New Mexico

According to a new study by Wallethub, Albuquerque ranks near the top of the national for homicides, ranking 15th among the entire country.

“Alarmingly, homicide rates have risen by an average of 17% in 50 of the most populated U.S. cities between Q1 2020 and Q1 2022, and are still rising,” wrote the group.

Albuquerque ranks only below the leftist-run cities of Chicago, IL, Durham, NC, Washington, DC, Las Vegas, NV, Dallas, TX, Detroit, MI, Norfolk, VA, Louisville, KY, Milwaukee, WI, Memphis, TN, Baltimore, MD, Atlanta, GA, Cincinnati, OH, and the most homicide-ridden city of New Orleans, LA.

Albuquerque had worse homicide rates than cities such as Minneapolis, MN, which was the starting place of the violent George Floyd riots which resulted in around $500 million in damages to the heavily populated city. It also beat out large cities such as Philadelphia, PA, and Los Angeles, CA, which have been notorious for being crime-ridden.

The City of Albuquerque had 4.85 homicides per capita in 2022 so far, an increase of 1.04 since 2020.

In 2022, Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham instructed the Legislature to focus on crime during the 30-day legislative session but unsuccessfully passed meaningful reforms to assist with the crime problem plaguing many localities in New Mexico with Albuquerque leading the pack.

The news spurred a statement from the New Mexico House Republicans, which wrote on Twitter, “ABQ ranks 15th highest in nation for homicides. We are expecting that @NMHouseDems will convene another “crime meeting” to discuss this continued violent crime that they refused to address during the 2022 legislative session.”

Lujan Grisham, who was accused and later settled at least $150,000 over groping claims by a former staffer, is up for a tough reelection campaign, with Republicans aiming to dethrone her in November. She has often supported anti-police radicals, even ones that bucked her pandemic mandates.

As we previously reported:

However, that’s a complete shift from her previous position, where she applauded and praised the “thousands of New Mexicans who peacefully protested in Albuquerque” in late May after the death of George Floyd sparked protests and riots nationwide. She went on to announce that “The state of New Mexico will stand ready to assist local governments in facilitating peaceful protests.”

She also acknowledged that these protests were a violation of her strict mass gatherings policy, but said they were fine she was going to “take a leap of faith” in protecting the protesters blatantly violating her rules.

She said, “This is a violation of the mass gatherings, no doubt, but we’re just going to take a leap of faith in protecting protesters who have no other way, quite frankly. Right? There’s no other way to be seen, to be heard, to be respected, and to be clear about your message.”