SFPD Targets Shoplifters as Crime Rates Remain Steady

SFPD arrests shoplifters as crime remains steady

The Santa Fe Police Department late last week reported four arrests as the result of an undercover operation targeting shoplifters at Target. “Over the last several months, Target, and several other stores have reported a number of concerns in the Zafarano Drive corridor; primarily due [to] shoplifting incidents and other criminal behavior,” SFPD says in a news release. SFPD says its crimes section “will be conducting additional operations in area stores throughout the holiday season” and encourages anyone with information related to any theft incidents to contact the department at (505) 428-3710. The emphasis on shoplifters arrives as new crime statistics for October show increases from September for robbery and larceny, as well as small increases for assaults and sex offenses. The city saw slight decreases for motor vehicle thefts and burglary/breaking and entering (view all of the department’s crime maps here). With the exception of homicides, all types of crimes are higher this year than in 2021, with burglary/breaking and entering showing the greatest increase: approximately 59%, followed by motor vehicle theft at almost 47% and robbery at 42.8%. Police Chief Paul Joye is scheduled to present October’s crime stats at the city’s 4 pm Public Safety Committee tomorrow.

NM Dems elect new leaders

Over the weekend, Majority Floor Leader Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, won the caucus nomination to become the next Speaker of the House, replacing Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, who did not run for re-election. The full House will vote on Martínez’s nomination when the Legislature meets in January; Democrats are expected to hold onto their 45-25 majority following last week’s election. “I want to thank Speaker Egolf for his steady leadership over the past six years,” Martínez said in a statement. “Under his leadership, New Mexico House Democrats have passed some of the most transformative legislation in state history, including key investments in education, infrastructure, public safety, our environment, and more, delivering real results for New Mexicans today, while planting seeds for generational change.” According to a news release, Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque, will take over Martínez’s role as majority floor leader. Democrats also announced Rep. Elect Reena Szczepanski, who won election for the seat Egolf vacated, will be the next majority whip: “Our caucus is diverse and strong,” Szczepanski said in a statement. “I look forward to helping our members advance our shared vision of opportunity and equity for all New Mexicans.” Rep. Raymundo “Ray” Lara, D-Chamberino, was selected as caucus chair. Chasey, Szczepanski and Lara’s new positions don’t require approval by the full House. In a statement, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham congratulated the new leadership, and said she looked forward “to working productively with Speaker Nominee Martínez and other leadership as well as across the Legislature to advance our shared priorities of tackling crime, increasing affordable housing options, and ensuring equitable healthcare access for all New Mexicans.”

Alec Baldwin sues Rust crew for negligence

Following Rust Productions settlement earlier this month of the wrongful death lawsuit over cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ Oct. 21 death, producer and actor Alec Baldwin has now filed a negligence lawsuit against the film’s crew. Deadline reports Baldwin filed the suit on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, naming Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed; first assistant director David Halls; property master Sarah Zachry; and weapons and rounds supplier Seth Kenney and his company as defendants. The suit states that the shooting’s aftermath negatively impacted Baldwin’s career: “Baldwin has…lost numerous job opportunities and associated income,” the suit states. “For example, he’s been fired from multiple jobs expressly because of the incident on Rust and has been passed over for other opportunities, which is a direct result” of the defendants. According to Deadline, Baldwin’s lawsuit comes “just days before the Santa Fe District Attorney is expected to announced her intentions in the fatal shooting.” First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies announced on Oct. 27 her office had received the Rust investigation from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department and would begin a “thorough review of the information and evidence to make a thoughtful, timely decision about whether to bring charges.” SFR filed a public records request with the sheriff’s office on Oct. 27 for that investigative report; the sheriff’s department, under the state Inspection of Public Records Act, requested more time to respond and said it expects “the first document release” to occur on Nov. 18.

COVID-19 by the numbers

Reported Nov. 11: New cases: 891; 634,520 total cases. The state’s most recent epidemiology report on geographical trends shows a 27% increase in the number of cases over the prior seven days compared with the week before. Deaths: two; Santa Fe County has had 363 total deaths; there have been 8,677 fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 156. Patients on ventilators: five.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent Nov. 10 “community levels” map, which uses a combination of hospital and case rate metrics to calculate COVID-19 risk for the prior seven-day period, now categorizes eight New Mexico counties as “red” for COVID-19—with high risk—including Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Taos and Rio Arriba counties, along with Bernalillo, Sandoval, McKinley and San Juan (last week, only McKinley County was red). Seven New Mexico counties are “yellow” and the rest of New Mexico’s counties continue to have “green,” aka low, levels. Corresponding recommendations for each level can be found here.

Resources: CDC interactive booster eligibility tool; NM DOH vaccine & booster registration; CDC isolation and exposure interactive tool; Curative testing sites; COVID-19 treatment info; NMDOH immunocompromised tool kit. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. DOH encourages residents to download the NM Notify app and to report positive COVID-19 home tests on the app.

You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.

Listen up

The artists featured in Fronteras del Futuro: Art in New Mexico and Beyond at the National Hispanic Cultural Center’s art museum explore the intersections of art, science and technology with an eye toward visions of the future—dystopian, idyllic and otherwise. In the most recent episode of the state Department of Cultural Affairs podcast Encounter Culture, host and El Palacio Editor Charlotte Jusinski talks with the exhibition’s curator, Jadira Gurulé, and one of its artists, Augustine “Gus” Romero, about examining science-fiction and futurism through the lens of social justice and “what it means for people of color to interact with the science fiction genre and to finally see themselves in narratives that have long been dominated by white voices.”

Picture this

New Mexico author Zahra Marwan’s 2022 children’s book, Where Butterflies Fill the Sky, ranks among the 10 winners of this year’s New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books award. The picture book, which Marwan wrote and illustrated, depicts her family’s immigration to New Mexico from Kuwait: “From the sun-washed blues and greens of the Kuwaiti seaside, to a doting trio of aunties all dressed in black, to bright balloons floating across the Albuquerque sky, Marwan’s dreamlike artwork grounds her tale in the wistful warmth of memory,” New York Public Library Children’s Librarian Maggie Craig writes. Moving to Albuquerque when she was 7 years old was disorienting, Marwan told SFR in an interview last spring, but with that confusion came the magical realism reflected in her work; writing a picture book built on her established process of pairing images with text. An author’s note in Where Butterflies Fill the Sky discusses the connection for Marwan between her homeland and her adopted home, and her experience attending public school in New Mexico: “I was taught to be proud of my heritage—maybe because so many of my neighbors had strong Indigenous and Hispano roots and had been subject to so much cultural oppression themselves. I lost the ability to live among my family, language and culture because of government rules, but I carry with me a constant sense of home.”

En plein air

Hustle and make tomorrow’s deadline to apply for a one-month artist residency next spring at Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Or plan ahead for one of the other residencies sponsored by the National Park Arts Foundation (such as a forthcoming one at Haleakalā National Park on Maui). Tanya Ortega, an artist and the Santa Fe-based foundation’s president, talks to Hyperallergic magazine about the importance of Chaco Canyon—which exemplifies dual missions of cultural and natural conservation—and her motivation in creating NPAF 10 years ago. She discovered artist Thomas Moran’s 1871 landscape paintings of Yellowstone National Park as a 17-year-old working at the park herself. From there, she began to learn about artists’ longstanding relationships with the National Park Service. She established NPAF, which works with the National Park Service to coordinate artists’ residencies. Ortega herself served as an artist-in-residence at Chaco, which was one of the first sites that came on board with NPAF (the residency includes a $2,000 stipend and housing, but no studio space; artists work en plein air). “We are advocates for artists,” Ortega tells Hyperallergic. “We leave it up to the artist to say what they want to do. Once you start trying to put up boundaries—art doesn’t work like that. Good art takes time.” Regarding Chaco, the Bureau of Land Management is seeking comment and will hold public meetings this week on a recently released environmental assessment study on a proposal to withdraw federal minerals from leasing in a 10-mile buffer around Chaco Canyon.

Cold spell

Looks like a dusting of snow fell overnight, and the National Weather Service forecasts a 40% chance for a teensy bit more this morning before 8 am. After that, the day will become sunny but brisk, with a high temperature near 41 degrees and north wind around 10 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Looks like a cold and sunny week awaits.

Thanks for reading! The Word is obsessively looking at words and phrases first introduced to print 100 years ago (including some of her faves, such as dead metaphor, gestalt and die-hard) via Merriam Webster’s time traveler website.