Episode 175: Darren White On Why He Has To Be The Next Mayor Of Albuquerque!

We have a must-watch episode of the No Doubt About It Podcast featuring former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, who recently announced his run for Albuquerque Mayor. If you care about crime, homelessness, and the future of our city, this episode is a must-listen.

In This Exclusive Interview, We Ask Darren White:

✅ How will he fix Albuquerque’s skyrocketing crime?
• With crime at all-time highs and Albuquerque becoming almost unlivable, what’s his plan to restore law and order?
• How will he crack down on repeat offenders and prevent crime from spiraling further?

✅ How will he tackle homelessness?
• Homelessness has exploded under Tim Keller’s leadership—what will White do differently to get people off the streets and back on track?

✅ His stance on marijuana legalization
• White has been involved in the cannabis industry, and we didn’t shy away from asking the tough questions about his support for legalization.
• Hear his direct response and how he plans to balance public safety and business interests.

Why This Election Matters:
• Current Mayor Tim Keller has been in office for 8 years, and during that time, crime has surged, and the city has fallen into deep decline.
• Is Darren White the leader Albuquerque needs for a new start?

If you care about the future of Albuquerque, this interview is essential viewing.

Website: https://www.nodoubtaboutitpodcast.com/
Twitter: @nodoubtpodcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoDoubtAboutItPod/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markronchettinm/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
you and I are told increasingly we have to choose
between a left or right.
Well, I'd like to suggest thereis no such thing as a left or
right.
There's only an up or down.
This is the no doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Podcast no doubt about it now your hosts.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Christy and mark run katty, christy and Mark.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Runcatti Off to a bang up.
Start Ava, we good.
Well, yeah, mom is trying toget me to like adjust her
headphones at the time that I am.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Oh, and you hit me on that Also managing the audio?
Yes, so it's like so, and Idon't know whose set of
headphones is whose.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
Now I can hardly hear , but it's okay, it's going to
be fine.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, we're going to wing it Is this one yours.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
Yeah, that one's mine .

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Okay, that's actually my microphone.
It's called producing on thefly.
Yeah, and we've got a Darrenwhite with us.
Yeah, here and uh, exactly aswell, you can wing this on the
fly on the fly, yeah, well soyes, he's a nose radio, nose
television and now knows runningfor mayor of albuquerque what

(01:10):
are you thinking?

Speaker 4 (01:12):
I mean, what happened you?

Speaker 3 (01:14):
know I need therapy.
Yeah, a lot of it.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, it's an expensive therapy, it's a great
question.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Uh, you know, mark, you and I had talked about this
several times.
We looked for a year.
We were trying to find somebody, because I had no plans of
going back into politics, none.
And so I looked, you looked,everybody was okay, who can we
get?
Because the bottom line iswe've got to get Keller out of
office.
He's destroying our city andand and there's not gonna be

(01:42):
anything left.
And so he just.
I talked to many people and theyjust didn't want to do it.
They were for a variety ofreasons, and look for those of
us who have run for office, weget it.
It's not an easy thing.
You put yourself through hell.
And it was about probablyNovember, december, when I first
thought, well, you know, wehave to have somebody run, and

(02:05):
well, maybe I'll think about it.
And as the time went on, I hadone more person I talked to and
I I'm not going to name names,but I talked to that person I
said you sure, are you sure?
Totally agreed the direction ofthe city, all that was wrong,
and just said I can't, I can'tdo it.
And that's when I said, well,maybe I need to seriously think

(02:31):
about this.
And as the time went on, um,you know, this is exactly what
Tim Keller wanted.
He is in, he understands thathe's in the political fight of
his life.
This is a man who doesn't wantto be anything but a career
politician, and even though weall know that the office of the
mayor is not a stepping stone,he thought he would be the first
to break that mold and that hecould use this to go to higher

(02:51):
office.
But now he knows, and he's evenbeing told this from what I've
heard from people in the party.
And so now I just decided okay,you know when, when you look at
where the city is, um and um,the, the problems that we're all
faced with every single day,look at today.
Look at today, right, you know,we're, we're all at home and

(03:13):
we're trying to enjoy theweekend and it pops up.
You know, apartment complex, 30rounds are more, shot, uh, one
person dead, another personinjured, a stabbing, where
somebody died yesterday.
It has to stop.
And so, yeah, I just decided.
You know what?
I put my money where my mouthis.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
Well, though it's good, it's good that you're
running, because I mean we doneed some change.
I think that's what you'regoing to hear from pretty much
everybody across the board.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, you know, here's the way I summed it up.
Here is the way I summed it up.
Here's the way I summed it up660 murders, yeah, and that's
using the city.
We'll talk about that laterwhich is a low number 660
murders, yep.
10 cities overrunning theirstreets oh, I don't know.

(04:01):
City employees now cleaning uphuman waste and our businesses
boarded up all over town.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
Yeah, I think that's.
A biggest shock is thehomelessness and how many
businesses we're watching justclose up and have to leave.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
And ask yourself what is Tim Keller going to do in 12
years that he hasn't done ineight?
Right.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
And that should keep you up at night.
Oh, there's no question that.
I think when you look at how to, or you look at the ledger okay
, if you look at the ledger,I've never seen a candidate who
has more open vulnerabilitiesthan Tim Keller ever.
Okay, so there's no questionabout that.
I think you're looking at theopportunity to make a real good
case here, and I think your caseis going to be an excellent one

(04:39):
.
The question is, though, how doyou take a city, and what I
would ask you is is the city ofAlbuquerque too far to the left
to move it back?
Because even when you look nowand you look at Trump's results
in Bernalillo County, theyweren't great.
They weren't great, and so howdo you do that?
And I think you have a uniqueopportunity, there's no question
, but how are you going to beable to pull that off and bridge

(05:01):
that gap?
Cause you're going to have tomake up a partisan gap in this
city of 15 or so points.
Great question, mark one.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
I have one in the city.
I want twice and by widemargins when I ran for the first
time, I ran for sheriff andwhen I was reelected.
And I think when you reallylook at this race and and if
anybody's sitting here as aRepublican and say that's a
cakewalk, they're wrong, right,but what we do have, we have the
facts on our side.
We absolutely have the facts onour side.

(05:28):
People see this every singleday.
As much as he tries to alwayscome out in front of the camera
and smile and think that thatmakes everything better, people
are living in fear every singleday.
Business people that we knowand respect, who they're putting
themselves out there right,they're.
They're trying to look.
When you say 80% of all jobsthat are created are created by

(05:51):
small businesses, and the waythat Tim Keller treats those
businesses, it's, it's, it'sshocking to me, yeah, and so I
think we have the facts on ourside.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, oh, I think you do too.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
Well, I feel bad.
We kind of jumped in and Iwanted you to have an
opportunity to tell people thatdon't know who you are which I
don't know how many out theredon't because you have quite a
reputation.
But tell us a little bit aboutyour background.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Oh, I have a reputation.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Oh, yes, you do Some of it's even good, yeah, you
know, I've lived in Albuquerquefor 38 years.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
I came here to be a part of the police department
and I got involved in politicshere about 1992, I guess, and I
met Gary Johnson in 1993.
And he told me I'm going to runfor governor.
And I said, well, I'm going torun for the statehouse.
And in 1994, I did.
And I ran hard, I knocked onhundreds of doors and I came up

(06:40):
100 or so votes short.
But OK, Then I started workingfor Gary, which I told him I
would do.
Uh, then when he took over,initially I was going to be the
deputy secretary Right.
And then some things happenedand within a month of taking
over I was appointed as cabinetsecretary, did that for five
years and, uh, then I marksomething.

(07:01):
You know, I worked for KRQE.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Oh, that's a mistake.
There's a couple of us krqe.
Oh, that's a mistake rightthere, darren.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
That's a mistake, sir , so I went to.
Were you guys there at the sametime or no?

Speaker 2 (07:09):
yeah, well, yeah, we were at the end.
Yeah, yeah, you were there atthe end, right, yeah, because I
got there in 2006 no, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
I left in 2002.
Oh my gosh, really.
Yeah, I was like wait a second.
I'm just okay, I know a littlebit no, no, sorry.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
so I was at seven when, when he was, dar Darren
was at 13, you were the morningguy.
Yeah, that's right, that'sright.
And so it went from three tothree to one, but that's fine.
Okay, that's cool yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
So, um, I worked there for two years and I really
enjoyed it and I had to tellyou just real quickly on that,
when I went back into lawenforcement, when I ran for
sheriff and I won uh, being inin the news media, I actually
put together this whole programand I went and I taught at
Northwestern university mediarelations for law enforcement
executives.

(07:51):
Because I took thoseexperiences and said, look,
here's what I know.
And, as a matter of fact, my,my joke was it was called
lessons from the dark side,because, you know, law
enforcement has they, they, youknow, they kind of frown on the
whole media thing and I feltlike I had something I could
offer to say.
Look, you know, this is how youcan do it and and make it work
for you.
So did that with sheriff uh forseven years.

(08:14):
Then worked at the department Uh, it was the cabinet secretary
getting ahead of myself as apublic safety director for the
city for a little over a yearand a half.
And then I went into privatebusiness and uh, and I did that
worked at the radio station, hadmy own radio show for a couple
of years and yeah, no, in yourtrajectory has been interesting
because you've been in a bunchof these different things and
we'll get into your businessbackground and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
There's definitely people who want to talk about
once.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
It's very important that I forgot, obviously.
Um you know, before gettinginto law enforcement, I was in
the 82nd Airborne Division.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
It's something I'm incredibly proud of.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yes, I jumped out of perfectly good airplanes.
Your judgment continues to bequestionable.
It's something I very muchenjoyed.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
I want to talk about that, the law enforcement
portion of this, because it isso important.
I think.
If anybody had to say, okay, ifwe're going to boil down
Albuquerque's problems to onething, it is to me crime is out
of control and we'll get to thehomeless thing, but but crime is
out of control.
You've watched what's happenedunder this mayor and under this
police chief, especially overthe past couple of years, and
it's very interesting that youmentioned sort of the the
forward facing PR front that Ithink a good police department

(09:17):
has to have because they have toinform the citizens of what
they're doing.
I think that's in as muchdanger as it's ever been in the
city of Albuquerque.
We literally have people thatare supposed to be representing
the city of Albuquerque that endup in childish Twitter fights,
right?

Speaker 1 (09:31):
It's an absolute joke .

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Well, yeah, I mean, it just shows you how much they
take the bait there.
My co-host here ends up makinghim angry.
But you watch that and youwatch that attitude.
And then you watch at the sametime and you mentioned the
murder numbers off the chartshere.
People don't feel safe anymorein this city at all.
It's, it's always been aconcern for us, but we're at a
whole different level.
So tell me, when you look atthis, knowing how deep your,

(09:54):
your background is, inopposition to Tim Keller, who
has watched things explode onhis watch what are?
What do we need to do?
How do you even tacklesomething, this big watch?

Speaker 3 (10:04):
What are what do we need to do?
How do you even tacklesomething this big?
First and foremost, if you lookat the number of officers and
I'm not talking about theofficers who are on the
department as a whole thatnumber is it's, it's hovering
around the same.
I'm talking about the officerswho are assigned to work patrol.
Every year.
The department has what'scalled a bid and you can move
around and the number ofofficers who are working on our

(10:25):
streets out there taking callsevery single day is just about
the same as it was 30 years ago.
And we all can understand that.
One, the city's gotten biggerand two, the crime has gotten a
lot worse.
And so when somebody says to me, how come, when I dial the
non-emergency number, I'm onhold for an hour, and that's the

(10:46):
reason.
This is not the rank and file,and I know they take the brunt
of it, but this is theadministration of the police
department and Mayor Keller.
So we have to get those numbersup and there's a reason why.
It has also to do with thedissent decree, things like that
.
But if you knew that, if youwere the mayor and the chief of
police and you knew people wereon hold for up to an hour and

(11:10):
sometimes that's 911 as well.
That's outrageous.
And I will also tell you,christia, mark, when you look at
those numbers of how longpeople are waiting when Medina
comes out there and tells usthat you know the crime is down.
And look at the numbers ofreported crimes.

(11:31):
The numbers of crimes that arebeing reported are down because
people are hanging up yeah, youjust stop reporting.
They say the hell with it.
Businesses that are gettingvandalized and someone broken in
.
They're not reporting itanymore because their insurance
companies are threatening them.
Give you an example there's abusiness downtown.
He's a friend of mine and whenhe opened up that business a few

(11:53):
years ago, his insurance wasabout $38,000 a year.
It is now $138,000 a year andwhen he called to his insurance
agent and said thousand dollarsa year.
And when he called to hisinsurance agent and said what
are you doing?
I, I, that's eleven thousanddollars a month, right, they're
like the crime is crazy.
If you took that store and movedit somewhere else, you'd still

(12:15):
be looking at 38 000, butbecause you're in, the crime is
just so.
And and the the very sad thingabout that story, right after
that conversation, one of hissecurity guards got shot in the
middle of the night and hecalled me up and he said and
next year I'm not going to haveinsurance because they're going
to cancel me now.
And so this is what we're facedwith.
And so when we look at thisproblem and we can talk more

(12:37):
about the businesses and thingslike that, but from my
standpoint, public safety is thefundamental role of government.
If you don't feel safe in yourhome, if you don't feel safe
driving to the grocery store,does it really matter?
Like if your garbage isn'tgetting picked up on time?
You know the streets, maybe not.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
But how do you boost that?
Because you have a nationalissue too.
I mean, keller is is endemic ofof what is happening on a
national front, which is youhave left-leaning mayors who
don't take crime seriously.
We turn people right back outon the street and they target
police officers in a lot of waysto make doing their job very,
very difficult.
So how do you turn that?
Where do you plant your stakein the ground and say, okay,

(13:17):
here's what I'm going to dodifferently to make sure, a we
retain more people and, b we canhire more people.
We restructure first of all.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
And anybody sit here and tell you I'm not going to be
like Mayor Keller did when hefirst ran and said I'm going to
have 1,100 officers in fouryears and we all looked at each
other and went with a magic wandbecause that's not going to
happen.
There is a recruiting crisis.
Not as many people, especiallycoming out of school, coming out
of college, are going into lawenforcement, and there's a
variety of reasons for that.
And so that's why that numberstayed right around 800 and 900.

(13:45):
What you have to do is you haveto take a.
First of all, you have to cutthe fat.
I can't even tell you how manyranks additional brass ranks
that Medina has created in thepolice department.
And well, you say well, that'sjust a small fraction, but yes,
it is, but it still needs.
We need to flatten it outbecause we need to make it much

(14:07):
more effective and much moreefficient.
And then we have to look.
I'm told and again we'll diginto this once we start asking
for the exact numbers but I wastold at one point there were
almost a hundred officersassigned to the DOJ reform.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Unbelievable, and again, that's 10 years, 10 years
in the making?

Speaker 3 (14:29):
Yes, and so you have to look at and what it?
What it all boils down to, Mark, is you need to take a look at
the resources that you have.
You have to do a manpowerallocation study and make sure
that every available officer whois out there is working the
streets, and I'll also tell you.
If the governor says I'll sendyou 50 state police officers,
I'll take them.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
That's right, I'll take them from anybody that
wants to give them.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Yeah, absolutely.
The one thing that I look atthat's missing is the proactive
patrol.
I asked somebody the other daywhen I was filling out my
banking stuff for the campaign.
The guy asked me.
He said what's going on withthe police department?
What would you do differently?
I said.
I asked him.
I said how many times do yousee an Albuquerque police

(15:13):
officer pulling somebody over onthe side of the road for not a
car accident, not a car crash,just probably for traffic?
And he looked at me.
He goes can't remember.
Well, that's because that'sgone.
That doesn't happen anymore.
We've solved so many crimes, wecleared so many warrants back
in the day because that'sproactive policing.

(15:33):
You walk up, you pull somebodyover and it doesn't.
It could be any type ofinfraction.
And when you walk up you'relooking in the car, you're like
oh, you know.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Now I almost I almost aged my it the broken windows
theory.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Absolutely yeah.
And and you're looking in theback of the car, you, you know
these, maybe they're they'revery, very nervous and I know
people are nervous but there's alot of things that officers who
are trained to do this work andlook at and go something's not
right here Now.
Back in my day it used to bestereo equipment, but that's
because I'm old, yeah, but you'dsee things like that in the
back seat and you'd ask themwhat is that?
You know Well, exactly, and sothat's missing, yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
And oh, there's no doubt you could.
I don't know that you could geta speeding ticket in
Albuquerque.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
I don't, you can't have the speed cameras, though,
oh yeah, the speed cameras.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
I'm trying to think of table, and her name rhymes
with wristy, all right, who'sgotten one of the speed cam?
Yeah, but so she's gonnaprobably try to push for you to
get rid of those.
Um, she doesn't have to push,yeah, no.
But but you're right though,because you look at all the
things that happen, and not onlythat, that, when we see the
lower end crimes what we calllower end crimes that your car
gets broken into, my car gotbroken, I didn't even bother

(16:40):
calling no.
Why would?

Speaker 3 (16:42):
I do that, mark.
This chief Medina is when heand he comes out and look at, I
get it.
You know he recognizes thathe's the worst chief in the
history of the police department, and so he knows that he gets
up.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
He's like I'm the worst chief in the history of
the police department.

Speaker 3 (17:02):
But my point is he comes out there because he knows
how bad it is, he knows howthis department is deteriorated,
he knows how bad this crimeproblem is and what I mean.
Come on, man, it's like wake upand look at you.
Really, when he comes out andsays you know, first of all, the
numbers haven't gone down.
But when they talk about youknow, we've seen they said the

(17:23):
other day they were like oh myGod, property crime is down, but
burglaries are up 11% andretail theft is up 2%, but
property crime is down, rightand so.
But I go back to what I saidbefore it's because people
aren't reporting.
They're not going to sit thereon the phone for an hour.
And the other part of it ispeople are just tired of making

(17:43):
insurance claims.
They know that their premiumsare just going to go up if they
don't get canceled.
So, restructuring the policedepartment, making sure the
focus is patrol, making surethere are the officers necessary
to work the streets and, mostimportantly, get back to that
and accept every bit of help youcan get.
Look at what we're doing rightnow.
You've got the districtattorney out on central.

(18:04):
This is the first time in mylife I've seen a district
attorney get involved in streetlevel crime.
He was so disgusted with thepolice department he didn't even
invite him to the tack plan.
He's like you know, we'll justdo this on our own because
apparently the chief has gotbetter things to do.
Hopefully it's not driving, butum, well, I digress.
There is that, but you know.
You know what I'm saying isthat, um, he's right, the, the,

(18:27):
the DA is right.
It's like I, I, you know, I'm,we're all responsible for this,
we're all part of the criminaljustice system and it's making
them look bad.
So we just went out there andsaid I'll do it on my own.
I've never seen that before andthat was so telling when that
happened, yeah, Well, I, okay.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
So you've been on our show.
You guys risked your lives andwent down to the border, right
Like you.
We've done a couple of shows onthe border already and, darren,
you were on one of our veryfirst episodes going to the
border.
We've talked in so much for thelast three or four years since
Mark ran for governor, that usbeing a sanctuary state and a
sanctuary city, we are justwelcoming, we just keep

(19:07):
welcoming these folks in.
You know we get a lot ofquestions about you in
particular or anybody runningfor mayor, because we know where
Keller sits on the sanctuarycity policy.
He is open.
He is welcoming the sanctuarycity policies.
He's not going to change them.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Well, remember, let's , let's point out what that is
too, exactly why you're, what'syour biggest objection to the
sanctuary city policy?

Speaker 4 (19:26):
Well, the fact that so basically, we are not allowed
to to connect with ice at all.
If we get a violent offenderthat's been arrested, we cannot
find out if they're here legally, we can't find out if they're
in our jails.
We're not allowed to questionthat.
And it feels like currentlythis doesn't feel like it's
obvious that the mayor, thecurrent mayor, protects
criminals.
He's protecting them.

(19:48):
So how would you go aboutchanging that, or what is your
stance on that?

Speaker 3 (19:51):
And make no mistake, there are.
There are illegal immigrants inthis country or in this city
right now.
They're breaking the law everyday and part of it is they don't
care because they know if theydo get caught, they'll be
treated just like everyone else.
I go back to what we did in2010 when I worked for for mayor
Barry, and this is something hedid this right.
He absolutely did it right.
We put it together.
Um, what we did was we set up aprisoner transport center

(20:16):
downtown and we invited ICE tocome in.
We didn't do their job for them, we just provided them counter
space and when people werearrested, they went to that
station and ICE just checked whothey were and if they were here
illegally, which they have adatabase that can tell them that

(20:37):
they put an immigration hold onthem and basically what that
says.
That is, you know, and I'veheard you know the mayor and the
chief.
Some of them say oh, you knowwell, they need to be.
They need to be punished here.
Yes, they do Exactly.
They need to be part of ourcriminal justice system if
they're convicted of a crime,but the minute that they've done
their debt to society here,they need to be transported and

(21:00):
deported back to their countryof origin, and I got to tell you
it.
Why is this so controversial?
It makes no sense to me thatyou know, you, you run around,
because what they try to do,what they're trying to say to us
, is that you know, you're justheartless, you're just're just
uh, well, you'll stop the report, you'll stop the reporting of
additional crime, which is sucha backwards mentality to say

(21:25):
that if you actually arrestpeople and enforce the law,
you'll stop further.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
you know, cooperation in in a in a sense to report
crime.
What does that make any sense?

Speaker 3 (21:35):
We're talking about murderers.
Some of these illegalimmigrants are committing
heinous, violent crimes, and tothink that, once they're
released from our criminaljustice system, that we would
not deport them makes absolutelyno sense to me.
We have enough criminals thatare citizens of our state.

(21:56):
We don't need to take any more,and so I don't.
I don't see this ascontroversial, but I do see it
as part of a crime enforcementplan, it's.
I don't want them coming back.
Deport them and let them goback to their country.
You're not welcome here to comeand just commit crimes and
think that we're just going tokeep you putting, keep putting
you back out there to commitmore crimes, and that's what Tim

(22:18):
Keller is doing right now.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, so you definitely look at more
cooperation with ice 100%.

Speaker 4 (22:23):
Okay, we have a lot of questions we're going to get
to, but before we do, I wantedto.
There was a it's kind of aninteresting dynamic.
You announced your run.
I believe Thursday Is that whenyou announced it.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yes, and that's Darren white for mayorcom.
Yes, and it's not the number,it's Darren for Darren white for
mayorcom.
D A R R E.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
N W H I T E F O R M A Y O Rcom.
Okay, Well, we actually want toshow.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
Well, no, there's always a big decision on that,
by the way, because you're likewhat am I going to do?
What's my, what's my web?

Speaker 3 (22:53):
I'm going to use the number.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Oh, there's no question.
And not only that, make surethat you buy up everything else.
Like Darren White's a jerk,like I, would just go ahead and
make sure you buy that one up,because you know that's the one
they're going to hate.

Speaker 4 (23:12):
They're going to go.
That one, that was funnyActually.
I got to give him credit.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
It's the best thing he's ever done, like literally
to this day.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
But anyway, anyway, okay, so why don't we show our
audience a little bit of yourvideo?
Because it does a lot.
It really answers somequestions I think some people
have.
And then we have some questionsfrom our viewers that we want
to get you to have a directanswer on.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Absolutely, darren White, for Mayer, eight years
under Tim Keller, andAlbuquerque is barely
recognizable.
Our streets have become overrunand families live in fear.
660 murders under Keller'swatch it's not just shocking,
that's sad, and now it's timefor a change.
Darren White, a lifetime ofservice, veteran of the 82nd

(24:00):
Airborne, career lawman,including two-term sheriff, I've
built successful businessessince I've retired, but
businesses are under siege andthey're locking their doors.
That's because crime is runningwild while City Hall shrugs.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
Over the last several months, Target 7 has counted
more than a dozen businesses,including this former jewelry
store behind me that has closedtheir doors.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
There are also pharmacies, pizza parlors, sushi
shops, boutiques, gas stations,orthodontists all boarded up
the bike coop, as it's called,near Yale and Central says they
have been so overwhelmed withcrime they can no longer stay
open.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
By our count, at least seven businesses have
recently shut down.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
Well, a longtime burger joint on Route 66 is
closing.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
So you get the feel here which is something very
interesting that you did withthis video, which is you
literally took news clips in themiddle of it, just slapped one
after another, after another.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
Yeah, don't listen.
Yeah, because obviously somefolks will say, well, darren
White's just making that up, sogo ahead and run the clips and
let them see what the news mediahas been reporting.
So you know.
Absolutely.
I, I, I, 100% wanted the publicto know that this is a crisis.
This is an absolute crisis forour small businesses.

Speaker 4 (25:12):
Well, and we're also ranked 23rd most dangerous city
in the world the world.
That's pretty crazy when youthink about that.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Oh, no doubt.
Yeah, and one of the things,one of the things you're going
to get pushed back on, I think,from people who are looking for
a reason not to change, is, youknow, these things are hard,
these are the.
These problems cannot be solved.
Albuquerque has always beenviolent.
Albuquerque has always had asignificant homeless population,
but I think what you've seen,even since you've announced, is

(25:41):
maybe these problems can besolved.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
Interesting right, you know this administration
only acts on, you know whenthere's bad press.
And so, yeah, we went down tofirst and I 40.
It is actually where.
When you know, when they, whenMayor Keller declared Coronado
Park the most dangerous place inthe city, which he was the

(26:07):
mayor of, they decided and letme also say they eventually
closed the park in August of 22,when they reported there had
been five homicides, like 10shootings, five stabbings, human
trafficking the litany of thecrimes that were committed in
the two years prior to that werebeing shut down was just

(26:29):
unbelievable.
And yet, even in July, when thepolice department went to him
and said we've had five, hadfive murders, we've had this, he
still didn't want to shut itdown.
Well, he was pressured into itand he did Well, where those
homeless people went was to 1stand I-40, which is right across
the street, right, and I'mtelling you, it is like the
apocalypse.
It is just fires burningeverywhere, open use of fentanyl

(26:53):
.
When we were there shooting aweek, two weeks ago, they
literally had wire, big, bigpieces of wire that they were
stripping for copper, right.
And where do you think thatcame from?
Probably a small businesssomewhere.
They went Monday morning toturn on the power, and it wasn't
there.
But interesting enough, we didthe video.

(27:16):
We released it on Thursday.
I had to go down to the clerk'soffice yesterday, and so I
decided to drive through firstand I 40, and it was cleaned up.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, let's look at a picture, cause you have a
picture where where what itlooked like when you shot the
video, first and foremost, andthis is what it looked like,
right?
Exactly what you're talkingabout.
All they do is they just movedeverybody, right, and here it is
, and you described now, by theway, so here it is, cleaned up.
Quote cleaned up by the way, uh, because it's pretty rough

(27:47):
looking, but when you went downthere to shoot, what was that?
What is that environment forpeople who aren't familiar with
it?

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Scary, scary.
And you know, obviously I'm I'msomebody that's used to
environments like that, but thatwas, it was wild.
And we, you know, we shot the.
It was quick, we made thedecision, especially when we're
driving up there, as I said, thewires just all over the street
when we're shooting the video.

(28:14):
We actually covered it up.
You don't see it, but there wassomebody going to the bathroom.
It's, yeah, it's, it's justoutrageous.
And then when we were leaving,we were basically accosted by, I
guess if Tim Keller's the mayorit was probably the deputy
mayor of the homeless camp rightCame up and basically told me

(28:35):
that he wanted the camera and Iwas like I'm sorry, what he's
like, I want that camera.
Now he tried to take the cameraand I will just say that I
objected to that ratherstrenuously and this kind of
went on for a couple of minutesback and forth and then I just
decided, all right, this isgetting out of control.
It was because there there wasa hundred, if maybe 150 people

(28:59):
in that camp.
Yeah Right, there's a lot and wejust jumped in the cars and
said, all right, let's, we don'tneed this, this is not what
we're here for.
And then they decided to spiton our trucks and it was some of
the most disgusting bile I'veever seen in my life and we
literally drove and I don't evenI have a picture of it.
I'm not even going to show itto you, unless you want to lose

(29:22):
weight, because you won't eatfor a while after I see it.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
It's just disgusting.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
But that's what it is , though I mean what this?
What this guy was saying to mewas you have no right to be here
, and you know what?
In his mind, with Tim Keller asthe mayor, he's protected
because they believe that,because they're allowed to do
what they want to do.
Now the mayor is going to tellyou that we've had a policy over

(29:46):
the past few months that we'recleaning up these homeless camps
.
No, they're not.
Their policy is called homelesswhack-a-mole.
They go in and they push themaside, and the street department
goes in, they clean it up andthen, within four hours, they're
moving back in, right, and theytake the street back over.
So in his mind, he felt likeyeah, I do have the.

(30:08):
I speak with the authority ofthe mayor when I say you don't
have the right to be here.

Speaker 4 (30:11):
Okay, Well, this leads into some of the questions
we've gotten.
So we basically can we do onequick thing first?
Just how would you?
Let's just do the hit thehomeless thing real quick.
I was going to have.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
No, I can't allow that Please, sir Objection
overruled.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, Okay, but just I just think that the one two
questions.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
I have them locked up .
You're going to ask me how doyou do it?

Speaker 2 (30:30):
Well, partially to.
Or is the?
Or is it in a broader sense too?
Is this the?
Do we make being homeless inAlbuquerque too easy and we make
running a small business toohard?

Speaker 3 (30:39):
The Supreme court ruled last year that if you have
homeless camps set up on yourstreets and in your parks, you
have a right as a municipalityto stop that and to cite people
for it.
If they look, you give them awarning, you walk up and you say
, guys, you got to go, you'vegot eight hours to get out of

(31:01):
here, and then if they don't,well then you're you're going to
have to cite them or arrestthem.
I mean they're, you just can't,you just can't allow them to
take.
It's just, it's so, first way,you can't use the street, but
second of all, it's justdisgusting from a public health
standard.
And so, yeah, the Supreme Courthas ruled that the homeless

(31:23):
people don't have a right totake over your streets.
They don't have a right to turnour playgrounds into
battlegrounds and let them dothat.
You shut it down and I'll tellyou, mark.
The other thing about it is andI've said this, people, when I
was sheriff, I used to go onpatrol every Friday and Saturday
night.
I'd take my brass off, I'd takemy stars off and I'd go out and
take calls and I'd provide whatwe called 82 backup, because I

(31:47):
wanted to be out there.
I always felt like, how do Ilead this organization if I
don't see firsthand what's goingon?
And you know, and I like doingit.
I enjoyed being a cop, so itwas fun to be out there with the
troops, but I'll be out thereevery single day.
I how can you not be a mayor ofa city that's going through this

(32:08):
homeless crisis and goingthrough the?
You know the, the, what hashappened to our businesses, and
do you drive through that?
Now?
We all know that Mayor Kellerused to live in the
International District, but hedecided it was too much and he
moved Because, yeah, it's really.
It's not a pleasant place toraise a family.

(32:30):
Me ask the mayor specificallyif it was too bad for you to
raise your family there andyou're the man who's in charge
of this section that is so bad.
Don't you have any empathytowards these families that have
to live with this every singleday?
Why wouldn't you take yourcrews up there and clean it?

(32:50):
Because he doesn't want to.
He just doesn't want to and hedoesn't care, and that's.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
It's regrettable, yeah, okay, so we're going to
ask some questions.
I'm going to change thequestions now, because you just
went ahead and just read theones that I had all lined up.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
No, that is not true, somebody just answered, so
that's fine, that's fine.

Speaker 4 (33:08):
I wanted to let some of our viewers ask that question
, but it's all right, you justdove right in.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
I'm going for the broader view and then you drill
down with the questions.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah, Darren, I'm sorry you have to witness this.
Anyway, it's been a long day.
I mean you guys talk amongstyourselves, yeah we'll just
waste Darren's time.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
I should have been in bed like an hour ago.
Are you kidding?

Speaker 4 (33:28):
me.
So now here's some of thetougher ones.
Okay, because this is somethingthat me and Mark have been very
open about.
We are very much against theweed manufacturing in our state
and the legalization of that.
Obviously it's legal.
We understand that.
That law's not going back, it'snot changing.
But we do see.
You know, I grew up in Colorado.
I've seen how much it's changedthe scope of Colorado.

(33:49):
You come here it's kind of alittle bit.
It feels like a little bit outof control now.
So one of the questions we gotis from Lucas Gaither and he
says this is for you, by the way, darren does he think that he
may have contributed to thecollapse of our community
through addiction and juvenilecrime with his push to legalize
recreational cannabis whilelining the pockets of

(34:12):
legislatures?

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Which is a pretty tough question.
So first of all, let me make itvery clear I was involved in
the medical cannabis businesshere and I got involved in it in
2015 and I went.
When I got involved in it, Iwas a skeptic.
I was and I saw firsthand whatit was doing for, for I'm a
disabled veteran and I and I sawit and it provided relief for

(34:37):
people and, um, and when we hadour medical cannabis business,
it was very well regulated,because there's obviously there
were only 30 of us and nowthere's a thousand, and so the,
the, the, the regulation and the, the ability to regulate these

(34:58):
businesses effectively is justfell.
These businesses effectively isjust fell.
There's too many of them, it'soversaturated.
I'll be the first one to tellyou that and and there can be
things done at the city toprevent that from continuing,
but no, I, I just take the stepsto help with that.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
I mean, do you have any ability to do that?

Speaker 3 (35:15):
Oh, I think that, for once, there needs to be some
type of code enforcement wherewe don't have.
You know, when it first started, it became that there was like
a dispensary on every corner.
Well, now they're on everycorner and in between, and
that's just too much.
And so we need to, as a city,to look at our code enforcement
and what we can do to say look,I'm an open free market person,

(35:40):
but we really need to take ahard look at how many cannabis
shops there are and, mostimportantly, we have to work
with the state to ensure thatthey're regulating these
businesses.
We saw just now what happenedout in Astancia, where they
arrested basically a humantrafficking operation, and that

(36:02):
is not what this business issupposed to be, and it's because
there's too many.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Well, and I wonder too, your thoughts on cannabis
in general and use.
There's been a lot moreresearch recently.
It reminds me a little bit oflooking back at the tobacco
industry back in the 50s and 60s, where parts of the tobacco
industry were marketed ashealthy, and they're clearly not
and and and.

(36:26):
So what worries me is we have acannabis industry where we're
we're seeing stronger andstronger cannabis hitting the
streets, and it's not thecannabis from the from the 1970s
.
So what do we do about that?
I mean, and you've seen fromthe inside what, you know what
this product is, and it is onething when it's used medically.
It's something else when you'vegot kids or people taking

(36:47):
edibles or things like that.
And as a state which you'vealready mentioned the state does
not do much enforcement at all.
They don't have the ability to.
So what do we do?
What do you do as the mayor?
Do you try to enforce ityourself?

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Well, that's what I said.
I think we can look at it froma code enforcement.
Uh, I absolutely believe that,and we should uh direct to your
question, though.
Mark, you know as being a copfor many, many years, a street
cop.
I dealt with people all thetime.
Some of them were, uh had,smokes of marijuana, and some of
them were drunk on alcohol, andI will tell you, I would rather
take the person who had smokeda little bit of weed versus the
person who was drunk.

(37:27):
Alcohol and cannabis aredifferent, however, it's the
same thing.
We have to do.
Anything that you do, you haveto do it responsibly.
It should not be available forchildren.
I have been a strong advocatefor that and pushed for many of
the regulations that are inplace right now to ensure that
they're not marketing tochildren, and so it's a really

(37:48):
good question.
But look, we are at a place nowin the United States.
More than half of the stateseither have some form of medical
cannabis or recreationalcannabis, just like alcohol,
with prohibition.
You realize it didn't work, andso, and and it's I'm just
telling you it's it's noteverybody's like.
Well, it's just the blue States, it's not.

(38:10):
It's the red States too, andand many of the Ohio has a very
robust cannabis program and soyou can go on.
It's it.
It's not going to go backwards,it's not.
In fact, I think by within thenext five to 10 years you're
going to see Texas.
They're already.
They already have medicalcannabis and they'll probably
have a recreation.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
But do you not worry, like I do worry, though, that
long-term, the the use, theregular use of cannabis is a
problem?

Speaker 3 (38:37):
I mean, mark, I worry about every site, every
substance you put in your body.
I worry about people usingalcohol too much.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
Well, I agree too much, but there is a difference
between, if you were, to smoke ajoint a day and a drink of beer
a day.
There's a difference, Wow.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
But that's what you said.
Well, look at what you said.
I wasn't talking about somebodywho's drinking a beer a day.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
I was talking about somebody who drinks 10 beers a
day.
That's a problem.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
But most people, you know, first of all, you're
probably not going to smoke ajoint a day.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
I don't want to get into all the specifics I don't
really even know.
I don't know.
I'm showing my own ignorance.
I will be honest.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
But I'm just saying it's got to be moderation.
No matter what you do, it hasto be moderation and I've
preached that and I've seen itfirsthand and yes, it's common
sense.
It's common sense with anything.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
So we see this bill that somebody's thrown up I
can't remember who it is thatthey want to try to make
mushrooms legal.
Now I feel like now are youjust saying anything goes, or
are you where's your mind onthat?

Speaker 3 (39:34):
Where do you sit on?

Speaker 4 (39:35):
that To me.
I'm like that's ahallucinogenic.
It is so like there's zeroreason in my opinion that that
should be legalized.
I can't believe that that'swhat we're, our legislators any
of our legislators are spendingtime on right now.
I think we have real issues inthe state, and legalizing more
drugs should not be on the topof the agenda?

Speaker 3 (39:52):
No, and I've been very clear I don't.
So there's a lot of people thatjust think that all illegal
drugs is the answer to thesubstance use problem.
No, it's not.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
It's absolutely not.
Oh, you'd be screwed.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
I'm sorry, you'd be screwed.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
City of Portland tried to pull that and they had
to pull it back because it's adisaster.
It's a disaster.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
And I will say Colorado.
They have had the stats nowbecause they've been legalized
longer than us, where it showsnow teenage use has gone way up
in the weed industry because itis available.
And I get it Like you can sithere and we could have the
argument back and forth that ifit wasn't available as freely
then as many kids wouldn't betrying it.
But you know, I know thatargument back and forth and

(40:32):
they're like well, if kids wantto try it, they're going to get
their hands on it.
I just obviously I'm prettyvocal about it, I'm pretty
against it.
But okay, next ugly questionand then we have some real
questions.
Ok, this is the last ugly,really ugly question, I think,
but I'd like you to answer this.
So Buffalo Woman asks you whyyou contributed over $30,000 to
MLG's campaign fund.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
So let me just for clarification I think they're
referring to the donations thatwere made in 2020, that $30,000.
And again, I have been veryclear I've never strayed from
this.
In 2016, when we got into thebusiness and the governor ran
for the first time in 2018, heropponent was adamantly opposed

(41:18):
to our industry, 100%.
With that point, we, thecompany that we had at one point
was we were approaching 300employees and, um, we were, and
they relied on us for their, fortheir living, and so, uh, we
decided that we were going tosupport as a company, we were
going to support, uh, mlg, andwe did, and I've never strayed

(41:43):
from that and, besides, it'spublic record.
It'd be ridiculous to say Ididn't do it.
I think the $30,000 you'retalking about because I just saw
it it's actually those who knowme well, it's my son.
We have the same exact namebecause I saw the zip code that
was attributed to the actualcontributions and that's my son.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
So some from you and some from your son.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
This is not.
I'm talking about that donationright there, got it Okay, but
we donated as a company.
We donated tens of thousands ofdollars to him.
And then you know this guy.
I don't, I don't really, whatis that guy's name?
That ran in 2022?
.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
I hear great things about him.

Speaker 4 (42:21):
He was a great guy.
He's a great guy.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
But no, you gave, you gave to our campaign.
There's no question.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
I gave you $10,000 because I supported Mark and um
and so I.
But just to make it clear, thatis not any in any way to try to
deny or, but I think that's the30,000 they're talking about is
actually my son.

Speaker 4 (42:46):
Okay, so now let's talk about.
We have a gun bill, so, mark,why don't you?

Speaker 2 (42:48):
talk a little bit about the gun bill.
That's in front of the statelegislator right now.
It's in committee.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
Right now it is um they're going after gas operated
guns.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yes, in two, 79 effectively would ban a huge
number of guns in the state ofNew Mexico.
There's obviously massiveconcerns with the second
amendment, with this.
You're familiar with the bill.
You're also familiar with thecrime problems in Albuquerque.
Number one would this bill doanything to fight crime?
And number two do you supportits passage or where do you

(43:12):
stand?

Speaker 3 (43:13):
on it.
Oh, I'm completely opposed toit.
In fact, I own those weaponsseveral of them, and I enjoy
them.
And let me just say this whenwe look at taking people's
Second Amendment right away,it's possibly the craziest thing
we could do in a city likeAlbuquerque that is as vicious

(43:36):
and violent.
Always said this and I've neverstrayed from it Law enforcement
will not be your firstprotection If something happens.
They're not going to be there,it's going to, and we know now.
They may not even get the call,but your your first level of
defense.
It may take officers 20 minutesand hopefully it doesn't, but

(43:58):
it's going to be after the fact.
And so I've always said thisand I'll continue to say it you
have every right to defend yourfamily yourself, and if that's
with a gun, then you do it.
It's insane to think that wewould want and look when the
governor said, oh, here's myemergency order that we're going

(44:22):
to limit guns in Albuquerque.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
Emergency health order.
Thank you, I was saying tomyself why would you do that?

Speaker 3 (44:29):
This is, I mean, it's a violent town.
There are people confronted allthe time with violent
situations, and I will neverwaver from that.
You have every, but I also.
I have people say, well, Idon't want to carry a gun, I
don't want a gun in my house.
I from that, you have every,but I also.
I have people say, well, Idon't want to carry a gun, I
don't want to get in my house.
I respect that.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
Yeah, don't get a gun is not for every single person
Right.

Speaker 3 (44:47):
But if you're somebody that says, hey, I want
a gun, hey put it.
Be a responsible gun owner,keep it locked away from kids
and absolutely Well in yourexperience is Well, it's beyond
feel good, it's a gun grab.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Well for them, yeah, no for them.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
It's a gun grab Because they get to say oh well,
it's part of our crimeprevention, which is nothing.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
But the other thing is just to be clear before
Chrissy gets the next questionin your experience in law
enforcement, how often you'relike?
Well, you know, when a guycommits or a woman, for that
matter, commits a crime with agun, how often they all this.
Here's the gun registered andhere's all my registration
information.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
Just real quickly.
We talked about the FBI numberversus the city of Albuquerque
homicide number and so, rightnow, mayor Keller, in the last
eight years, 660 murders.
Years 660 murders.
If you actually do the math andgo from his previous, from 2017
, backwards, you go back almost16 years, 12 years.

(45:48):
Excuse me, you got to go back12 years to get to that number.
What is different about the FBInumber?
That's reported?
That number is about 730murders, and what the city, what
Keller did, and Medina, theydecided a couple of years ago

(46:09):
God, we got too many murders.
So let's do math.
They calculate murdersdifferent and what's different
about it is is, if you use aweapon and kill somebody in
self-defense, that is stilltechnically a homicide and that
is counted by the FBI as ahomicide.
And just remember what I said660 to 730.
So what, what is?
Do the math real quick that's70.

(46:31):
Yeah, that's 70 people in ourcity that, in the last seven and
a half years, have killedsomebody in their self
defensedefense.
And if there's ever been anargument for making sure that
people have the right to defendthemselves and with weapons,
it's their own fake math thatthey're doing.

(46:51):
And when I see that number,look, I get it, I understand it.
I'm not saying that that's amurder from the standpoint of
hey, this guy was coming into myhouse, but it is indicative of
how violent the city is.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Very violent.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
And look at the number of officer-involved
shootings we've had, and many ofthem fatal and again, not any
way shape or form.
Am I criticizing the lawenforcement officers and the
rank and file that are out there.
It doesn't seem like threeweeks go by and we have another
officer-involved shooting.
It's because these streets areso vicious right now.
They don't give a damn.
If an officer shows up and saysyou know, police, put up your

(47:29):
hands.
No, they'll point a gun at them.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
Yeah, okay, so kind of similar on this topic.
Doug Peterson asks if he willend the Justice Department's
consent decree that ishamstringing ABQ police.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
Yes, Let me just say, Doug Peterson, you know there's
a few of us sitting at thistable that have been attacked by
the police department forquestioning the Albuquerque
Police Department and the mayorthere's been two of us, you and
me.
And Doug Peterson.

Speaker 4 (47:58):
And Doug Peterson.
Yes, and Doug Peterson.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
And what has he done?
He just highlights howdifficult of an environment it
is for small businesses.
And Doug Peterson, and DougPeterson yes, I was just going
to say Doug Peterson and whathas he done?
He just highlights howdifficult of an environment it
is for small businesses and heis out there on the front lines
every day battling this and,yeah, of course, the
administration is going toattack him because they don't
want people to see it, and hedoes it every single day.
So God bless Doug for what hedoes, because he's shining a

(48:24):
spotlight on just how awful ofan environment it is for
business owners.
Yes, we have to get out of thisdecree.
Ginger's made a lot of money onit and it's time for that gravy
train to end.
That's one thing.
The other part of this is thereis a direct correlation and
there is a study now from lawenforcement agencies who have
been under these decrees and theskyrocketing crime that's

(48:47):
associated with it, becauseyou're taking valuable resources
from these rank and file outhere on the streets and you're
moving them inside to do thingslike, oh, to do paperwork and to
do accounting, basically, andit's hurting us.
It has to stop and if I'melected mayor, I'm going to do
everything I can.
Uh, short of going to thedepartment of justice and saying

(49:08):
, please, enough is enough.
Look some of the reforms thatthey implemented.
They're very important, I getit, but enough is enough.
We have to be able to protectour citizens and and and after a
while, you know, publicconfidence.
It's such an important thingfor a law enforcement agency to

(49:30):
have public confidence and, andwe're going to start losing it,
people are going to give up andjust say the hell with it.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
And it's been 10 years.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
It's unbelievable.
It's been 10 years and soobviously we've been talking
about a lot of businesses thathave been shutting down.
I mean, there are just verypopular places that have been
around for decades that haveshuttered their windows.
One question in here fromRebecca Latham.
She said that she'd like tohear the top three things that
you plan to do differently thanthe current administration to
make ABQ more business friendly.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Well, first and foremost, unlike our chief of
police, as insane as this is, Iam not going to write letters to
businesses in our community andcomplain that they're being
victimized by crime.
And what have you done?
What have you done?
Business, cvs, walgreens donebusiness, cvs, walgreens, honda

(50:27):
what have you done?
And if I were any of thesebusinesses that received these
letters, same thing downtown.
We're going to have a registrybecause you have to board up
your businesses.
Why?
Because I'm not going to openup a business downtown.
It's a shooting gallery downthere, and so one.
I'm not going to blamebusinesses.
I'm not going to be sendingthem letters saying it's your
responsibility.
You're the police department.

(50:48):
Your role is to keep peoplesafe.
It's outrageous that he sentthose letters, just getting
dumbfounded by the fact that hislack of leadership has put the
city in a in a crime crisis,which is translated into
businesses are suffering and soblame them.

(51:09):
That's number one.
Number two we have to clean upour streets, we have to focus on
these areas and everybody justthinks it's central.
It's not it.
There are so many areas of ourcity that have been affected by
this, because just the other dayI was at Tramway in Montgomery
but dismissed, and there werejust homeless people walking

(51:31):
everywhere, panhandling andcoming, and they can get very
aggressive and you wonder whypeople are using Amazon.
Well, you know what?
Maybe I'll just the hell withit.
I don't want to be confronted.
I'll just the hell with it.
I don't want to be confronted.
I'll just have it ordered andhave the.
You know, have them drop it off.

Speaker 4 (51:47):
Um and then hope that there's nobody that shows up in
your on your porch to stealyour packages.
I mean it's just a revolvingdoor right now.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
So exactly and uh, and then also you know we have
to.
There are many people in thiscommunity that I've talked to
that and I was one of themopening up a business and going
through the process of gettingall of your zoning and all of
your permits.
Rj Berry did a really goodthing, being that he was a

(52:14):
businessman.
He did this.
He came up with this concept ofthe one-stop shop.
And so when you go in and youwant this concept of the
one-stop shop, and so when yougo in and you want, you want to
open up a business inAlbuquerque, first of all we
should be welcoming that.
And but let's make that processa lot easier.
Let's make it so when they'recoming in, they're partnering

(52:36):
with us.
Right now, many of them tell meit's a very adversarial
relationship.
You walk in and it's you know,it's the regulator.
Oh, let me see what we can findthat you did wrong versus how
can we help you?
And we have to make that.
We have to make that process alot smoother, a lot more
welcoming and more welcome.
And then, most importantly,let's get these people to a

(52:59):
position where somebody told methat it took them over two years
.
Do you know what it's like tohave those construction loans.
So we have to make the processeasier, we have to provide an
environment where people aresafe and then, most importantly,
let's stop blaming thebusinesses for the failures of

(53:20):
Harold Medina.

Speaker 4 (53:20):
Yeah, I felt like I heard, and maybe you guys can
remember this, I swear somedowntown businesses were
complaining a while back thatthey were going to be charged a
fee for their cops to protecttheir businesses.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Yeah, we're going to get taxed, extra Taxed extra.
Again, this goes to thatmindset, though.
See, that's what Harold Medinathinks.
He does not understand that 80%of all the jobs that are
created in this city it's smallbusinesses that do it and cause
he doesn't understand because hehasn't done it.
And you have to have thatmentality, and so when you look
at that somebody coming from thebusiness world, you can look at

(53:55):
something like that right awayChristine, go, we've got to stop
that.
This is going to, this is goingto kill us.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
What's so?
So let's start.
Okay, one more for you, We'llget you out of here, but I think
it's interesting.
We always try to dive in,especially in political races,
on the why and what's it goingto take for you to win.
Okay, we understand.
Like I said, you just spend anhour like shredding mayor Keller
and anybody listening to thiswould be like, yeah, okay, I
just don't see Keller winning.
So that's the end of this race.

(54:22):
Darren, congratulations.
Can't wait to your mayor herein November, but it's going to
be very difficult.
So what is it going?
What are you going to have todo to get yourself over the line
, so people are able to realize?
To go from things are bad tothings are bad because we have
bad leadership and it's time fora change.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
Yeah, I'll end where I started.
As I said, I, I've won.
I know what it takes to win anelection two of them, uh and to
be reelected.
Uh, we have the facts on ourside and and and it's.
It's up to us to make sure thatthe public understands that
they get it.
I I'm not, I'm not sitting here.
Everything that I've said,that's, that's the other thing,

(55:00):
and none of this is new toanybody.
They only have to do is liketurn on the TV tonight and
they're going to see anothercrime scene in Albuquerque,
where there's 30 little, thoselittle yellow cones where all
the bullet casings are, and talkabout how another guy is dead
and another one's on his way tothe hospital.
So, but we have to reinforcethat.
We have a plan and and and I'llsum it up like it did, mark it,

(55:23):
it it 660 murders, homelesscamps taking over our streets,
city workers cleaning up humanwaste and businesses that are
being boarded up all over town.
What has Tim Keller, what doesTim Keller intend to do in 12
years that he hasn't done ineight?

(55:44):
And that's it.
And, and I'm as I said, we're.
All these things that we'vetalked about, talked about, are
critically important on theissues.
I think people are also justtired of Tim Keller and they
know our city needs to go inanother direction and I'm ready
to give them that change.
But most importantly, mark, Ihave to tell you where you can
learn about.
That is DarrenWhiteForMayorcom.
He's dialed in now, baby.

(56:06):
You will learn more about mypositions and possibly a
contribution if you'd like tosupport our effort at
DarrenWhiteForMayorcom.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
That is the word for not the number for yes, well
done.

Speaker 4 (56:20):
Okay, Well, thanks, Darren for sitting in our hot
seat.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
You're always fun and entertaining.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
So thanks for answering all those holiday
questions and thanks, you guys,for joining us.
Have a great week and we willsee you guys back here.
There it is.
There's the website by the way,in case you're curious.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
It's up there.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Look, I like it looks good, it looks good.

Speaker 4 (56:38):
Nice job.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Darren.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
Don't forget to give.

Speaker 4 (56:41):
Don't forget, you can't win races without money.
That is true.
It's a bummer, but it's true.
That is the actual truth rightthere.
It's absolutely true.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
All right, Darren White, thanks so much we
appreciate it.
We'll have you back, I'm sure,along the way here.
Election is in November and itis a nonpartisan election, not
partisanship.
We'll see you back here in justa few days.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
You've been listening to the no Doubt About it
podcast.
We hope you've enjoyed the show.
We know we had a blast.
Make sure to like, rate andreview.
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(57:24):
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Speaker 2 (57:29):
The no Doubt About it .