Making Schmidt Executive Director of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission was like giving every fox in Oregon a master key to every hen house in the state. Even if Nathan Vazquez wins, Schmidt will cash in on his ceaseless schmoozing to land on his feet right away in another position that will allow him to continue his war against law and order.
It's a shame that there aren't more principled and accomplished men like the former Multnomah County D.A. Mike Schrunk standing in Schmidt's way. A ladies' man like Schmidt would quickly discover that his oily charisma and soap-opera good looks don't exactly charm powerful males they way they do fan girls like Kate Brown and the other women who dominate progressive politics in this state.
Why hasn’t Schmit et al publicly touted the success of their “restorative Justice” programs that supposedly prevented incarceration and made victims whole? Where’s the transparency on how victims were “RESTORED”, were they involved at all, was it a simple apology, or not even that????
It’s all about the criminal supposedly being given a restorative opportunity, leaving victims to wonder were the hell the justice for them comes into play!!!
Stupid ideas with no actual record of success leads to stupid outcomes!
Many political events pass without the media, and the affected public, knowing that they even happened.
Fitzsimmons' report of the 2019 Justice Reinvestment Kickoff is one such watershed and even as someone who was present, I did not realize the significance of what was going on.
That conference heralded the Orwellian language that Department of Corrections (DOC) and much of the sheep-like media use - "Adults in custody" instead of descriptive nouns like "inmates, prisoners, convicts."
Brown heralded another travesty I don't think they have put into effect, which may sound minor, but is not - allowing the roughly 1/3rd of felony inmates to wear civilian clothes instead of the denim issues that enable guards to differentiate citizens from cons. This will be extremely dangerous because in institutions with 2000 plus inmates and hundreds of staff, the only way to reliably identify the convict is clothing. For decades it has been denim jeans and a blue shirt with the Oregon DOC emblem.
If a third of the inmates can dress like “civilians” it will be impossible to prevent escapes or distinguish inmates from staff in riots, which happen pretty consistently in prison - because of the people incarcerated - in Oregon over 70% are doing crime for a violent felony and even more have records of violent crime!
This one sentence, "Human nature isn’t that easy to fix." ought to qualify Pam as one of Portland's toughest-minded journalists.
Crime is crime. There is a subset of the human parade that will always--since humans walked upright--assume that they can steal whatever they want. Goods. Possessions. Property. Compassion. Truth.
Once again Pamela, you've put the pieces together clearly and concisely to show how this mess we have been given was instigated and maintained. I agree with Javier that we must work hard to get Nathan Vasquez elected and send Schmidt packing, just like San Francisco did in voting out Chesa Boudin last year.
Thanks Pamela. I’m not against trying to reduce prison time for low level crimes (locking people up is expensive and not always the answer) but certainly not in the manner the “Schmidt Show” has done it. So hopeful that Nathan Vasquez will be elected. Please consider a donation to his campaign if you can. https://www.voteforvasquez.com/
Making Schmidt Executive Director of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission was like giving every fox in Oregon a master key to every hen house in the state. Even if Nathan Vazquez wins, Schmidt will cash in on his ceaseless schmoozing to land on his feet right away in another position that will allow him to continue his war against law and order.
It's a shame that there aren't more principled and accomplished men like the former Multnomah County D.A. Mike Schrunk standing in Schmidt's way. A ladies' man like Schmidt would quickly discover that his oily charisma and soap-opera good looks don't exactly charm powerful males they way they do fan girls like Kate Brown and the other women who dominate progressive politics in this state.
Why hasn’t Schmit et al publicly touted the success of their “restorative Justice” programs that supposedly prevented incarceration and made victims whole? Where’s the transparency on how victims were “RESTORED”, were they involved at all, was it a simple apology, or not even that????
It’s all about the criminal supposedly being given a restorative opportunity, leaving victims to wonder were the hell the justice for them comes into play!!!
Stupid ideas with no actual record of success leads to stupid outcomes!
Many political events pass without the media, and the affected public, knowing that they even happened.
Fitzsimmons' report of the 2019 Justice Reinvestment Kickoff is one such watershed and even as someone who was present, I did not realize the significance of what was going on.
That conference heralded the Orwellian language that Department of Corrections (DOC) and much of the sheep-like media use - "Adults in custody" instead of descriptive nouns like "inmates, prisoners, convicts."
Brown heralded another travesty I don't think they have put into effect, which may sound minor, but is not - allowing the roughly 1/3rd of felony inmates to wear civilian clothes instead of the denim issues that enable guards to differentiate citizens from cons. This will be extremely dangerous because in institutions with 2000 plus inmates and hundreds of staff, the only way to reliably identify the convict is clothing. For decades it has been denim jeans and a blue shirt with the Oregon DOC emblem.
If a third of the inmates can dress like “civilians” it will be impossible to prevent escapes or distinguish inmates from staff in riots, which happen pretty consistently in prison - because of the people incarcerated - in Oregon over 70% are doing crime for a violent felony and even more have records of violent crime!
Thank you Pamela for writing this. Excellent.
This one sentence, "Human nature isn’t that easy to fix." ought to qualify Pam as one of Portland's toughest-minded journalists.
Crime is crime. There is a subset of the human parade that will always--since humans walked upright--assume that they can steal whatever they want. Goods. Possessions. Property. Compassion. Truth.
They are ever with us.
The only question is: do we cave or do we resist.
Pam, I think, is onto the answer.
Once again Pamela, you've put the pieces together clearly and concisely to show how this mess we have been given was instigated and maintained. I agree with Javier that we must work hard to get Nathan Vasquez elected and send Schmidt packing, just like San Francisco did in voting out Chesa Boudin last year.
Thanks Pamela. I’m not against trying to reduce prison time for low level crimes (locking people up is expensive and not always the answer) but certainly not in the manner the “Schmidt Show” has done it. So hopeful that Nathan Vasquez will be elected. Please consider a donation to his campaign if you can. https://www.voteforvasquez.com/