Posted inCity of Salem Police reform

Outside person should review recent Salem Police Department actions

In a non-shocking development, following criticism that the Salem Police Department erred in tear-gassing Black Lives Matter protesters and showed favoritism toward heavily armed "militia" members in the downtown area, a review by the Police Department of Police Department actions found that the Police Department did very little wrong. (Related news: following criticism by my wife that the haphazard way I load the dishwasher will lead to glasses being broken when they bang against each other, I did a review of my dishwasher-loading actions and found that I did very little wrong. Nonetheless, I'll change where the glasses go because…
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Posted inPolice reform

Check out the Reform Salem Police web site. It presents disturbing facts.

If you're concerned about how the Salem Police Department responded to the recent Black Lives Matter protests, or if you want to learn why people were bothered about what police officers did, check out this new web site: Reform Salem Police. Screenshot of top of home page I'm impressed with whoever put the web site together. It documents what the Police Department did during the protests from May 30 to June 1, 2020.  Notably, using tear gas and flash bangs against mostly peaceful protesters, while not holding armed militia members in the downtown area to the same curfew that was…
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Posted inSalem Police Department Salem-Keizer school district

Superintendent calls out Salem-Keizer school board for not being anti-racist

Wow! Last night, for the first time, I watched a Salem-Keizer school board meeting. It was gripping, almost like a soap opera, filled with emotion, inspiration, and, yes, aggravation. It was clear that the school board is dysfunctional under the inept leadership of chair Marty Heyen. There were more than 180 people signed up to testify at the meeting, where the district budget was to be approved, including money for the highly controversial school resource police officers. Yet at the beginning of the meeting Heyen took the time to engage in a pity party for herself, talking about how unjust…
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Posted inPolice reform

City Council caught between passion and prudence on policing reform

After remotely watching most of the discussion at last night's Salem City Council meeting about reforming how the Police Department operates, I was left with a letdown feeling even though I generally agreed with what the council did. Salem City Council Here's how a Statesman Journal story about the meeting summarized the outcome. During a four-hour meeting Monday night, the council eventually approved the $752 million fiscal year budget, which includes $48.8 million for the Salem Police Department. But Councilor Cara Kaser said they can still make changes in the budget at their discretion up to 10%.  ...Councilors authorized work sessions to include discussions…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council Salem Police Department

Looks like Salem City Council wants to reimagine the police

l understand why "Defund the Police" has become a rallying cry for Black Lives Matter protesters. But it can be misunderstood as calling for the abolition of police departments, which very few people really want to do.  "Reimagine the Police" strikes me as both more accurate and more politically palatable.  A Washington Post opinion piece, Don't "Defund the Police". Reimagine the Police. makes a case for the latter slogan. “Defund the Police” is candy to the one-liner simpletons. It’s a cry that launched a thousand memes about the lawless anarchy to come. It’s a loping softball to the grumping Trumpers who…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Peter Fernandez

Shady stuff associated with Salem City Council agenda item

By and large, I'm no conspiracy theorist. But I'm always ready to believe that when it comes to goings-on with the City of Salem, what appears innocent and boring at first glance may be the tip of a non-innocent non-boring "iceberg" below the surface. So I said "sure" when someone asked if I wanted to learn the backstory behind an appeal of a Systems Development Charge expenditure for the purchase of a house at 298 Taybin Road NW in West Salem. The appeal is on the agenda of the June 22 Salem City Council meeting. Before getting to the backstory,…
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Posted inCoronavirus Donald Trump Humor

Trump is a genius! He just solved every problem on Earth.

Ever since he was elected president of the United States, I've been a vociferous critic of Donald Trump. But now I realize how wrong I've been. A recent statement by Trump points to a solution to not only the COVID-19 crisis, but every conceivable problem that afflicts our planet. Behold the genius of Trump the Almighty: I bow down before the glory of this single marvelous sentence which, in eight carefully crafted words, cuts through the thicket of confusion that has prevented humanity from dealing with so many issues that have bedeviled people for millennia.  Trump, though, did expand upon…
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Posted inCoronavirus Oregon politics

Dumb and dumber: Capitol vandals and Sam Brentano

Saturday's Statesman Journal featured stories about a couple of spectacularly dumb local people. It took me a while to decide who deserves the "dumb" award in this blog post, and who the "dumber," but I'm going with this: Dumb -- whoever spray painted two marble sculptures in front of the state Capitol building during the first weekend of Black Lives Matter protests. Dumber -- Marion County commissioner Sam Brentano, for being so irritated at Governor Brown's pausing of county reopening plans due to a spike in coronavirus cases in Oregon. Sure, it can be argued that these dumb and dumber…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

City Council should cut budget of Salem Police Department

Most people, including me, who favor "Defund the police" aren't calling for no police at all. We just believe there is plenty of room to reduce the amount of taxpayer money that is going into the budgets of police departments. The first step toward doing this is getting away from the indefensible notion that police are so special, taking a close look at what they do and how they do it shouldn't happen. Actually, and obviously, police officers are just people. Their job can be difficult. So are almost all jobs. Their job can be dangerous. So are lots of…
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Posted inCarole Smith Downtown Humor

New issue of Salem Cherry Pits takes jabs at city officials

Not surprisingly, we (well, I) here at Salem Political Snark adore snarkishness. That's why I'm eager to share every new issue of Salem Cherry Pits when it hits my email inbox, sent to me by downtown resident and property owner Carole Smith -- the creator, publisher, and distributor of this marvelous mixture of biting satire and solid information about downtown goings-on. Below I've shared screenshots of the first two pages of the Spring 2020 issue, which deal with a novel approach to homelessness and a heretofore unrecognized way the coronavirus can be transmitted: farts. You can read the whole issue…
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Posted inCity of Salem Police facility

Time to take a close look at the Salem Police Department budget

I'm optimistic about the good that is going to come from the nationwide protests against George Floyd's murder by a police officer, since it is long past time that the United States faced up to the injustices people of color have endured at the hands of police for many decades, centuries, really. But there's another aspect to how our nation looks upon police: we throw a huge amount of money into police department budgets, often with little oversight or analysis into whether this spending is really needed. In most cities, Salem included, police and fire consume a third to a…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump

Trump’s dictatorial desire was on full display today

Driving home from grocery shopping this afternoon, I listened to CNN reporting on a protest near the White House against George Floyd's murder by a police officer that was happening at the same time Trump was getting ready to give a law-and-order speech in the Rose Garden. When I got home, I turned on the TV to learn what CNN was saying now -- after federal authorities cleared out the peaceful protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash-bang explosives half an hour before a Washington D.C. curfew was to go into effect. Here's a photo of what CNN was…
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