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We're havin' a crime wave, friend. A big city crime wave. There ain't no denyin': The crime rate is risin'.

My apologies to Irving Berlin, but I'm taking to song as newly released crime statistics indicate Albuquerque's the place you want to be if you want to open a new career in B&E - breaking and entering - or a chophouse, er, chop shop.

Police figures reveal that burglarized homes and chop shops - garages that specialize in taking stolen cars and doing what needs to be done to move them whole or in pieces onto the black market - flourish in Albuquerque.

While some turn to crime to keep themselves strung out on meth or crack, it's probably not a stretch to say most have discovered that - given the unlikelihood of capture - crime pays.

The Albuquerque Police Department's numbers can't be good for business or the morale of the good citizens of the Duke City. Nor can they be enjoyable for Mayor Martin Chavez, a man with visions of unseating Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who will serve out the remainder of Gov. Bill Richardson's term to 2010, once the governor is elected president. That's hard to write without chuckling.

The crime figures - which didn't just pop up overnight - come shortly after this newspaper's series detailing Albuquerque's growing gang problem, a series that included articles about a four-year-long gang war waged across the city.

While the mayor originally denied there is an ongoing gang war in his town, the growing number of deaths and increased fear gripping West Side neighborhoods paint a different picture.

"As much as I'd love to hold a news conference and scream about gangs, I can't," he told The Tribune in April.

Odd. He hollered about gangs plenty during his first term. He all but declared war on them. He went after gangs, graffiti monsters and hoodlums the way Ness went after Capone.

Apparently the mayor - his eyes focused on new digs in Santa Fe, one imagines - prefers safer, more politically correct targets today. He's banned smoking on city property, save the golf courses, and has agreed to criminalize hands-on cell phone use while driving.

And then there are his gold mines, his jackpots at the end of the crosswalks: his red-light cameras. News conferences lauding this constitutionally troublesome devices are now the norm.

Judging by the headlines Chavez has scored by taking on the criminal masterminds who speed, smoke or drive under the influence of Verizon or Sprint, etc., it's clearly been good politics. That might make for good contributions from folks who believe these matters are truly important. Still, one wonders how many campaign contributions will come from folks who've been robbed, mugged or worse.

There's an ironic bottom line to the mayor's priorities: Break into a home or steal a car, and it's likely you'll skate. Smoke a cigarette in an airport bathroom, and it's likely your ash.