While the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) recently revealed its success in charging or arresting 70 homicide suspects this year, the cofounders of New Mexico Crusaders for Justice are demanding swifter legal action and stiffer consequences after they have been arrested.
KOB4 News reports that the problem is created when the suspects are given weak sentences and often re-offend after being release from jail.
“I just believe that APD is doing a hell of a job to get these people arrested,”Josette Otero told KOB4 News. “But then they go in front of a judge, they get released on an ankle bracelet. They arrest them. And then here it is, a month later, they’re rearresting for the same charge or worse.”
Otero created the New Mexico Crusaders for Justice with Sally Sanchez after both women lost their sons to gun violence. Otero, who herself has to wait until 2023 for the suspect in her son’s 2020 murder to go trial, said families of homicide victims want justice served in a timely manner.
“It seems like the APD is doing their job,” Otero told KOB4 News. “And then it stops right there.”
Melissa Hernandez lost her son, Joshua, just outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico, in December of 2021.
“I think that people don’t realize that this isn’t just a local issue to Albuquerque; it really is a statewide issue,” she told KOB4 News.
