August 30, 2017 The Skanner Page 9
News
RNC Votes to Condemn White Supremacists Over Groans of Some
Some committee members were troubled by Trump’s response to violence in Charlottesville
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—
The Republican Nation-
al Committee walked
the tightrope Friday in
carefully but resolutely
denouncing white su-
premacist groups with-
out criticizing President
Donald Trump, who
waffl ed in his own state-
ments in the wake of the
deadly clash in Virginia
this month.
Meeting in Nashville,
Tennessee, the RNC ap-
proved a raft of resolu-
tions, including one as-
serting “Nazis, the KKK,
white supremacists and
others are repulsive,
evil and have no fruit-
ful place in the United
States.”
And while the vote was
unanimous, some mem-
AP PHOTO/MARK HUMPHREY
By Thomas Beaumont
Associated Press
Amy Hedtke of Waxahachie, Texas, takes notes as she listens during
a session of the the standing committee on rules at the Republican
National Committee summer meeting, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, in
Nashville, Tenn.
bers had grumbled the
resolution was unneces-
sary and refl ected unnec-
essary defensiveness.
“It’s amazing that we
have been lured into
this argument that we’re
not racists. It’s absurd,”
48-Hour Rule Gone for Good,
Citizen Oversight Board Reforms
T
he Portland City Council voted
unanimously last Thursday to
require police offi cers to speak
to someone at internal aff airs
within two days aft er a lethal use-of-
force incident.
Aft er an initial vote two weeks ago,
police reform advocates noted poten-
tial loopholes – including language
permitting the city to waive the rule
and delay testimony -- that were sewn
shut by the most recent vote.
Last week’s proposal also includes
language directing the city attorney’s
“
The vote more de-
fi nitively abolishes
the controversial,
unique-to-Port-
land 48-hour rule
offi ce to pursue a court ruling defi n-
itively saying whether the policy is
legal.
While still subject to court approv-
al, the vote more defi nitively abolishes
the controversial, unique-to-Portland
48-hour rule giving Portland Police
Bureau offi cers a two-day window to
wait before issuing a statement aft er
shooting or otherwise using lethal
force on a citizen.
The most recent version of the Port-
land Police Association’s contract
with the city – approved last fall –
did away with that rule. But earlier
this year the bureau walked back the
change under legal advice from Mult-
nomah County District Attorney Rod
Underhill. Underhill’s advice cites Or-
egon v. Soriano, a 1984 state supreme
court ruling that requires immunity
from prosecution from those forced
by employers to testify.
Criminal prosecution of police for
on-the-job uses of force is rare in Port-
land and nationwide. In 2013 PPB offi -
cer Dane Reister was the fi rst offi cer
in Portland’s history to face criminal
indictment relating to use-of-force
charges, aft er a 2011 incident that crit-
ically wounded a man with a beanbag
shotgun. Reister was fi red by the bu-
reau in 2013 and ended his life in 2015.
The council also approved a plan to
create a new citizen oversight board
that would replace the now-disbanded
Citizens Oversight and Accountability
Board created by the city’s settlement
with the Department of Justice. Ac-
cording to the city’s plan, the Portland
Committee on Community-Engaged
Policing will have explicit power to
independently assess the settlement
agreement, review and make recom-
mendations on police directives and
make recommendations on PPB’s
community engagement eff orts.
said Colorado Republi-
can Chairman Jeff Hays.
“Why would we feel com-
pelled to do that?”
The sentiment refl ects
a diff erence between
RNC leaders concerned
about the party’s im-
age in light of President
Donald Trump’s latest
rhetorical thicket and
newer, more ardently
pro-Trump state Repub-
lican leaders who say
such a statement appears
defensive.
But this was a priority
for Chairwoman Ron-
na Romney McDaniel,
as well as for commit-
tee members who were
openly bothered by
Trump’s initial resis-
tance to singling out the
racist groups aft er the
Charlottesville violence.
Hearing about the
grumbling,
McDaniel
made the rounds Friday
morning to reinforce
with members that the
measure was a priority.
“Every day, I wake up
proud that we’re the par-
ty of Lincoln,” McDaniel
told the committee Fri-
day. “Condemning vio-
lence is not a Republican
or Democratic issue. It is
an American issue.”
Despite the resolution,
there doesn’t appear to
be a soft ening of support
for the president within
the party’s national orga-
nization.
Rather, what was to
be a sleepy, pro-forma
late summer gathering
seemed to spark renewed
backing for the president
despite a series of recent
setbacks: the GOP’s stun-
ning failure to repeal and
replace “Obamacare”; the
furious backlash over
his comments about the
white supremacist rally
in Charlottesville, Vir-
ginia; and the departure
of crowd favorite Reince
Priebus, the former RNC
chairman, as Trump’s
chief of staff .
“The president was not
wrong to point out what
the media has failed to
point out,” that count-
er-protesters also “came
for a battle” in Charlot-
tesville, said Pennsylva-
nia Republican Chair-
man Val DiGiorgio.
DiGiorgio stood by the
“many sides” comment
Trump made immedi-
ately aft er the clash in
Virginia, in which a car
was driven into a crowd
of
counter-protesters,
killing a woman. The
president was criticized
harshly by both Republi-
cans and Democrats be-
cause he didn’t immedi-
ately denounce the white
nationalist groups.
There was palpable
contempt in the confer-
ence room for count-
er-protesters who were
ready to fi ght. RNC mem-
ber Morton Blackwell,
who affi rmed his sup-
port for the resolution,
said “Every person who
came to Charlottesville
intending violence was
evil.”
Bill Palatucci, a RNC
committeeman
from
New Jersey who spon-
sored the resolution, said
it was important for the
committee to formally
denounce white suprem-
acists. Palatucci said, “I
think he got it wrong a
week ago Tuesday, in re-
gards to Charlottesville,”
when Trump said during
a free-wheeling, defi ant
news conference that
there were “very fi ne
people on both sides” at
the demonstration.
But even Palatucci,
who was a devout sup-
porter of New Jersey
Gov. Chris Christie’s 2016
presidential campaign,
said, “I support the pres-
ident’s agenda.” He cited
deregulation measures
Trump has signed and
the president’s plan, out-
lined Monday, to send
additional U.S. troops to
Afghanistan to revive
the eff ort to root out ter-
rorist cells.
See RNC on page 11
—Christen McCurdy
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