“Breaking Bad” characters Walter White and Jesse Pinkman were permanently enshrined in bronze statues in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is where the hit show was filmed, prompting a Republican state representative to declare that the city is “literally glorifying meth makers.”
“I’m glad New Mexico got the business, but really?” state Rep. Rod Montoya told Fox News. “We’re going down the road of literally glorifying meth makers?”
Conservative radio host Eddy Aragon told the network that when it comes to the show that ran on AMC from 2008-2013, art is an unfortunate imitation of life and the statues are “not the type of recognition we want for the city of Albuquerque, or for our state.”
“I think what you saw on Breaking Bad should be a documentary, honestly. I think, really, that is the reality in New Mexico,” he told Fox News. “We try to say it’s fictional, but that is the reality, the Jesse Pinkman, the Heisenbergs, the man who is running everything, Gus [Fring], and the way that they’re bringing it in from Mexico is exactly the way that it is right now, so we’ve joked that it should be on PBS… That is, unfortunately, the reality.”
“Now we have brand-new statues… Now we’re putting fictional characters out in front. We have Jesse Pinkman and, of course, Heisenberg, and we have now erected statues and our progressive mayor from the city of Albuquerque has stood behind them,” Aragon added. “We’re funding those, so it’s OK to go get rid of real historical figures and now, somehow it’s even better, to [have] fictional, drug-dealing figures.”
With “Better Call Saul” wrapping up after six seasons Monday night, Fox News reported on how that ends “the long run of the ‘Breaking Bad’ universe about the Albuquerque’s cartel-fueled drug ring and the underbelly of New Mexico’s most populated city,” before noting that the plot “is a little too close to home for some residents.”
As for Democratic Mayor Tim Keller, he was too distracted by potential dollar signs as he spoke of the potential impact on the city’s economy to consider the optics of celebrating two mythical meth cookers.
“While the stories might be fictional… jobs are real every single day,” Keller said, during last month’s unveiling. “The city is also a character. … We see ourselves in so many ways, good and bad.”
The statue is likely to fare better than the statue of conquistador Juan de Oñate, which was targeted by a left-wing Albuquerque mob in 2020 in an attempt to tear it down.
City officials would later appease the racial justice warriors and remove the monument to de Oñate, who is seen as the first European to colonize the arid wilderness of New Mexico, according to NPR.
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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