City retires processions

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — City officials said Monday that the city will never again do what it did last week with Police Captain Richard Perez.

A decision by the police department to honor Perez on his retirement with a procession complete with lights and sirens through downtown Gallup has created a storm of protests and a decision by Honeyfield to step in and make sure that it didn't happen again.

The procession began about 2 p.m. Thursday at city hall and city police in five or six vehicles drove from there to the Larry Brian Mitchell Recreation Center on the Northside, sirens and lights blazing.

Councilwoman Mary Ann Armijo was driving on Second Street when she saw the procession heading her way and was forced, she said, to try to find somewhere to go to the side of the road because she thought there was an emergency.

"I was concerned about public safety," she said, pointing out that there were few places on Second because of the parked cars for her and the other drivers to turn off.

She finally managed to find a small area where she drove up on the curb in order to allow the police cars to pass.

She said she didn't think police really considered the problems they would cause motorists by going down Second Street and making everyone pull over thinking there was an emergency.

That's generally the same problem Honeyfield said he had with the decision to honor Perez for 20 years of service if you are going to have police vehicles flash their lights and sound their sirens, it should only be for an emergency.

He was asked what the difference was between what the police department did for Perez and their policy of providing police escorts at funeral proessions through town.

In the first place, said Honeyfield, the funeral procession is going very slowly and police are at the front and back.

"Also, people are used to that kind of situation," he said. They aren't used to what happened on Thursday.

Also compounding the problem was the fact that the Gallup Fire Department was in the process of having an actual emergency, responding to a medical call, and being forced to make a detour because of a decision to block off one of the intersections going to the Northside, he said.

Neither Honeyfield or Armijo were aware of this kind of retirement procession ever occurring before in Gallup, although police officials said they have heard of it happening in other cities.

Honeyfield said he met with the town's police chief, Sylvester Stanley, and both agreed that this would not happen again.