Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Proud Boys debacle shows how Salem Police need to change

The Salem Police Department has a new chief, Trevor Womack. But it doesn't have a new way of going about policing. That's a big problem. Hopefully Chief Womack is up to the task of carrying out needed reforms, restoring confidence in the department, and altering the mission of the department in light of a national movement to shift policing from a militaristic warrior model to a peacekeeper guardian model. This is a complex job. It will take a lot of wisdom to carry out.  Womack, along with other police chiefs, has to deal with a lengthy history of policing in…
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Posted inChuck Bennett City of Salem Salem Police Department

Proud Boys return to Salem, threatening reporters again

Well, that didn't take long. Just six days after the Salem Police Department did absolutely nothing to prevent the Proud Boys extremist militia group from threatening a journalist and other citizens observing a gun rally in a public park, today a couple of Proud Boys banned media from taking photos or video in front of a public building in downtown Salem. And why wouldn't they? The Salem Police Department and other city officials have coddled the Proud Boys, seemingly because they're afraid of these armed right-wingers. The Proud Boys now know that Salem is a place these white supremacists are…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

“Typogate” adds a twist to Proud Boys gun rally

If there's one thing I've learned from quite a few years of delving into goings-on at the City of Salem, it is that often what city officials claim to be true, actually isn't.  Sure, sometimes that discrepancy can be attributed to a honest mistake. However, I know for a fact that sometimes City of Salem staff purposely shade the truth in a CYA (Cover Your Ass) fashion.  Lying is a blunter term than "shade the truth," of course. As I've written about in two previous blog posts (here and here), how the Salem Police Department handled a May 1 gun…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Salem Police Department misleads about Proud Boys rally

I was already deeply irritated at the Salem Police Department, after learning that they stood by and did nothing on May 1 while armed members of the Proud Boys right-wing militia group forced people they didn't like to leave the public Riverfront Park, harassed journalists, and reportedly beat up someone who was taking a photo of them. (See my previous post, "Salem police sit by as Proud Boys take over Riverfront Park.")Now I've even more irritated at the Police Department after reading their attempt to make it seem like they did everything right and nothing wrong as the Proud Boys…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Salem police sit by as Proud Boys take over Riverfront Park

Today the Proud Boys, a violent right-wing militia group, provided "security" for a gun rights rally at Riverfront Park here in Salem. The City of Salem allowed the rally to go on without a permit, as I reported a few days ago. So members of the public had just as much of a right to be at the park as the Proud Boys and other people attending the rally. But as you'll see below, the Proud Boys forced people to leave the park if they objected to someone being there. Meanwhile, apparently there was nobody from the Salem Police Department…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Patriot Prayer holding May 1 rally in Salem’s Riverfront Park

The right-wing wackos are coming back to Salem!   Well, judging from this notice, most never left our area, they've just been silently cooking up fresh conspiracy theories to keep their reality-denying minds firmly at home in Crazy Town. Newsweek had a story about the rally yesterday, "Far-Right Patriot Prayer Plans Oregon Return Alongside GOP Rep. Mike Nearman."  The far-right group Patriot Prayer is planning a return to Salem, Oregon, in May to hold a gun rights event. The rally is being promoted online by the group's leader Joey Gibson and is scheduled to take place on May 1 at…
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Posted inSalem-Keizer school district

NAACP calls on Kari Zohner to end her school board campaign

The Salem-Keizer NAACP is calling on a candidate for the Salem-Keizer school board, Kari Zohner, to drop out of the race after she trashed the memory of George Floyd following the conviction of the police officer who murdered him, Derek Chauvin. The NAACP issued its statement Wednesday night. “We understand and support the First Amendment right to free speech. However, this hateful rhetoric is founded in racism and has no place in the auspices of the Salem-Keizer School board or any elected office. We must hold our leaders accountable and make clear that this behavior will not be tolerated in…
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Posted inCity Council Police reform

Derek Chauvin conviction just small step toward police reform

I'm glad that I was in my car, listening to CNN, when the judge read the jury verdict in the Derek Chauvin case. As I heard the judge say "guilty of second degree murder," "guilty of third degree murder," "guilty of manslaughter," my right arm made the same happy motion upward as the arms of the women below. But right next to this Washington Post headline story was a disturbing story of a police killing of a 16 year old girl in Columbus, Ohio, "Ohio police fatally shoot teen girl just before Chauvin verdict: 'This stuff just never ends.'" This…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Police reform

Police budget should be cut to pay for crisis response team

City Councilor Vanessa Nordyke is pushing for Salem to have a crisis response team similar to the CAHOOTS program that has been successfully used in Eugene since 1989.  Here's a description of CAHOOTS, courtesy of the White Bird Clinic. 31 years ago the City of Eugene, Oregon developed an innovative community-based public safety system to provide mental health first response for crises involving mental illness, homelessness, and addiction. White Bird Clinic launched CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) as a community policing initiative in 1989. The CAHOOTS model has been in the spotlight recently as our nation struggles…
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Posted inCity of Salem Trees

No-notice tree removals make Salem resident angry

It hurts to see a tree company truck pull up in front of your house, then watch workers remove a beloved street tree -- all with no communication from the City of Salem about why the tree needed to be destroyed. This happened to Heather, a resident of the Morningside neighborhood. The tree that was removed is the middle one in the photo below.  Heather told me in an email, "Survived the wild fires, survived the ice storm, didn't survive the City of Salem." Here's an email that Heather sent to Mayor Chuck Bennett on April 13. Yesterday the city…
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Posted inPolice reform

Let’s stop talking about “accidental” police shootings

Another day, another black man "accidentally" shot and killed by a police officer.  BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — The suburban Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a 20-year-old unarmed Black man during a traffic stop Sunday apparently meant to fire a Taser but instead made an “accidental discharge” from her gun, the police chief said Monday. This is stretching the meaning of accidental beyond the bounds where the word makes sense. An accidental discharge of a gun would happen if, say, it was lying on a table during an earthquake with the safety off, fell, hit the floor, and somehow the…
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Posted inSalem-Keizer school district

School board chair Chandragiri insults student journalist

Hard to see how this action by Salem-Keizer School Board chair Satya Chandragiri is anything short of flat-out outrageous.  Eddy Binford-Ross is editor-in-chief of South Salem High School's paper, the Clypian. After getting national recognition for covering Black Lives Matter protests last year, she spent months researching and writing a tell-all expose of how screwed-up the school board is, "Scandals, Special Interests and Dysfunction Plague School Board." Binford-Ross won a richly deserved 2021 Oregon High School Journalist of the Year award. She was set to be recognized at the April 13 school board meeting. But Chandragiri decided to put off…
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Posted inPolice reform Salem Police Department

So senseless: Salem police kill suicidal man

It's not as infuriating as the George Floyd murder by a Minneapolis police officer, but I'm still deeply bothered by a Salem police officer, Clinton Sealey, killing a suicidal man, Natzeryt Viertel. Neighbors say that Viertel struggled with mental health issues. He was threatening to take his life. He had a gun. That shouldn't be a death sentence. The Salem Police Department failed Viertel. He should have gotten help from the police, not bullets in his body. Almost certainly Chief Womack and others in the department will find excuses for why Viertel was killed. But those excuses won't bring Viertel…
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Posted inNational politics Political philosophy

I agree with an Ayn Rand objectivist on some things

Exciting day! (But since there isn't much excitement in my life, I get excited about small things.) This afternoon I had a pleasant talk with somebody I'd never met before. Doesn't matter where or how. I'll focus on the what of our conversation. After some introductory chit-chat, this guy said "I'm an objectivist."  "Tell me about it," I said, having a vague memory that this had something to do with the philosophy of Ayn Rand, but not being sure. Perhaps because I'd mentioned working in health planning back in the 1970s and 80s, he told me that objectivists aren't big…
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Posted inOregon politics

GOP having Oregon legislature temper tantrums

Long ago, I was the parent of a child who went though the "terrible two's." Temper tantrums were common. Crying fits happened routinely. So I feel for Democratic leaders in the Oregon legislature. They have to deal with Republicans who are the adult equivalent of immature children. The worst thing is, my daughter grew out of her terrible two'ness, while Oregon Republicans show no sign of acting responsibly. Almost certainly they're going to do the walkout thing again in this legislative session, thereby denying the 2/3 quorum that the Oregon constitution insanely requires for doing the people's business in the…
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Posted inNational politics

U.S. has most mass shootings because we have most guns

Atlanta, Georgia -- eight dead. Boulder, Colorado -- ten dead.  It's an all-too-familiar ritual, counting how many have been killed in the latest round of mass shootings that are unique to the United States. There's no doubt why our country has so many more mass shootings than comparable countries. We have way more guns than they do.  A 2017 New York Times story tallied up the mass shooting death toll in various countries from 1966 to 2012. When the world looks at the United States, it sees a land of exceptions: a time-tested if noisy democracy, a crusader in foreign…
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Posted inPolice reform Salem Police Department

Salem Police performance audit has weaknesses

Tomorrow night, March 15, the Salem City Council will have a work session on the draft performance audit of the Salem Police Department (SPD) that was prepared by a consulting firm. Here's the PDF file.Download Hillard Heintze Report for the City of Salem Oregon - 03-08-21 copy The consultants' report is nicely written and clearly laid out. But I've got some problems with it.  My main concern is on page 9: Although a formal, detailed staffing analysis was not part of the scope of our assessment, we noted the number of sworn officers and the total number of SPD employees…
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Posted inPolice reform Salem-Keizer school district

Latinos Unidos Siempre wins school resource officer fight

Congratulations to Latinos Unidos Siempre (Latinos United Always) for succeeding in their battle to have School Resource Officers -- police -- removed from Salem-Keizer schools. They're celebrating on their Facebook page. We have won!! After 25 years of resisting the school to prison and deportation pipeline today we have made a huge stride into being closer to abolishing it. The School Resource Officer contract will not be renewed thanks to the work of youth leaders in Latinos Unidos Siempre and to the many community members who have supported and fought alongside us.   During the March 9th Salem-Keizer School Board…
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Posted inSalem-Keizer school district

Jesse Lippold and Kathy Goss are school board hypocrites

Don't be fooled by what school board members Jesse Lippold and Kathy Goss said in today's front page Statesman Journal story, "Salem-Keizer School Board election process considered discriminatory by some." The story is about a proposal to have school board members elected by people who live in one of seven zones, rather than by everyone in the Salem-Keizer school district.  This would make school board elections similar to Salem City Council elections. The person running for office would have to live in the zone they are seeking to represent, and only residents of the zone could vote for that person.…
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Posted inSalem Police Department

New Salem police chief says right things in City Club talk

Trevor Womack is the new chief of police in Salem, succeeding Jerry Moore, who retired. Today Chief Womack talked about his plans for the police department in a Salem City Club Zoom meeting. I came away impressed.  There was little, if anything, that I could criticize abut what Womack said either in his initial presentation or in the following lengthy Q&A period. And believe me, I'm not shy about criticizing City of Salem officials when I feel like they deserve it. Right off the bat, I liked Womack's openness when he spoke about his background and family life. He said…
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