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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, JuNE 19, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
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WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
Astoria had its share of armed standoffs
I
n a year of racial strife in the wake
of George Floyd’s murder, many
Americans would be surprised
at the concept of an academic police
officer.
One of them died recently. He was
an agent of change within policing. Har-
vey Schlossberg was known as a father
of modern police psychology. His wealth
of insights, though desperately needed,
seem to be forgotten.
Ron Louie, Astoria’s
police chief from 1987
to 1992, was a student
and disciple of Schloss-
berg. Now an instruc-
tor at Portland State Uni-
versity, Louie authored
the 2008 book “Tactical
STEVE
Communication in Crisis
FORRESTER
Incidents.”
Louie’s fundamental
accomplishment in Astoria was to profes-
sionalize the city’s police department. He
also was forced to use what he learned
from Schlossberg. Shortly after Louie
became chief in 1988, an armed man bar-
ricaded himself into a north side home.
Louie came to that encounter well pre-
pared. He had been one of a select group
of 20 police officers who were trained
by Schlossberg at a former military base
in San Francisco Bay. They conducted
exercises in hostage negotiations.
In 1991, a man barricaded himself
inside a trailer on Port of Astoria prop-
erty and fired some 40 rounds of ammu-
nition at Louie and one of his officers. “I
got the call at 1 a.m.,” Louie said. “We
could hear his bullets hit in the leaves
around us. We evacuated people on the
hill above. Also fishermen. Sheriff John
Raichl put a sniper up on the bridge.
When the sun came up, I was able to talk
him out.”
Two more incidents followed, includ-
ing Louie’s negotiating with Greenpeace
demonstrators who sought to block the
progress of the battleship New Jersey as
it sailed underneath the Astoria Bridge.
Louie’s training and consultation with
Schlossberg were life-changing.
Ron Louie is a former Astoria police chief.
‘Dog Day Afternoon,’ a movie inspired by a Brooklyn bank robbery in the 1970s,
dramatized the need for better hostage negotiating.
Schlossberg’s obituary in The New
York Times describes just how starkly
different he was in 1950s policing. Ste-
fan Forbes, who directed a documen-
tary about Schlossberg, told the Times:
“It’s important to remember what an out-
sider Harvey was in the NYPD. In a top-
down, paramilitary, predominantly Irish
police culture of command and control,
in walked an iconoclastic Jewish intel-
lectual pacifist, a beat cop with a Ph.D. in
psychology.”
Schlossberg pioneered developing
psychological testing for police recruits.
To be accepted into Schlossberg’s
San Francisco training session, Louie
had to pass eight hours of psychologi-
cal testing at Stanford University. “They
were looking for emotional intelligence,”
Louie said. “Not verbosity. You should
only talk 20% of the time with a hos-
tage taker.” They were also looking for
an ability to accept criticism. “Hostage
takers are jerks,” Louie said. “They were
looking for the kind of cop with a thick
skin.”
“Our class of 20 officers from
throughout the Western U.S. were there
for six days,” remembered Louie. “All
of us were Vietnam vets and college
graduates. Schlossberg was a fascinat-
ing character and at the time still worked
for NYPD. He spent the entire train-
ing cycle with one-on-one sessions, then
class, then running scenarios. The train-
ing days were 10 hours long and at an
intense pace.”
Following that, Louie did an intern-
ship with San Francisco’s crisis interven-
tion unit.
“When I moved up to negotiating
with subjects, I would talk to Harvey
about calls, and on two calls, I got him
on the phone in New York to advise on
the call. He loved doing that with his stu-
dents. He would say, ‘Damn, this stuff
really works.’”
Louie left Astoria for the Hillsboro
Police Department, where he established
Oregon’s first cybercrime unit.
When my questioning turned to con-
temporary policing in America and
especially in Portland, Louie was not
optimistic.
“Only part of American policing
is trained in diffusing crisis,” he said.
“The rest of it is what you see. Cops
acting like jerks. We are still select-
ing the wrong people to be cops. Once
we hire them, we’re not training them.
We do a very poor job of training police
in America in how to deal with crisis
intervention.”
He added: “American policing is in a
lot of trouble. We don’t have consistent
training and we don’t hire the right peo-
ple. Every time you see a mistake, it’s a
cop acting like an idiot.”
Asked about Portland’s riots, Louie
said: “We have a lack of containment and
prosecution. We’re not prosecuting the
regulars. Whenever you have a hardcore
group, you’re in trouble. They are mod-
ern-day anarchists. They are not Black
Lives Matter protesters. They hitch a ride
on Black Lives Matter. Their only inter-
est is trashing.”
He adds that, “Black Lives Matter
tells you their goals. Anarchists won’t
tell you. They need to be isolated and
prosecuted.”
Steve Forrester, the former editor and
publisher of The Astorian, is the president
and CEO of EO Media Group.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A spit in the face
A
fter recent actions in Congress, way
too many of those elected officials
proved a few things.
First and foremost is that we need man-
datory service of some form, such as an
18-month program that is connected to
graduating from high school and a way
to earn an American citizenship. A place
where every individual is taught the basics
of self-defense, personal finance and the
more difficult self-respect.
We, as a society, are responsible for
having our own citizens not knowing who
or why the faces on our currency are on
our currency. As an American, that embar-
rasses me.
Another thing our Congress proved,
again, is the fact that this young country,
“in order to form a more perfect union,”
needs term limits. Humans have proved
over and over we need limits. We need
deadlines. A time limit to get things done.
Why are almost all elected seats of any
office not having time limits? If absolute
power corrupts absolutely, why don’t we
hold our elected officials to that ideology?
But what gives me knots in my belly
and a lump in my throat is the slave-owner
mentality of those same elected officials.
As a veteran who has stood against tyr-
anny his whole life, those officials spit in
my face. They are making a mockery of
what thousands, no millions have died for,
or spent their lives trying to uphold: the
Pledge of Allegiance.
TROY J. HASKELL
Astoria
A place of exclusion
T
he Clatsop County Board of Com-
missioners is reviewing the short-
term rental ordinance, and opponents are
asking for elimination of, or significant
restrictions of, vacation rentals.
I’m deeply concerned that the proposed
restrictions come from a place of exclu-
sion, prioritizing those who can afford to
own property along the Oregon Coast, or
can afford a weeklong stay.
Did the visionary Gov. Oswald West
want just 5% of Oregon’s population to
have the exclusive use of beaches, or did
he want to keep beaches accessible to all,
not just the privileged few?
As a county taxpayer, short-term rental
owner and community member, I request
the commissioners deeply consider pol-
icies that nourish a culture of excluding
people just because they don’t have the
ability to live here full time, or afford a
weeklong stay.
LETTERS WELCOME
In a county that is 90% white, please
consider how that impacts access for all
Oregonians, and the unintended conse-
quences that will result.
Potential issues with vacation rent-
als like noise, garbage, fires on beaches,
parking, water use and conservation are
all things that we, as a community, can fix
— but let’s not use those as a reason to
exclude others and limit access.
My hope is that we can all come
together as a community, open our hearts
and see the responsibility of the priv-
ilege we have as property owners and
work together — keeping in mind both
our smaller neighborhood communities
and access for our greater community of
Oregonians.
AMBER GEIGER MORGAN
Falcon Cove
A bigger problem
R
egarding all the Gearhart city coun-
cilors’ enthusiasm for a new fire sta-
tion on Highlands Lane, have you thought
through the traffic safety aspect?
Currently there is the Blue Heron, Teal
Road, Surf Pines, The Reserve at Gear-
hart and The Highlands developments, not
to mention Highlands Golf Course and the
Del Rey Beach public access.
Now there is the proposed development
of 30 acres on Highlands Lane. If this goes
into the Gearhart urban growth bound-
ary, there is the potential for another 120
houses (four per acre).
If you conceivably take away 10 acres
for a fire station and park, that is still 80
houses with possibly two cars per house
— that is an additional 160 vehicles trying
to get out onto U.S. Highway 101.
Now you add a fire station, with fire
trucks trying to get out during an emer-
gency. Will there be a signal light at High-
way 101 and Highlands Lane to deal with
this? Not just a signal light that fire trucks
can control?
You’re creating a bigger problem for
everyone living off of Highlands Lane.
Have any Gearhart City Council mem-
bers ever tried getting out onto High-
way 101 from Highlands Lane, especially
in the summer? It is already an unsafe
nightmare.
I understand Highway 101 is a state
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highway, but if Gearhart wants this land to
become part of the Gearhart urban growth
boundary, then Gearhart needs to make
sure it is a safe plan.
SHARON DAVIS-ROBINSON
Gearhart