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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (June 22, 2018)
JUNE 22, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM A good start Last week, a Keizertimes reporter was invited to be part of the Keizer Police Department’s Deadly Force Review Board and then write about the experience for newspa- per readers. While the invitation was accepted quickly, it led to a lot of soul-searching soon after. Every time a police offi cer uses deadly force – even when there is no fatality – a review board is assembled to determine whether the offi cers in- volved acted within de- partment policies. The incident un- der review last week was the fi rst time a Keizer offi cer’s actions re- sulted in a death. It stemmed from the armed robbery of a River Road business in March that turned into a vehicular chase that turned into a standoff in a residential neighbor- hood. The offi cer had already been cleared of wrongdoing by a Marion County grand jury. The Deadly Force Review Board was assembled to determine whether department policy had been followed and if the policies in place needed to be up- dated as a result of the shooting. After making the decision to take part in the process, we consid- ered questions such as: the ability for the paper to continue report- ing objectively on police activities; the motivation of the Keizer Police Department in extending the invi- tation; and what to do if questions we had during the review went un- answered. We understand that readers might have different answers than the ones we arrived at – and we probably agree with many of them – but we also felt the downsides were outweighed by one aspect of the discussion: this was the fi rst time a civilian, much less a representative of the media, had been given ac- cess to the process the Keizer Po- lice Department follows after using deadly force. That is a good start. The review board worked pri- marily from a summary report, but had access to notes from the original investigation, crime scene footage and photos, testimony from multiple offi cers in front of a grand jury and autopsy reports. Through- out the process, the four members of the Keizer Police Department on the review board answered questions or accessed relevant in- formation from a voluminous stack of paper and video record without hesitation. Given that police departments are generally viewed as having a “blue wall of silence” regarding ac- tions members of the public could fi nd questionable, the transparency on display was commendable. It ap- pears, in this instance, the offi cer not only met but exceeded many of the guidelines set forth in pol- icy. However, the one unanswered question is how much of the infor- mation had been reviewed by other offi cer-members of the board prior to extending the invitation to the newspaper. While the representa- tives of the department, aside from the board chair who assembled the summary document, ap- peared to be reviewing much of the information for the fi rst time, we are simply not certain. Regardless, this is a good start. Inviting members of the public to have a voice in reviewing instances when deadly force is used is es- sential to maintaining the trust of the people whose faith in offi cers’ intentions is what gives the depart- ment, as a whole, its power. While this instance appeared to our re- porter to be in accordance with de- partment policy, there may come a day when an offi cer’s actions are not so clear-cut. Allowing civilians, not necessarily media, to have a voice in reviewing the facts of such a case might have negative consequences in the short-term, but it could also help turn the tide of negativity that often follows closed-door processes. Law enforcement offi cials must also be open to adjusting policy in the aftermath of questionable fi ndings. Moreover, members of the Keizer Police Department should be talking about the outcomes of this process with their brethren and sistren in blue. Police departments around the country are feeling extra pressure these days as a long string of seeming abuses of power fi ll local and national media streams. We know this takes a toll on po- lice offi cers equal to the frustration felt by the public. It is quite likely that Keizer Police Department ad- ministrators are hoping that this is one small step in reversing that trend. It is. But Keizer Police Chief John Teague is a highly-respected, and involved, fi gure at the Depart- ment of Public Safety Standards and Training that every Oregon offi cer and administrator turns to for estab- lishing and learning best practices. It is incumbent upon him and his department’s employees to motivate other police departments to follow KPD’s lead. No one begins life distrusting law enforcement offi cers. It is an attitude cultivated through experi- ences lived, shared by others and in the absence of information to the contrary. Just as we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, the entirety of the law enforcement cannot be judged solely by bad actors within the ranks. Opening up the deadly force review process to civilians at Keizer’s police department is one way to counteract the swell of neg- ativity, but it cannot be the end. our opwnwon Inside immigrant detention I met Helena once. We sat on op- posite sides of a long table, a small wooden partition separating us. I in- troduced myself as from a nonprofi t that organizes visits to people in im- migration detention. And then, she told me her story. Her birthday was coming up. She is from Cameroon; the Central African country is on the brink of civil war. She fl ed the country af- ter being targeted for her involvement in the in- dependence movement. She came to America to seek asylum, to be safe. And then we locked her up. I don’t know what happened to Helena. I wrote her after our visit, wishing her a happy birthday. She wrote back, but after that I didn’t hear from her again. I hope we granted her asylum, let her start her life again. I hope we did the right thing. I hope. Not enough is known about im- migrant detention. People who come to this country without proper docu- mentation often fi nd themselves de- tained, either because Immigration and Customs Enforcement picked them up after years of living in the U.S. or because they surrendered themselves to Border Patrol upon reaching the border, hoping America would be the home of the free, the brave, and the merciful. We disappoint them. Immigrants spend months in de- tention, waiting for hearings about their asylum applications and their deportation appeals. Detention is not for criminals—any immigrant, docu- mented or undocumented, will end up in regular prison for criminal offenses. Deten- tion is for those waiting to see if they can stay in the country. But they’re treated like criminals— held in the same facili- ties, dressed in the same jumpsuits, fed the same food. Except, because they’re not citizens, they retain no right to a lawyer. Detention is not supposed to be punitive. But it is. You can see it on the tired, pleading faces of those who have to endure it. In detention, we treat immigrants like the world’s trash, unwelcome both in their home countries and in the U.S. We justify this treatment in the rhetoric we use to talk about im- migrants. Dehumanizing terms like “illegal alien” allow us to distance ourselves from the human lives at stake. I mean, what is an illegal alien? That term doesn’t conjure a picture casey chaffi n Failures of leadership Our presidents, one after another, have demonstrated lack of suffi cient ability to handle the awesome burden to which they were elected. Mean- while, this writer is not convinced that it’s a woman as U.S. president who’ll necessarily save us. Perhaps the most able computer in America should be programmed to build a robot that could succeed where mere mortals have failed. The way we’re being led now is simply not working. As far as the current president is con- cerned, the media should be advised to give up the pretense of treating his behavior as something to analyze on anything resembling rational grounds. Having watched and listened to Don- ald Trump for the past 16 months has led to the conclusion that his behavior results from a serious personality dis- order. Reporters should back off from their amateur psychiatrics and avoid any further nonsense. There was much less of the phony Freudian stuff during Obama’s two terms as he patently revealed himself as one who wanted to be loved too much by all members of Congress while the nation’s racists prospered mostly undeterred. Obama could have worked to slay the beast of intolerance but chose to turn a blind eye to preju- dice that most Americans would pre- fer to see as gone as the KKK and the oft-used Red Scare lies. Previous presi- dents have also let us down. George W. Bush was ruled by a hawk vice president and other hawkish members of his cabinet. Bill Clin- ton found more time to dally in extra-marital affairs than pursue the nation’s fester- ing issues. George H.W. Bush made promises he couldn’t keep. Jimmy Carter chose to work alone without members of Congress and thereby was ineffective. Ronald Reagan was more interested in getting even with pro- gressive-minded Americans he viewed as his enemies so became an engine that delivered America’s 19th centu- ry-minded-ultra-conservatives into power. Richard Nixon was power- crazed and sought absolute control at the price of seriously threatening the U.S. democracy. And so on. The current president has become a textbook study in what looks an aw- ful lot like mental illness. President Trump’s facts-free, self-centered, self- aggrandizing, dangerous and patho- logical narcissism appear to be getting progressively worse. His reality was re- cently exposed in the Singapore sum- mit meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and found wanting in the extreme. Hence, the nation is rapidly escalating into a high-risk place as the president’s grandiosity and paranoia gather more and more steam to reach what may be nonstop levels of rule by authoritarian means. His repeated praise of Kim Jon Un for total sub- servience by his subjects and that he’s a smart and great leader does nothing but alarm. We play in this country now with an all-consuming confl agration that could burn this country to charcoal on barren ground. Why more among us do not demand a person in the White House who proceeds with thoughtful and exhaustively prepared decisions in concert with counsel from the best minds among our 320 million citizens, leaving the use of tweets to the silly and mindless wit nothing better to do, leaves this writer to conclude that it matters not to many among us wheth- er our ideal of liberty and justice for all can survive here. Bring back cursive that cursive be preserved and taught. And with little resistance from law mak- ers, school districts saw the elimination of cursive from the curriculum as an easy target. Lastly, we the tax payers failed to pro- vide suffi cient funding for schools to keep teaching cursive. Cursive reading and writing is good for the young developing brain. In learning cursive, a young person de- velops a unique and formal style that remains with them for all of their life. There is a certain beauty to long- hand. Older people who were taught cursive generally remember it as one of the more enjoyable periods in the school day. The lesson provided imme- diate tangible results and reward. And it was fun! Education (school) should be about preparation for the many aspects of life and not just job and career skills. Let’s ask our legislature to bring back cur- sive. And if a dedicated and focused tax is necessary to fund it, let’s all be willing to pay for it. Jim Parr Keizer gene h. mcwntyre Keizertimes Wheatland Publwshwng Corp. 142 Chemawa Road N. • Kewzer, Oregon 97303 Phone: 503.390.1051 • www.kewzertwmes.com MANAGING EDITOR Erwc A. Howald edwtor@kewzertwmes.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR SUBSCRIPTIONS Derek Wwley news@kewzertwmes.com ADVERTISING Paula Moseley advertwswng@kewzertwmes.com PRODUCTION MANAGER & GRAPHIC DESIGNER EDITOR & PUBLISHER Lyndon Zawtz publisher@keizertimes.com One year: $25 wn Marwon County, $33 outswde Marwon County, $45 outswde Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publwcatwon No: USPS 679-430 Andrew Jackson graphwcs@kewzertwmes.com POSTMASTER Send address changes to: LEGAL NOTICES legals@kewzertwmes.com Kewzertwmes Cwrculatwon BUSINESS MANAGER 142 Chemawa Road N. Leah Stevens Kewzer, OR 97303 bwllwng@kewzertwmes.com RECEPTION Lorw Beyeler INTERNS Perwodwcal postage pawd at Salem, Oregon Random Pendragon Casey Chaffi n facebook.com/kewzertwmes twwtter.com/kewzertwmes of your next-door neighbor. We talk about undocumented immigrants like they’re little green men who were too lazy to apply for a visa. But that’s just not true. Undocumented immigrants are human beings with lives and families and stories we can’t even imagine, and who just couldn’t wait 20 years for their visa application to be processed. When human lives are in the balance, we need to think past “legal” and “illegal.” We need to think in terms of kindness and justice. I’d like to believe the human spirit bends toward empathy. I’d like to be- lieve we can fi x this. I’d like to be- lieve we can treat humans as humans and burn the paperwork. But that’s not the national trend as of now: A system that already detains hundreds of thousands of people every year, according to the Detention Watch Network, is expanding under the Trump Administration. That’s why you, registered voter, need to educate yourself. Learn more about what im- migration detention is, how much of your tax money goes to fund it (hint: a lot), and what alternatives to deten- tion exist for those between legal sta- tuses. FreedomForImmigrants.org is a good start. Now please, go and be kind. (Casey Chaffi n is interning with the Keizertimes this summer.) letters To the Editor: A recent study found that many young school kids cannot read the Con- stitution as it was writ- ten. They also could not read a letter sent to them that was written in “longhand”. In other words, a young person would not be able to read a letter written to them by their grandmother because they can’t read or write cursive. They call it “that strange writing.” Ending the teaching of cursive was an unfortunate decision and there is plenty of blame to go around. The tech industry told educators that young people will not need cursive in the future. After all, they will have their devices. Our legislature failed to insist (Gene H. McIntyre lwves wn Kewzer.) Thanks to everyone To the Editor: Truth Tabernacle Church and Truth Tabernacle Christian Academy would like to express our gratitude to the communities of Salem and Keizer for their donations to our 19th annual 30 Kilometer Bike-A-Thon that was held on May 12. It was a tremendous success and we thank you for your support. Jessica Anderson, secretary Truth Tabernacle
