07.07.2020
Police “Reform” Hearings.
Starting tomorrow, the “Joint Committee On Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform” will begin three days of hearings on police “reform.”
We have linked to the agendas for the three days below.
At the time of this alert, none of the “presenters” had been announced and no meeting materials have been posted although that could change by the time you read this.
Once again, you, the Oregon voter, may not enter your capitol building and you can only participate if you are one of the lucky ones who somehow manages to get past all the technical failures these “remote” hearings have become notorious for.
We support responsible policing. We also recognize that any authority can be abused. We certainly learned that when Michael Strickland was railroaded and Lavoy Finicum was killed.
We have seen no shortage of police abuses around our country for many years including the misuse of no-knock warrants and illegitimate firearms confiscations. (Please note, David’s case is over, we are NOT collecting funds on his behalf anymore.)
We believe “qualified immunity” is routinely used to protect bad actors under color of law.
That being said, we also recognize that the people in power in Oregon are encouraging and promoting the chaos and lawlessness on our streets and doing all they can to undermine the police. Police who, these days, have an absurdly thankless job.
We also believe that Oregon Democrats are twisting the reality of abuse by authorities into a strictly racial issue, which we know it is not. They are very successfully creating division and animosity by turning groups of Oregon citizens against each other.
And as you no doubt know, our cities are becoming very dangerous very quickly at the same time Oregon politicians are following the lead of leftists elsewhere in the country and moving towards slashing police funding.
Meanwhile, extreme left wing operatives are taking over DA’s offices.
And so we are watching with serious concern as our legislature, controlled by radical leftists, addresses “reform.”
What they will not be addressing is the complete disaster the Oregon State Police have become at processing firearm’s transfers. While never a good or even legitimate system, the surge in attempted purchases, coupled with Oregon’s policy of sending many state workers home, has created a monumental backlog in transfer attempts. People are waiting weeks for an “approval” to exercise a “right”, and many are waiting days and longer just to have the process begin, only to find out later they are being delayed for weeks or more.
What they also will not be addressing are the many sheriffs who simply stopped issuing concealed handgun licenses with no legal authority to do so. (Clackamas County only yesterday started accepting applications but we have heard from numerous people who said the process was not working and they could not complete applications.)
If you choose to watch the hearings (or at least whatever part of them get past the technical flaws) you can do so at this link:
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2019I1/Committees/JTPUFR/Overview
Locate the meeting date and click on the camera icon at the designated time.
We believe that given the bias of the controlling party and the current environment of lawlessness, that there is a strong possibility that these hearings will be used to further erode police moral and effectiveness while doing nothing to address real abuses that are always a reflection of the party in control at the time.
Please stay safe and prepared.