new mexico – Schoder Media

Only in New Mexico…well not totally

By Marc Schoder

In the end of 2013, a traffic stop made by the New Mexico State Police (NMSP) not only went viral; but was state and national headlines.

The stop of the minivan with Tennessee plates, was a little more than they bargain for.

However, as NMSP and everyone on the Internet found; normal didn’t come up in this situation. The video, which has long since gone viral; is the original dash camera footage from the state police. in the video you find the traffic stop starts as you would expect, but then the tides turn.

The female driver of the vehicle was asked to get out of car, she wasn’t happy about it; and officers knew it.

According to media accounts, the stop was about…you guessed it, speeding.

The officers and the female attempt to scuffle (the first time) and the driver gets back into the car and drives off.

They end up stopping her again, this time her older son gets in the mix. The end result being officers trying to gain access to the vehicle, but one decided to take out his sidearm and fire at the vehicle…full of young children.

Ok, time to pause.

Since one of the officers on scene did discharge his weapon, Did NMSP have to go on offense in order to regain public perception in the departments favor? The answer you will come to find is a yes.

It is plain and simple, police officers firing on a vehicle with kids inside. It goes back to how the public preceves the entire incident and how the department is looked at on a national stage.

The end result of the entire incident was the officer in question was fired.

It was later found the woman had a warrent.

A talk with a potential presidential candidate

As we all learned April 21 former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson was going to take a whack at getting into the little White House on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The former two-term New Mexico governor, who was serving as the Honorary Chairman of the Our America Initiative told freelance reporter Marc Schoder in February, which he had no intentions at the White House.

“Well, as part of my 501 c 4, which is Our America’s Initiative, I can’t talk about running for office, “said the former governor.

Johnson added that as a part of his legal status with the organization, He was at that time able to talk about the issues of the day and raise money; but not talk about running for political office.

“I’m sorry about the cop-out, but that is just my legal status and I don’t want to get into trouble,” he said.

The current presidential candidate has been an outspoken advocate for government that was efficient, lower taxes and several other topics.

When I conducted the interview in February, did I think he was going to make a run; absolutely.

In the almost one-half hour interview, we spoke on a wide variety of topics ranging from his seven principals of government to the nickname that he received according to him after he left office.

The veto-vato as he became affectionately known to most in government and New Mexicans vetoed over 750 bills which according to Johnson’s biography on his website http://www.garyjohnson2012.com was equal to all of the combined vetoes of all of the other 49 governor’s.

During the conversation with the former New Mexico governor, he chuckled at recalling that nickname.

Johnson, who is an avid skier, was on his way back to New Mexico from the Carolinas.

On May 2, via his Facebook page; when most wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden was caught and killed by Navy Seals, Johnson issued a statement commending the military forces and the intelligence community in obtaining a measure of justice for all those who lost loved ones on 9/11 and for the nation as a whole.

“Terrorism did not die yesterday, but it suffered a serious blow – and a strong message was sent,” he said.

Oh Susana! Wont you fix the state budget for me?

At the stroke of midnight on Dec 31st, Susana Martinez became the first woman governor of New Mexico as well as the first Hispanic governor.

This left now Former Governor Bill Richardson to ride off into the New Mexico sunset with now Gov. Martinez to get down to business.

As her first official act was to make state government more transparent.

With that out of the way, comes the next biggest question. How will our new Governor solve the state’s budget crisis. Since the legislative session is due to start later this month, Martinez; according to many published reports is looking to make that one of her top priorities.

State residents need to ask themselves, can she fix it or are taxes going to rise; so that she can fix it. Another question that needs to be raised, with unemployment in the state as of November standing at 8.4 percent; how will Martinez attract companies to New Mexico? Most companies look for a strong educated workforce, will she put more money into higher education, we will figure that out between now and when the legislative session starts.

One last thing that you have to take a look at is will Gov. Martinez continue the film industry tax credits for movies that are made here? Many sources do say, especially in the industry that it has been proven to create jobs.

Photo courtesy of Gov. Martinez state Website