Jan. 20—A Republican lawmaker called on the Legislature to pass tough-on-crime bills this session after he said he was the victim of a vehicle break-in in New Mexico’s capital city Friday night.

“They’re just going to continue to do this kind of crap until we say no more and no more thuggery in New Mexico,” Rep. John Block said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Saturday afternoon.

Block, 27, an Alamogordo Republican who is in his first term, said “thugs” stole his battery charger, tire inflator and rummaged through his car “even though I have a club on the steering wheel.

“We need tough-on-crime laws that makes sure that we repel these kinds of thugs, tweakers, junkies and different kinds of other lawless criminals from doing this to law-abiding citizens,” he said.

Block, who grew up in Santa Fe, said two other cars on the same street were broken into as well.

“I’ve only been here for three or four days in Santa Fe, and I’ve already had my car broken into. That should tell you everything,” he said.

“This is not OK. We need to stop this,” he continued. “We need to put these thugs and these criminals in jail, and they need to pay and know that this cannot happen in New Mexico.”

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.