RIO RANCHO, NM: If the goal was to show a force of power and strength, it was a failure. Saturday evening New Mexico BLM organization which identifies as the Black New Mexico Movement (BNMM) held their long-planned protest in Rio Rancho. A few things didn’t go according to plan, though. First, BNNM Was forced to change locations for their protest multiple times. On Friday, we called out BLM/BNMM for repeatedly targeting Legacy Church, beginning with threatening Legacy Church pastor Smotherman earlier this summer, talking about protesting his church and most recently deciding to host a BLM rally at the location of Legacy Church’s Rio Rancho campus parking lot.

BLM carried signs saying “ACAB* Abolish the Police,” and the regular, “Black Lives Matter,” sign.
*ACAB means All Cops are B*stards or sometimes All Cops are Bad.

On Facebook, BLM/BNMM co-founder Te Barry had proudly declared, “I’ll slap the sh*t out [of] the pastor,” while Frankie Grady (who had also been detained by APD for “illegally” carrying a gun at the Albuquerque Plaza in July) responded, “We should protest in front of it…”

With the protest known about for weeks, a few organizations planned a peaceful counter-protest, however, after they were urged by the Rio Rancho Police Department to cancel, they respectfully did. With no official counter-protest, it looked like BLM/BNMM might have an event with little public outcry unless they decided to take to the streets with violence.

After we exposed the connection and repeated targeting of Legacy Church in Friday’s blogpost, BLM/BNMM broke the news Saturday morning that they would be moving the protest to a different location. They moved the protest to across the street from Weck’s in Rio Rancho, to the parking lot of a local inn, then changed their location to near MVD express in Rio Rancho another time.

At the location near MVD express, BLM/BNMM protesters set up a speaker and began their protest or rally. The protest was attended poorly, but word seemed to have gotten out to residents of Rio Rancho, and we had individuals tell us they didn’t plan to attend the protest until they heard BLM/BNMM had moved the protest to their neighborhood.

The national organization Wall of Vets chapter had put together what BLM/BNMM leader Te Barry declared to be the “security team,” for the organization. The supposedly-veteran led organization brought in a number of white individuals, especially women, to serve in its ranks for this particular protest. If you’re familiar with the organization, its probably because you’ve heard it mentioned in connection to Antifa and BLM protests in Portland, where the “security” organization has been active.

A the protesters saw they wouldn’t have the opportunity to intimidate more people, BLM/BNMM talked with police and stated they would receive a Rio a rancho police escort to their vehicles.

Lastly, Te Barry declared his organization would be back next week, to which patriots responded, “We will, too!”

We are unsure what “we will be back next week,” doesn’t mean BLM/BNMM will be back to targeting Legacy Church next week. If they want to make a difference, they should get involved in city government or focus on helping– not creating hate– in our communities.