Skip to content

Oñate Protest, Shooting, and Albuquerque’s Response

June 19, 2020
Composite of colonial statues, and crime scene tape in front.

June 19, 2020 – This week began with the announcement by Tim Keller that he planned to create a new public safety agency—the Community Safety Department—to provide a non-police response to some 911 calls. That move was quickly overshadowed when what started as a peaceful, prayerful protest of a statue of conquistador Don Juan de…

Read More

Albuquerque’s Oñate Protests, Special Session, Mark Kennedy Shriver

June 18, 2020
A person sits in the middle of a street as cops in riot gear, batons, and on horseback approach them.

Protests this week centered on a statue of Juan de Oñate in Albuquerque. The conquistador’s violent role in New Mexican history has been controversial since his own times, and protestors tried to yank down his likeness as a self-appointed group of armed guards riled the crowd. As he was chased from the scene after apparently…

Read More