29 April 2024, El Paso, Texas, Steven Zimmerman – We are all human and subject to mistakes. In October 2022, several calls for Fire Medical Services (FMS) after a hold was cleared by officers on the scene may have contributed to the death of a subject who was shot in the stomach. 

We shared the following audio in another article written about police failure. Listen to this as you read this article before viewing the attached videos.

You can hear an officer going on air and indicating shots have been fired to clear the air. You further hear that one person has been shot and is down. The man who was shot took a round in the stomach and needed treatment. Because of the call, FMS had to be staged further back until the police had some control of the scene. 

The following video is from the front of one of the responding units. 

As you listened to the radio call, two things stood out. First, a city-wide call for assistance went out on at least two occasions. It is troublesome that the call had to be made a second time.

Then, the calls for FMS change from holding them to bringing them to the scene to attend to a man who was shot. 

This is what I want you to imagine. Picture a member of your family at a bar located at 8500 Dyer. Something happens, and a soldier decides to start trouble and then starts shooting. The crowd then, rather than trying to stay calm and let the police do their job, turns on the officers who are there to help them. All the while, a member of your family is lying between two units, bleeding to death. 

Imagine a member of your family died first and foremost due to a police staffing problem and respect within the Department and because your friends and neighbors don’t give a damn.

We have all had negative experiences with police officers in El Paso. I’ve more than a few, but I do not allow those negative actions to poison my respect for others who wear the badge. Sadly, in El Paso, far too many others will enable that poison to infect them. It needs to stop. 

We all complain about the police, and eventually, someone says, “If I were a cop, I would…” Well, man up and join the force. I would join if I were in better health and not fifty-three years old. We need people who will wear the badge and put citizens first.

Now, our second problem is the disrespect within the Department. 

When officers, such as the Public Information Officer, Sergeant Robert Gomez, say that they prize transparency and cannot follow orders, we have problems. 

Like most who end up becoming the PIO, they first screwed up in the field somehow. This man is no exception. We once listed his departmental writeups and will include them below. Why are we allowing the newly converted to transparency act as PIO when he cannot even admit he broke department policy? 

When you have officers focused on money rather than the altruistic ideals one should have as an officer as their goal, you end up with an officer like Lt. Frank Rodriguez, who seemingly wants to box everyone because his illegal overtime is more important than you or me and our safety.

Rodriguez, we would all like to know why you ignore department policy while enforcing it among your fellow officers. I am reluctant to call you a hypocrite. Still, your anger and how you are handling the exposure of your alleged violation of moral turpitude to enrich yourself, your 401k’s, your IRA, and paying cash for that pool while boots on the ground may be struggling to make rent and car payments is disgusting. Bragging about how much money you make in a shift briefing is an improper use of city time. 

When you have officers like Lt. John Surface and Sgt Adan Chavez who would instead sexually harass female officers, then serve you or me, and be arrested for Offical Oppression, only to have charges dropped and reinstated, you create a mafia-run Gestapo of good cops who cannot do their jobs because the criminals with badges are allowed to prosper, be promoted, and protected.

Look at the video we shared above. A man is being pulled into the back of a police unit because FMS was never released by dispatch to the scene after several calls. Because it’s El Paso, is everyone okay with it?

What about Michael Anthony Estrada, who, by watching the video, was killed by Sgt James E Smith, badge number 2848, for nothing more than saying he had a gun? No matter how often you watch the video, you never see a weapon.

We can go on, but all you need to do is Google El Paso Police Department Officer Arrested, and you will be sicked by what the Mayor, City council, and Command Staff have allowed to happen to the Department. Shame on every single one of them for allowing it, and shame on us for doing fuck all about it.