Crime in Gallup? (Albuquerque: hotels, restaurants, safety)

[councilor j]

Gallup was listed as in the top 20 as with one of the highest crime indexes in the whole country out of every city and town in the country,so there has to be a reason.

[Rothbard]

Sorry you've had a negative experience in Gallup!

- I just don't have any explanation for your experience at the MVD. That doesn't sound like any small town I've ever seen including Gallup. That sounds more like where I currently reside (Hell On Earth, NV). I guess there are some busier times than others. I went on a weekday mid-afternoon in January.

- I never experienced being choked by exhaust fumes. No car made over the past 15 years is likely to fail an emissions inspection unless something is broken. Smog check booths are a major racket here in Vegas for practically anyone who wants to open one.

- There are 4 on-ramps to I-40 in Gallup. You must live near the one by the Wal-Mart. That is a busy area on Saturdays. I lived 1/4 of a mile from the one at the Miyamura exit. It was extremely convenient at all times.

- Aztec & Munoz is also a busier area than where I lived. I lived in Park Apartments across form Ford Canyon Park; perfectly quiet and serene. Not much to see, but check it out.

- I have begun to find out that most of the crime stats come from Indian Reservation/ Homeless crimes that do not involve firearms.

At the end you listed some positive things. I think it will grow on you. It was a culture shock for my wife and I also. It took us about 2 years to truly get used to it.

Reply to Trail Majic:
All I know is, they don't sell any alcohol on Sundays in Gallup. As far as anti-wino enforcement, the trend since '02 is towards being stricter.

[Harleyologist]

This is the website and thread I've been looking for. I'm going to be moving to Gallup in a few weeks and I’ve been wondering what parts of town I should not move into. Areas with the poorest people are often crime ridden. Housing near downtown and the area north of the tracks looks like the older dumpy parts of town but that's where I'd like to go. It would be nice to be able to walk to work or walk to a restaurant or bar in the evenings. Living in the southeastern U.S. for many years, I've had to drive many miles for any sort of entertainment or shopping, it would be nice to find a neighborhood bar where I could get to know some people. Some of you have answered this question, sounds like the downtown area will tolerable at night; if I don’t over-do it and catch the eye of law enforcement.
However; that said, I also enjoy exploring the open rocky landscapes. I hope ranchers or landowners don’t mind if you walk across some of those big vast areas. I’m the type that would like to stop my car or motorcycle and walk up a scenic peak or mesa located in the distance.

[Hop-frog]

I will relocate my family to Gallup, New Mexico. We will rent an apartment and use public transportation to get around, and plan to stay for just a year or two. Checking the crime statistics, though, I see that the crime rate is really high. Beyond statistics, I cannot find anything explaining why the crime is so high there.

Is this crime targeted at specific types of people? Or limited to specific parts of the city? Are there ways to avoid these problems? Or are the victims just random people?

[Zoidberg]

Gallup has a train wreck of crime factors-

1) Interstate 40. About a third of them containerships bringing things from China to your local Walmart go through Gallup, either on the rails, or on the backs of trucks. Truckers seem to be a vector for crime, whether as victims or perpetrators. It gives the place a lot more shiftlessness than it needs.

2) Extractive industries. The larger Gallup area's major jobs base includes coal, oil and natural gas extraction, refining and services and for some reason this type of work correlates with a slight uptick in crime.

3) Native American poverty, culture mismatch, and alcohol-exploitation. Gallup is probably the most urban Native-American centric place in the country. It has liquor stores, and when you're poor, depressed, cold, and/or have nothing better to do, liquor begins to become attractive. Alcohol has two stages of metabolism- the first, which everybody does, is convert ethanol to acetaldehyde, a toxic chemical. For some reason, certain Asian and Native American groups lack the second, which is to break the acetaldehyde down. This is a bad state to be in- it's like being able to stay drunk (but not in the fun way) for days instead of hours. The reservations which surround Gallup do not allow sales of alcohol, but they can't keep their citizens from driving into Gallup to the bars or liquor stores. Alcohol always seems to result in an uptick of crime, and this by itself is going to be your primary factor.

4) The earlier factors also deal in to heavy drug use and sales, though I suspect it's second to alcohol.

Public transportation in Gallup would give me pause- the weather can be quite brutal at times, and drunk drivers are a huge problem there (they may pick you up, literally, instead of the bus).

Most of the crime is a time-of-day factor, I would think. Give yourself a curfew and stick to it, and you'll significantly cut your chances of being a victim.

[Poncho_NM]

Indian Country Today, MEDIA NETWORK

‘Blood Money’: Life and Death in Gallup, NM. Nick Estes 1/14/15

"Gallup, New Mexico is notorious and deadly for Native people. Ranked as the most "dangerous city" in New Mexico by a recent FBI report, violent, unnatural deaths for Native people has become an everyday fact of life.

Gallup is also the county seat for McKinley County, the poorest county in New Mexico,

Read more at: ‘Blood Money’: Life and Death in Gallup, NM - ICTMN.com

[Hop-frog]

Thanks for the excellent details. I will stay far away from there.

[rruff]

Originally Posted by Hop-frog

Thanks for the excellent details. I will stay far away from there.

What is your reason for moving there?

[Cactus Hibs]

Originally Posted by rruff

What is your reason for moving there?

That's what I was wondering. While Gallup's definitely not all bad, I don't think that most people who have spent any time there would put it on their relocation list unless they were moving for a job or something.

[kpl1228]

Originally Posted by Zoidberg

Gallup has a train wreck of crime factors-

1) Interstate 40. About a third of them containerships bringing things from China to your local Walmart go through Gallup, either on the rails, or on the backs of trucks. Truckers seem to be a vector for crime, whether as victims or perpetrators. It gives the place a lot more shiftlessness than it needs.

2) Extractive industries. The larger Gallup area's major jobs base includes coal, oil and natural gas extraction, refining and services and for some reason this type of work correlates with a slight uptick in crime.

3) Native American poverty, culture mismatch, and alcohol-exploitation. Gallup is probably the most urban Native-American centric place in the country. It has liquor stores, and when you're poor, depressed, cold, and/or have nothing better to do, liquor begins to become attractive. Alcohol has two stages of metabolism- the first, which everybody does, is convert ethanol to acetaldehyde, a toxic chemical. For some reason, certain Asian and Native American groups lack the second, which is to break the acetaldehyde down. This is a bad state to be in- it's like being able to stay drunk (but not in the fun way) for days instead of hours. The reservations which surround Gallup do not allow sales of alcohol, but they can't keep their citizens from driving into Gallup to the bars or liquor stores. Alcohol always seems to result in an uptick of crime, and this by itself is going to be your primary factor.

4) The earlier factors also deal in to heavy drug use and sales, though I suspect it's second to alcohol.

Public transportation in Gallup would give me pause- the weather can be quite brutal at times, and drunk drivers are a huge problem there (they may pick you up, literally, instead of the bus).

Most of the crime is a time-of-day factor, I would think. Give yourself a curfew and stick to it, and you'll significantly cut your chances of being a victim.

Accurate overview, unfortunately.
To just visit during the Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, or to spend a day in shops, well worth it, however. But not to live forever.
An unbelievable culture of poverty. Lots of panhandling (aggressive and very sad), and in the winter, brutal and depressing, along with "death due to exposure" making the local paper at least a couple of times a week.
I teach near Gallup at a Navajo school, and I love it and my students, but I'm at the end of my rope with the area from a "quality of life" standpoint. Gallup does have some Western charm, some small town shops with authentic friendliness, the Native cultural stuff is interesting and beautiful, and some terrific folks live and work there, but the day-in day-out gut punches of depressed weather, poverty, and malaise just grinds you down and spits you out. HORRIBLE medical care. Not to mention unbelievably expensive rent and prices on homes, considering what you're getting. The town's landlords and realtors take full advantage of the federal and tribal government's high housing allowance for government workers, let's just put it that way.
Outside of folks who are teaching at the public schools or at the local UNM branch campus, or working for the Feds at Indian Health Services, and the occasional local business person, very little in the way of average folks making a living and investing in the community. And many of them (like us, as it turned out) are transient and/or won't be staying.
It takes a special person to live and work and stay in Gallup forever. (Mother Theresa, maybe.) I do understand why a certain person would commit to a life here, but that won't be us. Three years in, but we're leaving this summer. No more.