08.05.2020
As Portland continues to burn, the Democrats in the Oregon Legislature continue to work on looter protection laws.
The violence continues at the nightly peaceful protests but the chairs of the “Joint Committee On Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform,” Jaynell Bynum and James Manning (below top right and bottom right) have shown no interest in doing anything to stop the mayhem, instead concentrating on a slate of bills to restrict police.
In today’s hearing, far left, militant anti-gun Senator, Floyd Prozanski (bottom left in photo) made the mistake of wondering if there were alternatives to the tear gas the Democrats are working to ban outright.
He mentioned “water cannons” and hypothetically inquired whether they might be used to control criminals who were rioting and endangering innocent people.
This “triggered” Chair Bynum who responded by asking Prozanski if “we are talking about hoses and dogs here.”
For the record, Prozanski never mentioned a word about dogs, but the reference to water was enough to cause painful cultural flashbacks for Bynum, who was not even born when dogs and firehoses were used against protesters in the south.
As has become the norm at these remote hearings, technical flaws ruled and anyone who was testifying in favor of more restrictions on police response to riots was given extra time.
There are, without doubt, vast improvements that can be made in police procedures and accountability. And those should be carefully considered and acted on. But it’s safe to say that any changes made to police procedure will be made to benefit whoever is in power when the changes are instituted.
At no time has any legislation been considered to address the chaos that has turned parts of Portland into the set of a zombie apocalypse movie.
On August 10, the Oregon Legislature convenes for another “special session.” While the session is intended to address Oregon’s catastrophic budget shortfalls, both House Speaker Tina Kotek and Governor Brown have made it clear they intend to use the session to push through as many policy changes as possible.
Republican leadership has stated that they oppose dealing with anything other than budget issues, and Democrat Senate President Peter Courtney has signaled his opposition as well, but few people in Salem still believe that Courtney is calling the shots and it’s clear that far more radical leftists are in control of the agenda.
This means that everything is on the table. You will recall that during the last regular session, the Democrats were working to eliminate self defense by requiring gun owners to keep their firearms locked up and useless.
That bill failed only because the Republicans walked out of the session. Everything is up for grabs in the special session, but now, because the Capitol is off limits to the voters, (and us) tracking legislation is far more complicated and the potential for abuse is higher than ever.
Elections are coming up, and the ruling party does not know if their history of failed policies on many matters will cause them to lose seats. So they may well be feeling like now is the time to try to enact as much of their tyrannical agenda as possible.
Rest assured we will be doing all we can to monitor the activities of the legislature and any attempts to use the session to ram through more restrictions on your rights.
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