ALBUQUERQUE — To raise awareness about the rising incidents of violent juvenile crime and to put pressure on lawmakers to start addressing the issue, several top law enforcement officers on July 15, addressed the situation, including Española City Police Chief Mizel Garcia.
Brought together at the behest of Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, who is running for governor, the officers discussed local cases from across the state, including Española.
“The unique perspective I bring is that I retired from the Albuquerque Police Department after approximately 27 years,” Garcia said. “I’ve been the chief in Española for the last three years now. What I realized, and the unique perspective that I have, is that I know now that violent juvenile crime is not an aberration or an anomaly. It doesn’t only happen in a county like Bernalillo where we have 670,000 people. It doesn’t happen in the city of Las Cruces only, with a population of almost 120,000. It doesn’t happen in a city of Farmington, which has 45,000.”…