In the last three years, Albuquerque police department officers have shot and killed 23 people -- one of the highest per capita fatal police shooting rates in the country. One of the most recent was James Boyd, a mentally ill homeless man. The incident was captured on video, and shows Boyd, armed with two knives, standing several feet away from officers. He is turning away from them when he is shot. As he lay on the ground, officers fired beanbags at him and set a police dog on him. He died the next day. 
 
 Albuquerque PD chief Gordon Eden said the shooting was justified because Boyd "directed a threat" at one of the officers and they'd already used non-lethal force to no effect. As we know, if police officers think they are being threatened -- whether that threat turns out to be real or just a 70-year-old man reaching for his cane -- they are allowed to shoot people. 
 
 About 1,000 people took to the streets on March 25 to protest Boyd's killing. Even a retired APD officer participated, telling KRQE: "The methods they used were not methods I'd ever been taught." 
 
 A few hours later, another officer shot and killed Alfred Redwine, though he was armed with a gun and may have fired at officers before they shot him (officers say he did, neighbors say he didn't). 
 
 On March 28, the FBI announced that it was investigating Boyd's shooting. The Department of Justice has been investigating the APD for years. 
 
 Today, following Anonymous' call to action, hundreds of protestors marched to the APD headquarters, then took to other streets, blocking traffic. Officers donned riot gear, but so far (and somewhat surprisingly) no one has been shot. There were reports of tear gas being fired. The protest has been going on for hours now. 
 
 Meanwhile, APD's website was hacked. The site was down for hours, according to the AP, and officer's personal information (for example, Eden's) was obtained and tweeted. Anonymous has taken credit for the hack. 
 
 The Albuquerque Journal (which has a good liveblog of the protest) estimates that the the city has spent more than $24 million on police misconduct lawsuits, including a $7.95 million lawsuit to the family of a man killed while holding a gun to his own head. 

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 What began as a peaceful protest on a sunny day in Albuquerque turned more and more unruly Sunday, as hundreds of people marched back and forth on Central Avenue until police threw more than two dozen canisters of tear gas and arrested at least half a dozen protesters. 
 
 Marchers took over much of Downtown and the university area during a daylong demonstration, where they called for accountability for Albuquerque police and justice for James M. Boyd, a homeless, mentally ill man who was shot and killed by officers March 16 in the Sandia foothills. Protesters also decried past APD officer-involved shootings. 
 
 The rally began at noon. After 9 p.m., police used around a dozen canisters of tear gas to disperse protesters near Central and Vassar, several people were seen being arrested, and Mayor Richard Berry said in a late-night news conference that an officer was injured. 
 
 “We respected their rights to protest, obviously,” Berry said, “but … they’ve taken it far beyond a normal protest.” 
 
 The march along Central boiled over at several points, with protesters ignoring police commands to disperse and having a standoff with officers in riot gear. The demonstration came after an online “hacktivist” group, known as Anonymous, issued a call to action in response to seeing video of Boyd’s shooting. The group also waged a cyberattack against the APD website, which was inaccessible throughout the day Sunday, and what appeared to be a number of officers’ personal phone numbers were released by a purported hacker. 
 
 At one of the most tense moments, demonstrators sat down on Fifth Street near APD headquarters, not complying with officers’ demands to disperse. Police were heard calling the protest an “unlawful assembly” and donned gas masks, riot shields and batons. 
 
 Protesters eventually moved on after an hour and marched east on Central Avenue and briefly took over Interstate 25, slowing 75-mph traffic and prompting a police response. 
 
 From there, protesters arrived at the university area, where one man climbed a Central Avenue light pole and tried to topple it. After that, protesters marched largely unhindered by police toward Girard and Central, where they jumped on top of an APD substation and sprayed it with graffiti. 
 
 Riot police finally arrived and arranged themselves in a line across the busy street. They were joined by officers on horseback, in addition to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team. Protesters confronted them at first but then were able to circumvent the line and continue west on Central Avenue. 
 
 After repeated commands from police to leave, officers used cans of tear gas, with gas reportedly drifting north across Johnson Field into the University of New Mexico dorms. UNM later advised students to use their air conditioners if the gas caused any issues. Students were already on a “shelter in place” advisory because of the protesting and police activity. 
 
 Then the protests reconvened Downtown at APD headquarters. After another dose of tear gas, fewer than 100 protesters left the building and were ushered by a police line toward Civic Plaza. 
 
 When protesters arrived Downtown, a man driving a paint-ball gun rental truck stopped in front of the APD building and pulled out what he claimed was an AK-47 rifle. The man said that the only way to meet APD’s force was with force, but protesters persuaded him to put the gun away. 
 
 By 11:30 p.m., police had begun moving out of Downtown, though a small fight broke out and protesters dragged city barriers into the road near Fourth and Central. 
 
 The city, in a statement, said that Berry and Police Chief Gorden Eden were monitoring the situation throughout the day. Berry, in the news conference, did not provide any more details about the injured officer, but said protesters threw rocks at police and that at least one other officer was trapped in a police cruiser as protesters tried to break the windows. 
 
 “The professionalism these men and women are showing is extraordinary,” the mayor said. 
 
 The protest started at the Alvarado Transport Center and went to APD headquarters at Fourth and Roma before heading to Civic Plaza. There, on the steps at the north end of the plaza, members of various activist groups and family members of those shot by police called for accountability. 
 
 “Hey hey! Ho ho! Killer cops have got to go!” the protesters could be heard chanting on a livestream video by protester Thomas Dixon. It was watched by nearly 1,500 people at any given time. 
 
 Protesters said they were outraged by the shooting death of Boyd and others in recent years, and one credited Anonymous as inspiring her activism. 
 
 “I definitely was encouraged by Anonymous to come out,” said Jennifer Girod, who held a sign saying “APD: Not judge, jury and executioner” on Sunday. “We’re saying something, these killings need to stop.” 
 
 Family members lined pictures of those shot and killed by the department on its steps. 
 
 Apart from the protests in the streets, APD confirmed that its website was down to what it called a “cyber attack.” 
 
 The APD website appeared to have gone back online briefly, according to an online service that checks website statuses, but was down again throughout the day. It was back up as of 11:15 p.m., according to an online service that checks website statuses. 
 
 Anonymous, in a video it issued following the shooting, asked its members to “turn their cannons” to APD websites. 
 
 Also on Sunday, a Twitter account that purports to be associated with Anonymous tweeted what it called a hacked list of APD officers’ telephone numbers. The APD spokeswoman said she had no way of knowing Sunday afternoon whether the numbers were authentic. 
 
 Asked about the release of officers’ personal information, “It’s obviously a concern, not just for those officers but their families,” Berry said. 

 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Albuquerque's mayor said that a more than 10-hour protest over recent police shootings turned from peaceful into "mayhem," as officers in riot gear clashed with hundreds of protesters who blocked traffic, tried to get on freeways and shouted anti-police slogans. 
 
 A protesters tries to pull down an Albuquerque, N.M. street sign Sunday March 30, 2014, during a rally against recent police shootings. Hundreds of protesters marched past riot police in Albuquerque... (Associated Press) 
 
 Albuquerque police face off with protesters Sunday, March 30, 2014, in downtown Albuquerque, N.M. during a protest against recent police shootings. Hundreds of protesters marched past riot police in Albuquerque... (Associated Press) 
 
 Protesters block traffic Sunday March 30, 2014, in front of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, N.M. during a rally against recent police shootings. Hundreds of protesters marched past riot police... (Associated Press) 
 
 A protester faces off with an Albuquerque officer during a rally against recent police shootings in Albuquerque, N.M. on Sunday March 30, 2014. Hundreds of protesters marched past riot police in Albuquerque... (Associated Press) 
 
 Protesters sit in downtown Albuquerque, N.M. during a rally Sunday March 30, 2014, against recent police shootings. Hundreds of protesters marched past riot police in Albuquerque on Sunday, days after... (Associated Press) 
 
 Protesters tries to pull down an Albuquerque, N.M. street sign Sunday March 30, 2014, during a rally against recent police shootings. Hundreds of protesters marched past riot police in Albuquerque on... (Associated Press) 
 
 Richard Berry said Sunday that one officer was injured, rocks were thrown and at one point protesters trapped police in a vehicle and tried to break the windows, the Albuquerque Journal reported (http://bit.ly/1lxuypl). An Associated Press reporter saw gas canisters being thrown outside police headquarters and Albuquerque police and Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies charging at the protesters late Sunday, which mostly dispersed the crowds. 
 
 The number of protesters dwindled to fewer than 100 before midnight, and three or four people were arrested, the newspaper said. 
 
 Multiple messages left for the Police Department weren't immediately returned. Video by KRQE-TV showed people being led away in zip-tie restraints, but it's unclear if those people were arrested or if any protesters were injured. 
 
 "We respected their rights to protest, obviously," Berry said, "but what it appears we have at this time is individuals who weren't connected necessarily with the original protest. They've taken it far beyond a normal protest." 
 
 Protesters took to the streets in the early afternoon and stayed out late Sunday after authorities declared an unlawful assembly. People are angry over Albuquerque police's involvement in 37 shootings, 23 of them fatal since 2010. Critics say that's far too many for a department serving a city of about 555,000. 
 
 The protesters repeatedly marched the 2 miles from downtown Albuquerque to the University of New Mexico, holding signs protesting recent police shootings and often snarling traffic. Motorists honked, and supporters took photos with smartphones. Activists called on various city officials to resign, yelling late Sunday for the police chief to resign. 
 
 Justin Elder, 24, followed the protest as a passenger in a car and held a sign that read, "APD: Dressed To Kill." 
 
 "That's what this police force is about," Elder said. 
 
 Albuquerque police in riot gear and New Mexico State Police followed the marchers, and protesters were seen shouting epithets at officers. At one point, a protester climbed a tall street sign on the city's historic Route 66 and unsuccessfully attempted to bring it down. 
 
 A different protester, Alexander Siderits, 23, said he was participating because he was "fed up" with how police treat citizens. "It has reached a boiling point," he said, "and people just can't take it anymore." 
 
 The U.S. Justice Department has been investigating the department for more than a year, looking into complaints of civil rights violations and allegations of excessive use of force. 
 
 The gathering came days after a YouTube video emerged threatening retaliation for a recent deadly police shooting. 
 
 The video, which bore the logo of the computer hacking collective Anonymous, warned of a cyberattack on city websites and called for the protest march. Albuquerque police said their site had been breached early Sunday afternoon, but it was back by evening after being offline for hours. 
 
 Earlier Sunday, police spokesman Simon Drobik confirmed the disruption was due to a cyberattack and said investigators had not uncovered the source of the hack. 
 
 In the shooting on March 16 that led to the YouTube posting Tuesday, a homeless man was killed in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains on the east side of Albuquerque. The shooting was captured on video and followed a long standoff. The FBI has opened an investigation into the shooting. 
 
 Last week, Albuquerque police fatally shot a man at a public housing complex. Authorities said he shot at officers before they returned fire.
– What started as a peaceful protest yesterday in Albuquerque ended up with at least six protesters arrested, one officer injured, and more than two dozen canisters of tear gas thrown into the hundreds-strong crowd. Demonstrators started rallying downtown at noon, protesting against officer-involved shootings in the city, particularly the March 16 fatal shooting of homeless man James M. Boyd. The tear gas was used after 9pm, when protesters ignored commands to disperse, the Albuquerque Journal reports. Demonstrators also blocked traffic and caused "mayhem," the mayor said, as they tried to get onto freeways, the AP reports. Protesters were accused of vandalism, fighting, throwing rocks, and trying to break the windows of a police cruiser with an officer trapped inside. "We respected their rights to protest, obviously," said the mayor, but "they’ve taken it far beyond a normal protest." Boyd, who struggled with mental illness, was caught on video as he faced off with officers in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. He was standing several feet away from police and turning away from them, but holding two knives, when he was shot, the Wire reports. Once he was down, officers also set a police dog on him and fired beanbags at him. The FBI is investigating the incident. Police in the city of about 555,000 have been involved in 37 shootings since 2010, 23 of them fatal, and the Justice Department is investigating civil rights complaints against the department. Hacktivist group Anonymous called for yesterday's march; it also launched a cyberattack on the police department website.