June 26th, 2012 1:42pm
BREAKING NEWS: PUBLIC ACCESS STATION
DENIED ACCESS TO BUILDING BY ARMED GUARD
Albuquerque public media nonprofit
Quote Unquote made unable to
fulfill contract with City by force.
Albuquerque citizens along with the
staff and board Quote Unquote Inc.
showed up to the station at 519
Central NW to find their access
revoked by an armed officer placed
there by the City of Albuquerque.
Preliminary reports by community
members and would-be “movers”
gathered on the street outside the
station suggest that sometime over
the course of last night the City
Attorney ordered the locks changed
on the building and used taxpayers’
money to station an armed guard
there to prevent access. Apparently,
the City of Albuquerque became
aware of Quote Unquote’s very public
and transparent appeal to its 30
year-long base of community
supporters for help with moving all real
property owned by the nonprofit for
use at the new location of the
public access television provider.
Currently still on the air (Comcast
Cable Channel 27 or
www.quote-unquote.org)
and fulfilling their end of the bargain, Quote
Unquote staff, employees and
volunteers fully expected to be able to
“do their job” this morning when they
arrived to a guard with a gun.
As you can see in the attached letter
by City Attorney David Tourek,
Quote Unquote’s contract does not end
until June 30th, 2012. Expectant
volunteers and outraged community
members are now gathering at the
station with concerns about the City
of Albuquerque’s ability to
uphold Quote Unquote’s 30 year legacy
of providing working-class
citizens with a platform to exercise
their right to free speech for
the remainder of this month and into
the future.
Quote Unquote Executive Director
Steve Ranieri is currently attempting
to follow City protocol expressed in
the City Attorney’s letter and
arrange a meeting with City of
Albuquerque Media Resources Manager and
Request for Proposals ah-hoc
committee member Dave Mathews, in order
to gain access to the building so
that employees and board members can
retrieve property that does not
belong to the City of Albuquerque.
The City of Albuquerque is the
defendant in a forthcoming lawsuit
regarding Quote Unquote and a
possible investigation into the
misappropriation of IPEG funds.
