Evoking Española
Mike Smith
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Tucumcari, apparently, isn’t the only town in New Mexico in which it’s often interesting to be involved in law enforcement.
Española, and its surrounding northern New Mexico communities, sees some pretty bizarre criminal activity as well, as evidenced by the police blotters in the Rio Grande Sun.
Here are some excerpts from the May 22, 2008 edition:
Española Police officers, Rio Arriba Sheriff's deputies and Ohkay Owingeh Tribal Police responded to the following calls:
Monday, May 5
• 7:57 a.m. — A State Road 76 caller said a woman who had bitten her the other day came to her yard and threatened to kill her. The caller said she was going to be busy for the next few days and would call back when she was ready to make a report.
• 11:45 a.m. — A Calle del Alamo caller said her mother, who is on probation, took her tax rebate check and was refusing to give it to her. When dispatchers called back for more information, the woman said she was already at Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court reporting the incident.
• 6:25 p.m. — A Fast Bucks employee said a man called and asked her on a date, and she didn't know how to handle it. An Española Police officer called the man and "spoke with him personally," advising him not to call back.Tuesday, May 6
• 2:20 p.m. — The manager of Santa Clara Apartments said her tenant's music was too loud, but she couldn't tell her to turn it down because the tenant had a restraining order against her. Police assisted.
• 6:33 p.m. — A woman said two men in a black car, who were parked in Lowe's Home Improvement store's lot, were yelling at the customers as they went into the store. She called again to say they had already left.
• 6:41 p.m. — A Pacheco Lane caller said a man came to her house and insisted on shampooing her carpet. She said she thought it was a little odd, and requested police patrol the area.
• 11:41 p.m. — A Carr Lane caller said a woman was taking her pants off at the end of the cul-de-sac. Police couldn't find her.Wednesday, May 7
• 12:52 a.m. — A Las Lomas Apartments caller said there was a large party with adults and juveniles running up and down the stairs, and someone was hiding in the dumpster. No report was taken.
• 3:28 a.m. — A Calle Vigil caller said some men were helping her move into her house, but she didn't know their real names. Also, the front door was slamming and the dogs were barking. When police arrived, she said she didn't want to make a report.
• 6:12 a.m. — A Jemez View Street caller said a man and a woman were wandering around her house. Police couldn't find them.
• 5:10 p.m. — The same Calle Vigil caller with the anonymous movers complained she was being harassed by a man inside her yard who had been arguing with her since the previous day. She called again, and said she didn't need an officer.Friday, May 9
• 7:30 p.m. — A Sesame Street caller said her neighbor was lighting the fence on fire. Deputies assisted.
• 8:22 p.m. — A caller said a bear was in a 3.5 foot tall tree near the Rio Chama Chevron. A state Game and Fish Department officer had deputies tell people to leave the bear alone and it would come down on its own and leave the area.
• 9:54 p.m. — A west side Blake's Lotaburger employee said a man was in the men's bathroom shooting up and a woman was in the women's bathroom shooting up. Police couldn't locate anyone shooting up.Saturday, May 10
• 1:52 p.m. — A Zuni Lane caller said his neighbor threw a bottle and rocks at him. When police took the man to be detoxed, he tried to break the patrol car window with his head and was stunned with a Taser.
• 11:57 p.m. — A Giant Gas Station employee said a man had been inside the bathroom for the past 30 minutes and was giving her a hard time. He was stunned with a Taser before being detoxed.
It is just fascinating how these various incidents coalesce to form a picture of the Española area that is as distinctive and unmistakable, as the incidents in the Tucumcari area are of that town.
Read Tucumcari’s police blotter, and you will get a good idea of life in that town, of the feel of that place, and you will not go away feeling that you’ve just read about Española. Read Española’s police blotter, and the picture that emerges from its details could only be of one place: Española.
It’s amazing, really. What is it about these scattered, kaleidoscopic accounts that so perfectly depicts their settings? The above details so perfectly evoke the feel of, say—wandering among idling low riders through a lamp-lit Wal-Mart parking lot, to a graffiti-carved bathroom stall, at 3 a.m., in the summer, in Española—that the feeling could not have been better realized had this been a lyrical essay about that or a similar experience.
The local Chamber of Commerce might not care to agree, but with its random strangers wandering into local homes, its evidently-not-so-urgent biting attacks, its restraining orders, and its tasings and detoxings, we have received a real image of a real place, a place that comes to mind so clearly that the experience seems almost magical.
Mystrangenewmexico.com will soon feature a recurring collection of the strangest happenings from the state’s police blotters, a sort of "MyStrange New Mexico Police Blotter," but let's hope with a catchier name than that. If you know of a police or sheriff’s blotter that ought to be included in this feature, please post about it here as a comment, or consider sending us an e-mail. Thanks!
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