February 4, 2021
With a vote along party lines, SB 10 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday in what has been the shortest committee hearing on repealing the 1969 abortion ban so far.
The bill now heads to the Senate floor.
Six Democrats on the committee voted yes and the three Republicans voted no. Committee Chair Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, allowed each side 10 minutes for public comment and both the proponents of the bill and the opponents of the bill 10 minutes to give presentations. Cervantes said an email account had been published that allowed additional public comment and those emails had been shared with committee members. Discussion around the bill took about an hour.
New Mexico state senator Linda Lopez introduced leglsiation Monday that includes sweeping police reform.
According to Mapping Police Violence, New Mexico had the highest rate of police killings per one million people between January 2013 and December 2019. Senate Bill 227 would impose stricter restrictions on when officers can use deadly force:
A law enforcement officer shall not use deadly physical force upon another person unless it is used as a last resort, after the officer has exhausted de-escalation tactics and techniques and, based on the totality of the circumstances, such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or serious physical injury to an identifiable person and the amount of force used is proportional to the threat of imminent harm to an identifiable person.
By Robert Nott, Santa Fe New Mexican |
February 2, 2021
A Democratic state lawmaker introduced a bill Monday that calls for sweeping police reforms, in particular restricting officers’ use of physical force and requiring officers to intercede when they witness inappropriate use of force by a colleague.
Senate Bill 227 came less than a day after a Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a man while responding to a fight near an Albuquerque elementary school. The case was still under investigation Monday evening.
Sen. Linda Lopez of Albuquerque, the sponsor of SB 227, said she knew nothing about the incident when she announced the new bill. “It just makes it much more important,” she said.
New Mexico’s Top Prison Official: Ending Practice Of Contracting With Private Firms To Operate Jails Won’t Happen Anytime Soon
By PHAEDRA HAYWOOD
SFNM
New Mexico’s top prison official said the state could eventually end its practice of contracting with private, for-profit firms to operate four of its 11 detention facilities, but the change won’t come anytime soon.
The comments Friday by Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero followed an executive order earlier this week by President Joe Biden, who said the U.S. Department of Justice must end its reliance on private operators for federal prisons.
Tafoya Lucero said she’s not philosophically opposed to the idea of getting rid of privately run prisons but she doesn’t favor the state taking such action now.