FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2017
THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 5
Local
At Trump’s inauguration
Two promoted
in SWAT team
According to Sgt. Gary Bell of the La Grande Police
Department—who also serves as Team Commander for
the Northeast Oregon Regional Special Weapons and
Tactics (SWAT) team—Patrol Offi cer Shannon Regan of
the Baker City Police Department and Dispatcher Jessica
Lynch of Baker County 911 Consolidated Dispatch have
been promoted to Assistant Team Leaders for the Crisis
Negotiations Team (CNT) element of the SWAT team.
Said Bell in a written statement, “I would like to share
how much we value both Shannon and Jessica and their
dedication to the team. It has not gone unnoticed how
hard they both worked on behalf of the team and the con-
tributions they have made.”
The Baker County Sheriff’s Department, Union
County Sheriff’s Department, Baker City Police Depart-
ment, and La Grande Police Department comprise the
regional SWAT team.
Submitted Photo by Kyle Knight.
Submitted Photo by Bill Currier.
Ronna Romney McDaniel, the new RNC Chair with
ORP Chair Bill Currier.
CONTINUED FROM
PAGE 1
Currier added, “He sang
with sincerity and con-
viction, and in a way no
patriot could resist. I saw
quite a few tears of real
hope for real change in the
audience. And while the
words are familiar, it was
as if a huge burden was be-
ing lifted and we were on
the verge of a new day in
America. The next day at
the inauguration ceremony
that hope became a real-
ity.”
Knight said he stayed in
a typical D.C.-style row
house, and when he woke
up on Friday morning he
looked out and saw the
trail of pedestrians already
headed toward the inaugu-
ration. He soon followed.
“It was very packed,”
Knight said of the venue.
“It looked full to me.”
He added that he didn’t
“know what the big deal
was” when media started
comparing attendee num-
bers, nor did he know for
sure when the national
media had taken the ubiq-
uitous photo of the empty
spaces on the grounds.
Knight thought that the
inauguration attendance
was high, particularly for a
Republican president. He
said, “D.C. is a Democrat
stronghold. You’re not
going to have the highest
citizen turnout for a Re-
publican president. Maybe
Obama did have higher
numbers, I don’t know... If
we’d had the inauguration
in Texas, Trump would
have record numbers.”
Currier said, “The next
day, Friday, we got up at
4 a.m. because we had to
go through several layers
of security to get to our
seated position at the
inauguration. From the
hotel we boarded a bus to
a location where the Secret
Service scanned us and our
personal effects. Then we
were police escorted on a
second bus to the Capitol
Building near to where we
would be seated.
“Upon exiting the bus
we walked past the Marine
One helicopter that Obama
used afterwards to leave
the ceremony. Everywhere
there were military and
police personnel. As we
found our seat at about
7:30 a.m. we observed that
their were already protest-
ers beginning to block
some of the gates into the
observing area west of the
Capitol.
“I heard later that many
people who wanted to get
in and watch the ceremony
could not because of the
protestors. At times, during
the opening comments and
during the inauguration
ceremony itself we could
hear the protestors try to
start up chants to disrupt
the program, but each
time the audience would
respond back with deafen-
ing shouts of ‘USA, USA,
USA!’ It was a volley the
protestors always lost. The
energy in the crowd was
palpable, and the mood
was one of solidarity.”
“It was an entirely dif-
ferent experience than
watching it on TV,” said
Knight. “There was no
press commentary. It was
just a different experience.
I didn’t hit me until the
next day some of the good
stuff that had been hap-
pening and was going to
happen.”
Currier said, “The
ceremony was mostly
uneventful leading up
to the administration of
the Oath of Offi ce. There
was moment when Chuck
Schumer was speaking
where he started to talk
of division within our
country. It was like he was
casting a shadow on the
incoming president before
he had even taken offi ce.
The crowd booed and you
could tell they were not
happy with his attempt to
darken the event.”
Knight also noted the
crowd’s booing, which was
not picked up by national
media.
Currier said, “One thing
I noticed was that both
Trump and Pence placed
their hands on two Bibles.
I had learned earlier that
Trump was using the Bible
that Lincoln used along
with a personal Bible.
Pence was using the Bible
that Reagan used along
with a personal Bible. The
faces of both while being
sworn in were of great
humility combined with
great determination. We
were seated too far back
to see their faces or the
Bibles clearly, but we had
a big screen close to us that
brought out every detail.
“At times during the
morning there was light
rain. Most of us had pon-
chos to cover ourselves. It
was funny to see George
W. Bush’s antics as he
struggled with his pon-
cho. Umbrellas were not
allowed anywhere within
the seated areas. At one
point the camera caught
Hillary Clinton glaring at
Bill Clinton as he looked
at Melania Trump. The
spontaneous eruption of
laughter from the crowd
was indicting.”
Knight noted the drizzle
and cold. “I wish I’d
brought a poncho ...”
After Trump’s speech,
Knight edged his way out
of the crowd to an area in
front of the Capitol Build-
ing where the Marine One
Obama departs from D.C. directly above Knight’s
head.
helicopter was awaiting.
“It wasn’t something
that was set up for people
to watch,” Knight noted.
Perhaps 20 people had
stumbled across the scene
as Obama boarded the
helicopter.
“He basically fl ew
straight over my head,”
Knight said. And, that mo-
ment was Knight’s second
favorite moment of the
entire experience, after the
actual Oath of Offi ce.
“I remember watching
President Bush leave in
high school and thought
how I was seeing a com-
plete change in govern-
ment. It reminded me of
that day. It seemed like
yesterday, but it was eight
years ago.”
Following former Presi-
dent Obama’s departure,
Knight headed toward the
parade, but opted to leave
in the middle of it to get a
jump start on making his
way to the next event, the
Freedom Ball.
“A cab was not easy—it
was already almost quicker
to walk,” Knight said.
“There were three balls,”
Knight said. “I went to
the Liberty Ball. Trump
appeared at all of them. I
was told there were about
15,000 at the ball. It was at
the convention center and
there was already a huge
line. All the events had
huge lines—the celebra-
tion before the inaugura-
tion, the inauguration, the
ball...”
Knight arrived early
enough to avoid the fi rst
real wave of protestors.
“I saw law enforcement
in riot gear out front and I
wondered why they were
there. There wasn’t a single
protestor in sight, but they
knew,” Knight said.
Shortly after he entered
the ball, the protestors
arrived in droves. Attend-
ees behind Knight began
talking about protestors
harassing them, spitting on
them, cussing at them, and
in some cases pushing and
blocking them physically
from entering the venue.
Knight attempted to
maneuver his way forward
to better see the fi rst dance
between President Trump
and First Lady Melania
Trump, but, much like at a
rock concert, soon found
that the crowd was packed
in too tightly to move.
“There was dancing,
mingling and drinking,”
Knight said. “Everyone
was waiting for the Presi-
dent to arrive.”
When he did, Knight
said, “It was cool being
able to see the fi rst dance.”
Trump asked the crowd,
“Do you think I should
keep tweeting?” and the
crowd “went crazy” ac-
cording to Knight.
At the ball, Knight nearly
ran into Anderson Cooper
exiting a restroom and sur-
rounded by heavy security.
Aside from Cooper, he
didn’t see anyone other
than politicians he might
have recognized from TV.
Knight and Currier,
along with others from
Oregon, eventually found
each other at the ball, but
by that time the visiting
was short-lived.
“We had all stood there
for fi ve hours,” said
Knight, “and there were
no chairs. Everyone was
tired.”
Early the next morning,
Knight awoke to witness a
stream of pink as par-
ticipants in the women’s
march made their way
along the same course as
inauguration attendees had
the morning before.
“I got out quick,” said
Knight. By the time he
did, he had no option but
to pause in the street with
his hazard lights fl ashing in
order to drop off his tuxedo
from the ball.
By the time he arrived at
the airport, cars had been
completely blocked by
marchers.
Once on his fl ight back
to Portland, Trump sup-
porters found themselves
mixed with protestors in
pink on the same fl ight.
“It didn’t even make
sense,” said Knight, who
wore his Trump cloth-
ing from the inaguration.
“Whereever they went
they looked shocked at me,
glared, put their hands on
their hips. I never got into
an argument with one and
I didn’t glare at them. It
seems like the tolerance of
the left is pretty much zero.
Their level of disrespect is
defi nitely not needed. They
make it seem like if you
have different views it’s a
personal attack on them.
I heard on the news there
had actually been problems
on other fl ights because
of it.”
All in all?
“I looked around several
times while Trump was
speaking and saw not hope,
but expectation. Hope
is wishful and distant.
Expectation is all about
action in the here and now.
Trump made it very clear
he was going to shake up
Washington and that it
was going to happen im-
mediately. I found myself
realizing that the recovery
of America from the error
of Obama was going to
happen fast, and that it
wouldn’t necessarily take
as long to achieve as the
decline,” Currier said.
“It was defi nitely worth
it,” Knight concluded.
“As my fi rst time ... it was
defi nitely worth it. It was
an honor to be there.”
Woman bitten,
arrest made
On January 23, 2017 at about 2:30 p.m. Shenese
Moffett-Cobian was arrested for Assault in the Fourth
Degree following an altercation that occurred at 45892
Slough Road. Shenese Moffett-Cobian and Anthony
Shankle have children together but are currently sepa-
rated. The children have been living with Shankle at the
Slough Road address.
Moffett-Cobian went to the residence to retrieve her
children and in the processes ended up biting Mary
Shankle-Colton on the arm, breaking the skin and caus-
ing injury.
This altercation occurred in front of young children.
Moffett-Cobian was restrained at the residence until
deputies arrived. Moffett-Cobian was booked and lodged
in the Baker County Jail.
BCLA
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
He explained that citizens of eastern Oregon counties
(and elsewhere) have provided thousands of comments in
opposition to the plan revision, and the push to imple-
ment it has been halted for now (he said a major part
of that is a result of the public pressure for the USFS to
document each County road).
He spoke about the overreach of the federal govern-
ment, an example being the historical issues in Har-
ney County (he mentioned the Harney County/federal
government relationship has been through the process of
collaboration), as with the Hammonds’ convictions and
subsequent imprisonment. “The Hammonds used the
same techniques that we use--burning off brush, juniper,
etc. They’re the same techniques the federal government
uses, but yet, when a private citizen uses the same tech-
niques, it’s against the law...” He emphasized the chance
citizens have to curb the overreach, and he expressed
great relief that Secretary Hillary Clinton had not been
elected President, because of the damage he anticipated
would have resulted, especially to rural counties. “Now,
we have a reprieve...If we don’t take advantage of the op-
portunity we have now, we’ll never have it back again...”
he said, explaining the effects on agriculture, mining,
logging, etc.
Harvey expressed frustration with the public confusion
created by large documents, such as USFS’s Draft Envi-
ronmental Impact Statement for the BMFPR, a three-vol-
ume set, of nearly 1,200 pages, the “condensed version”
of which he had at the meeting, a 150-page volume.
Through the process of coordination, which Harvey
said, “...is the law--it’s what’s right...” several counties
have joined forces with Baker County, to form a stronger
voice, and, “...we’re making headway...I get an opportu-
nity to shed light on something that’s wrong.” He spoke
about the constant fi ght to keep environmentalists from
causing more land to be locked up, and more economies
to be destroyed, through litigation.
Drew asked what point the USFS is at in its process,
regarding the Plan, and Harvey said that implementation
of the Plan is stalled, because the proposed Alternatives
are unacceptable, and the USFS is missing the step of
coordination with the County, a point he challenged
Wallowa-Whitman Forest Supervisor Tom Montoya on,
during an agency-to-agency coordination meeting (there
have been numerous coordination meetings between the
USFS and the County, with strong, though civil debates,
and Harvey said that the USFS hasn’t gone through the
process of coordination with the County, while Montoya
maintains that it has, and he intends to move forward).
BCLA meetings are normally held the third Thursday
of the month, 7 p.m., at the Sunridge Inn Restaurant.
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