The Dark Ages in El Paso

Are you interested in a great job in El Paso?

Get on with the City.

In the old days, a job in government meant you made a little bit less money than your peers in the private sector, but you didn’t have to work hard, and the job security was great.

Nowadays, you don’t have to work hard, the job security is great, and you make more money than your peers in the private sector.

Plus, pensions. Even the workers at Raytheon only get a 401(k), i.e., tax deferrals for retirement savings accounts. But City employees get a pension and a pretty early retirement.

And the perks for working at the City are outstanding.

You can kill people without consequence.

Lookie here. From KVIA:

A 73-year-old man died in the hospital of his injuries just one day after being struck by a city-owned vehicle in the Lower Valley, authorities said on Monday.

Miguel Pantoja Carrillo’s death on Friday was the 55th traffic fatality of the year in El Paso; it was also the ninth pedestrian accident in just over a month and was the third in a week.

Investigators said Carrillo was crossing Alameda Avenue at Harris Street in the crosswalk with a green light when he was struck by a City of El Paso Environmental Services pickup truck around 10:30 a.m. last Thursday.

Authorities on Friday had said the city employee driving the pickup, 29-year-old Jaime Jacquez, was making a turn at the time of the accident and “failed to yield the right of way to the pedestrian at the crosswalk.”

However, police did not indicate they had issued any citations in the incident and said it remained under investigation. To date, there have been no announcements of any charges filed against drivers striking pedestrians — despite a flurry of incidents over the past month or so.

See? Not even an “Oops. My bad.”

You think that’s a one off?

From the El Paso Times:

An El Paso police officer is back on regular duty after being acquitted of manslaughter in a controversial on-duty shooting.

A jury last month found Officer Mando Kenneth Gomez not guilty on a manslaughter charge in the fatal shooting of  22-year-old Erik Emmanuel Salas Sanchez in 2015.

Gomez was acquitted Oct. 17 in 120th District Court. The trial was the second, following a mistrial in February when a prosecutor had a medical emergency.

Gomez is back on regular duty after being acquitted, Sgt, Enrique Carrillo, a spokesman for the Police Department, said this week.

. . .

“Officer Gomez is a fine officer who has been often decorated during his career,” [Gomez’s lawyer Jim] Darnell said. “The circumstances made his actions necessary to protect himself and other officers from attack. Even though he acted in self-defense, he and his family feel terrible for the Salas-Sanchez family’s loss.”

. . .

Salas was shot inside his family’s Lower Valley home on Jesuit Drive on April 29, 2015.

The shooting occurred during what police described as a home burglary call but what the Salas’ family countered was a police overreaction to a mental health episode.

In 2015, the El Paso Police Department visited Erik Emmanuel Salas Sanchez in his home. The police had already determined that Mr. Salas Sanchez wasn’t a suspect in a reported burglary when Mr. Salas Sanchez told them to leave his house. The cops wouldn’t leave, and Mr. Salas Sanchez got upset.

At that point, the cops were trespassing, in my non-binding, I’m-not-a-lawyer, opinion.

As I recall, the officers tried to tase him, but the taser didn’t take, so they shot him.

He died a few days later at a local hospital.

The headline could have read “El Paso Man Dies in Home Invasion.”

If any of you interpret this case differently, please feel free to leave your opinion in the comments.

At least this time the case went to trial. Remember Daniel Saenz, the handcuffed prisoner who was shot by El Paso Police Officer Jose Flores in the sallyport of the El Paso County Jail?

Our illustrious D.A. didn’t even get an indictment in that case.

You think the District Attorney’s office tried their hardest to get a conviction in the shooting of Erik Emmanuel Salas Sanchez?

The citizens of El Paso are just vassals to our ruling class, some of whom are City employees.