近距离内射合集

LAS CRUCES 鈥� At an evening work session this week, the Las Cruces City Council held a community discussion on youth outreach, gun violence and justice that encompassed policy, institutional failures and a community鈥檚 shared pain.

The city has reeled over the last couple of years over high-profile incidents of gun trafficking and shootings among teenagers, some in the city鈥檚 streets and parks.

The council heard from social workers, defense attorneys, Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent Ignacio Ruiz, police and prosecutors as well as residents, including a mother whose child was fatally shot by another child in their home.

The meeting agenda itself reflected stark differences in the lives of Las Cruces鈥� children: The first item contemplated a proposal for a 14-member youth council that would educate its members in municipal government and leadership skills, cultivating a younger generation of leadership. The second was a discussion of gun violence and crisis intervention for Las Cruces families navigating poverty, crime and day-to-day violence.

Councilor Becky Corran said a youth council might replicate opportunities for 鈥渟uper-engaged students that are participating in things鈥� while there was an urgent need to engage 鈥測outh who are on the margins of everything.鈥�

鈥淲e really have to turn the page about how we talk about young people,鈥� Councilor Johana Bencomo said, calling for a better understanding of what draws some young people away from school and toward drugs, violence and firearms. She also warned against stigmatizing youth deemed 鈥渁t risk.鈥�  

The city has allocated $100,000 to seed a new program addressing gun violence and crisis intervention. The discussion showed a diversity of views on what a serious approach would look like and how success would be measured. The council appeared to support a request for proposals for an outside entity with expertise to build the program. Most speakers agreed the eventual investment would cost much more.

District Attorney Fernando Macias, a former district judge, said it would not cost much to bring together the entities working with children in the community to develop a strategic plan, but when it came to execution, he said, 鈥淵ou have to be willing to spend millions.鈥�

Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story presented statistics portraying a recent escalation in violent crime involving young residents. From 2014 to 2019, he said, there were no murder or manslaughter cases against juvenile defendants; since 2020, there have been 18.

Annual juvenile weapon offenses leaped from 29 in 2019 to a peak of 50 in both 2022 and 2023, with 24 cases so far in 2026, Story said. Drive-by shootings in Las Cruces, in which a person or structure was hit by gunfire, also climbed drastically, from 13 in 2017 to 95 in 2024. As of Monday, Story said there were 52 cases in 2026.

Elizabeth Bennett, a professor of social work at New Mexico State University, advocated for a public health approach to the problem, citing research findings that therapeutic and counseling approaches are more effective at reducing crime than penalty-centered systems that statistics show are ineffective or even counter-productive.

鈥淭he more likely that young people are detained, the more likely they are to re-offend,鈥� she said.

Attorney and policy advocate Denali Wilson of the non-profit (De)Serving Life works with people convicted of crimes committed when they were children. She advocated the council use the initial investment to design a gun diversion program.

鈥淭he biggest drivers of violence are exposure to violence and trauma, and until we have systems that address those root causes, we will not have meaningful safety in our communities,鈥� Wilson said.

Other voices, while supporting prevention in principle, said the city needed more decisive action to deter crime.

Janel Carnero, whose 13-year-old son, Chris, died in March after being shot in the back in the head by another 13-year-old boy, decried failures in New Mexico鈥檚 child welfare and justice systems.

In August, the shooter, unidentified because he is a minor, . Records from that facility showed that the shooter was praised by friends and family members for what he did, Carnero said, setting him up to be released with a clean record and ample encouragement to follow the same lifestyle.

鈥淭he state coddles violent criminals because of their age,鈥� Carnero said. 鈥淭he system operates on the deadly and naive assumption that 13-year-olds are incapable of pure evil.鈥�

Story conceded that 鈥減urely punitive programs tend to have no effect or even slightly increase crime,鈥� but also said institutions with high-quality programming and support have been successful at turning lives in a different direction.

A volunteer with the local nonprofit Somos o No Somos, which helps people transition from incarceration, addiction or homelessness, identified himself as Eric. He said he had been incarcerated himself as a minor and that the juvenile system 鈥渄oesn't teach you anything but more violence.鈥�

A gun diversion program and opportunities to make new choices, he said, would save lives, as opposed to teaching people how to survive within a revolving-door carceral system.

鈥淭he longer someone stays in that cycle, the harder it becomes to imagine a different life,鈥� he said.

Algernon 顿鈥橝尘尘补蝉蝉补 is the Journal鈥檚 southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.