. So the Governor's handlers are obfuscating and well, lying like politician's handlers do. We're told, that nothing in violation of an order occurred to get the governor some shiny object which she had time to shop for while buckling down to manage your staying put. The official story. The governor was web surfing over at Barrack's and spotted a bauble she wanted. So the governor "goes online" to order the bauble and arranges for two people to arrange a drop off and pick up at a residential address. Here's the problem. -picking up a jewelry order for the governor cannot in any sense be construed as conducting essential personal business. Whoever did that, violated the Executive Order. -they violated the Executive Order at the direction of the governor. -online orders are delivered by mail, FedEx, or UPS. They are not deliv...

It is a tragedy whenever a human dies. It is particularly distressing when their deaths are needless. The death of Mr. Floyd in Minneapolis was not acceptable. It may be that racism was involved, but regardless of whether it was or not, his death illustrates a number of issues with the ways in which police officers are trained, socialized, and protected not only by other police officers but by our legal system. Police officers live among violence or potential violence all the time. They are trained to control a situation and other people, to protect themselves first, and their buddies. This is all run of the mill and reasonable police training. No one is going to say that a police officer's first job isn't to go home at the end of their shift. Even so, police officers are human beings with a lot of authority and a lot of legal protections for almost anything they do. It is important then that we expect police officers to do their jobs with respect for the dignity of the people ...