A sign located on Central and Vermont had been sitting as a broken down piece of garbage for around a year. When deciding on a location for the memorial to honor victims of overdose in the streets of Albuquerque, this spot was chosen because it is the epicenter of the homeless population in the War Zone, meaning everyone could easily participate in building it. As a memorial for the people, that is the most important thing. While the memorial specifically focused on fentanyl overdose, it was expanded to include victims of police brutality, people who have died due to interpersonal violence, and the other horrors people on the streets and in the War Zone live through.

Seeing as the politicians of Albuquerque like Tim Keller like to pose as friends of the homeless, but have never created such a grassroots effort involving mass participation to honor people who have died from fentanyl (though they will go to the War Zone for the photo ops!), we figured this was a perfect opportunity for the city to preserve our memorial. However, instead, they proved themselves to be bullies of the people.

After about a week of the memorial being up, it was covered with gray paint. The shops on this corner told us that they had never seen vandalism get covered up so quickly. In fact sometimes these shops report vandalism and the city “resolves” their complaints without even cleaning up the vandalism. This was covered so quickly because the people in power want us to forget about those one the streets. After it was covered up the first time, we went around to people who participated in building it to figure out how we could respond. A large number of us had the instinct that we had to hit back by recreating the memorial. So it slowly started getting built back up again, with people adding names and messages to loved ones who had passed on the streets.

Once the memorial started getting back up again, the property manager received a threat from the city that the sign had to be refurbished or they would receive a fine. Again, this sign had sat as a piece of garbage for around a year and the city said nothing.

While the sign becoming “nice” is not a political win, it is important to recognize how the efforts of people on the street affected the plans that the city had for a specific piece of property. The forced refurbishment of the sign is an ugly and poorly planned rushed job to prevent the memorial from being continually re-upped. The people on the street who took action to claim this piece of property for their own purposes were the decisive factor that shifted the city’s response. If it had not been for the memorial, this sign likely would’ve sat for many more months as a piece of garbage or been torn down.

There is a real need for a genuine and long lasting memorial for people who have died from the streets. And this memorial should be accessible to the people who actually need it, like the one on Central and Vermont. We think this is the job of the city, but we know they won’t create something actually for the people. That’s why it is up to those of us who have a heart for the people to create these efforts. The government wants us to forget about all the people who have died on the streets because if we really paid attention to it then there would be a lot of angry people looking for action. It’s our duty to feel these emotions and be moved by them. The ruling class is hoping we won’t. Hit us up if you wanna act!