By: Justin Allen, Albuquerque Community Organizer

This past February, I witnessed firsthand how my city tries to silence people who dare stand up for our unhoused neighbors. I was documenting how the City of Albuquerque’s Solid Waste Department was harassing unhoused people when they retaliated against me for asserting my right to free speech. That's why I’m suing the City of Albuquerque, not only to protect my rights but for everyone who has demanded accountability and justice from our city under the watch of Mayor Tim Keller and Albuquerque Police Department (APD) Chief Harold Medina. 

On that day, I was filming the Solid Waste Department as they began illegally forcing people to leave the sidewalk, despite the court injunction that protected the unhoused from being displaced. In response, a solid waste worker took my license plate number, and without my consent, another worker shared my home address with the unhoused people to scare me into silence.  

This was not an isolated incident—this is part of a broader system of harassment designed to intimidate anyone who stands up against government violence, displacement, and the criminalization of poverty. 

This is part of a broader system of harassment designed to intimidate anyone who stands up against government violence.

This incident is not just about me. Our tax dollars are being used by the city to target unhoused people and those who document and resist the city’s attempts to push our unhoused neighbors further into the margins. When I tried to file a complaint with the city through 311, I couldn’t believe how they handled it. Someone claiming to be with the city called me back. She refused to address my concerns, talked over me, attempted to discredit my knowledge of the injunction, and ultimately hung up on me. This is how the city treats people who speak up. 

We should all be outraged that our taxpayer dollars are funding this kind of behavior. Instead of addressing the housing crisis and protecting people, the City of Albuquerque is using public servants and militarized police to terrorize its own residents. It’s unethical and it's also illegal. 

I am calling on the community to stand together, to be outraged, and to demand better from our city. We cannot allow the City of Albuquerque or APD to bully us into silence. This lawsuit is one step in a larger fight to ensure our rights are protected, our voices heard, and our communities safe. Only by holding the city accountable can we begin to dismantle the systems that prioritize city-sanctioned violence and displacement over the well-being and dignity of our most vulnerable.

By: Allie Lopez, ACLU of New Mexico Policy Intern 

Allie Lopez was born and raised in New Mexico. She graduated from V. Sue Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho and is a student at Yale. She has been very involved in community organizing in Connecticut and coordinated actions advocating for a child tax credit, criminal justice reform, and improved community-university relations. She is interested in pursuing a career in immigration law. 

This spring semester I was arrested on Yale campus in connection with student protests for a Free Palestine. This summer, I had the pleasure of speaking with New Mexico activists engaged in similar actions.  

These student activists have a right to peacefully protest, speak, and express their opinions, yet they faced continual harassment at the hands of university and local law enforcement. In reflecting on their experiences, the activists believe the University of New Mexico (UNM) administration had no real intention of negotiating with them, though there is historical precedent for university action in the face of international crisis. Instead, activists say, the UNM administration attempted to weaken protestor camaraderie and undermine organizing efficacy by authorizing New Mexico State Police in riot gear to enter campus to arrest the assembled students and community members en masse.

The UNM Palestine Solidarity Encampment occupied the UNM Duck Pond for 24 days, during which time a near-constant police presence was maintained. Some protestors reported that police stripped them of soft sleeping materials, backpacks, and tents, items that were identified as abandoned property and not returned. 

They also reported that the university administration ignored any protestor’s attempts at open dialogue until after the student union building’s occupation, instead authorizing the installation of a new surveillance system at the duck pond. The occupation was met with excessive force as officers lashed out physically at protestors, overturning furniture and accosting those who had complied with dispersal orders gathered outside the building. 

Similarly, at New Mexico State University, protestors decided to occupy the Hadley Hall administration building after president Mónica Torres refused to accept a written request for open dialogue. Activists both inside and outside of the building were arrested by local law enforcement and state police officers alike. Several activists were reported to have been seriously injured in the altercation. 

Efforts to disorganize and disband public protest have not been, and will never be, successful.

As student protestors have attempted to open dialogues within their universities, they have been met with unwilling administrators and police officers in riot gear. These campuses, which have long been spaces for community building, have become increasingly hostile toward the students and community members they serve. Rather than criminalizing student protests, university administration should be open to constructive dialogue. 

Encampments for Palestinian liberation were preceded by months-long letter-writing campaigns, petitioning, and numerous calls to action which went unanswered by university leadership. Peaceful assemblages of concerned university affiliates were meant to call attention to the need for disclosure of university investments and divestment from Israel. 

The right to protest is a pillar of American democracy, which we as a state recognize so much so that protections in place for New Mexico protestors extend beyond those contained in the First Amendment. Yet, our state-funded universities have refused to exercise restraint when responding to forms of speech and expression with which they do not agree. 

As students have moved back onto college campuses, we aim not to resurrect the encampments but to reignite the sense of community built within them. It is only by relying on coalition that we can continue. Time and again, we have learned that we cannot rely on compliant institutions to protect us while expressing our views. 

Efforts to disorganize and disband public protest have not been, and will never be, successful. Though the encampments have been dismantled and disbanded, the community built there has been struggling forward still.