Most people are familiar with a quote from Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi regarding Mos Eisley and its spaceport:“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”

Indeed, we must be cautious. In more and more American cities. All apparently competing for honors held decades ago by the industrial multi-racial, heavily-policed (by Storm Troopers) slum of Mos Eisley. On a fictional planet that resembles the mouth of the Colorado River and surrounding areas of Baja California del Norte, Sonora, Arizona and California.

And actually bears some similarity to the place we want to look at in this commentary. The City of Farmington, New Mexico, part of the Four Corners (NW New Mexico) in San Juan County.

Farmington is a city of less than 50,000 in a county of 121,000: smaller than Pennington County South Dakota. our major area of operations. Though we do have work and other activities in Farmington. Although it is a rez community (essentially right on the border of the Navajo (Dineh) Big Rez and near two Ute Reservations and the Jicarilla Apache), it is a typical Southwestern American city – or was. Industrial (oil, gas, coal, power, especially) with a solid agricultural foundation (irrigated crop and pasture land, grazing), Farmington was and is a conservative stronghold. One of many in New Mexico dominated by the so-called liberal, Woke, regressives that rule “democratically:” from Santa Fe with the massive support of Albuquerque, Taos, Soccorro, and (strangely enough) Los Alamos (yes, the Atomic City).

Nuevo Mexico owns a corrosive government, currently with Her Imperial Highness Michelle Lujan Grisham, a teeth-clincher who pretends to be hispanic (by marriage), progressive, and interested in caring for the people of New Mexico. And a “worthy” successor of former Spanish governors such as Juan de Onate, Pedro de Peralta, and Diego de Vargas. All tyrannical rulers in the best Spanish reconquista and conquistador tradition.

The results of that Spanish (Hispanic) heritage is seen today in the governnments of the State, many of its cities and counties, and even more of its villages: the abject worship of the military (courtesy of the 700 year battle to liberate Espana itself from the cruel rule of Muslim invaders, ending in 1492), the corruption and crony-based administration, and many other aspects somewhat held in check by a veneer of Anglo-American customs and traditions (and whitewash).

Albuquerque itself has long been infamous for its abusive, often murderous, police force. Now, a recent event shows that the rot at the center (population-wise and politically) of the State has spread to the far corners of the State. Republican, supposedly conservative, multi-racial, productive and industrious (not just industrial), Farmington has been helping support the New Mexico welfare state (another benefit of Hispanic heritage) for decades. (It is not the only one: you can see the money flowing from Hobbs and Eunice down in SE New Mexico and its oilfields in the Permian, not just the San Juan Basin.)

In return, Santa Fe and Albuquerque have given the best of government goon-dom to the city. Latest example of this is the police murder of a homeowner in Farmington on the 5th of April of this year. As reported by KRQE (and even by NBC nationally, police got “mixed up” about the address where they were responding to a complaint of domestic violence. Cops claim they identified themselves as police at least 40 seconds before the homeowner, a 52-year-old man, opened his door at 11:30 at night, with his gun in hand. (Given the rapidly growing crime rate in Farmington, that should have been expected by the cops.) The cops’ own video clearly shows they were at the wrong address: 5305 instead of 5308 – a house on the other side of the street! But they shot and killed him, gunning him down without warning or mercy. And then when his wife, inside the home, opened fire on the home invaders who had just shot down her husband, they shot back at her.

While not premeditated murder, it was nevertheless murder: there is no indication that the man or his wife heard the cops identify themselves, it is certain that the police telling 9-1-1 operator to tell the occupants they were cops (since dispatch was on the phone at the REAL address), the video clearly shows the cops were at and SAW they were at the wrong address, and they gave no warning.

Oh, the police chief is sorry, and explains that his coppers didn’t do the right thing: they overreacted due to the “speed” of events. Right: because they are not trained properly. Because they are trained to treat everyone but fellow cops as murdering evil thugs who should do nothing but bow down and lick their jackboots.

That is New Mexico today – where State Police blockade and besiege cities who don’t lock down for pandemic panic, who arrest elected mayors for refusing to obey unelected bureaucrats who don’t have the legal authority to give orders, all ruled by a woman who treats her citizens like trash. Or like wild animals to be gunned down for any excuse.

There are solutions: we’ll discuss those in a future commentary. But let us leave you, dear reader, with this thought. Rot often starts from the top, but when it spreads, it requires the entire tree to be severely trimmed, if not simply removed. Are we at that point?