American Studies Chair David Correia is calling for a community-led investigation of the University of New Mexico Police Department “with a focus on finding alternatives to armed police on UNM’s campus,” per a letter Correia sent to UNM President Garnett Stokes on Friday.
The letter was written in part as a response to UNMPD officer Eric Peer, who recently returned to work after two weeks of paid leave following an investigation for a racist TikTok video that featured a “scanning for Mexicans” South Park voice over.
University spokesperson Cinnamon Blair said disciplinary action has been taken but wouldn’t say what that disciplinary action was. The Daily Lobo has filed a records request in an attempt to learn the nature of the sanctions levied on Peer.
When the investigation into Peer’s conduct began on Sept. 4, Stokes wrote on Twitter that the University and campus police department “stand against racism and social injustice,” which Correia disputed.
“I find your claim that police stand against racism and social injustice to lack any empirical basis,” Correia wrote. “And I find your recent statements and actions related to policing on the UNM campus, the lack of transparency in the investigation of the officer and your depiction of UNM police misconduct as a result of individual officer decisions or actions rather than institutional in nature, alarming.”
Correia — who has long been a researcher of policing and has most recently written about the Albuquerque Police Department under AbolishAPD, a group of activists and community members advocating for police abolition — pointed out that no details about the investigation, such as who led it or its conclusions, have been released.
The racist TikTok video incident comes three months after Stokes was criticized for allowing two New Mexico State Police officers armed with sniper rifles to monitor a Black Lives Matter protest from the rooftop of a campus building, as the Daily Lobo previously reported. Albuquerque police officers were also seen on campus that day near Popejoy Hall.
In an interview with the Daily Lobo at the time, Stokes doubled down, defending the presence of police and stating, “As a University, we will continue to work with the city and sheriff’s department and the state police. Those cooperative relationships are very important for the safety of the University and its surrounding community.”
Several UNM students spoke out at the time, including Suha Musa, who is a Black student and president pro tempore of the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico.
“We see pictures of the people we’re protesting against on our rooftops, in our performance halls,” Musa said. “How can we feel safe on a campus that feels like it’s actively against us?”
In his letter to Stokes, Correia echoed Musa’s sentiment, writing, “As a chairperson, I have heard my students and faculty describe patterns of racial profiling and aggressive, violent policing of unsheltered folks on our campus.”
Given this context, Correia is calling for an investigation of UNMPD led by a committee of students, staff and faculty convened not by the administration but by student government, faculty and staff unions and faculty governance leaders.
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“This committee must have the authority to investigate UNMPD, and to investigate alternatives to the practice of sending onto our campus armed employees of the University of New Mexico with the legal discretion to use violence or the threat of violence,” Correia wrote. “UNM administration must commit to implement the recommendations of this committee, no matter what they might be.”
Correia said that until this investigation takes place and “UNM administration takes the problems of policing on our campus seriously,” he can “only conclude campus safety is not a priority of UNM administration.”
Blair said she wasn’t aware of Correia’s letter as of 12:45 p.m. on Saturday but would prepare a comment later.
Bella Davis is a senior reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @bladvs
