East Oregonian
A4
Thursday, January 16, 2020
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Editor
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Citizen group an example of democracy in action
S
uccessful police work has
always hinged on the involve-
ment of the community, and
that is why the recent effort by mem-
bers of the Milton-Freewater commu-
nity to create a citizens patrol is such
a good idea, and one that the city
should welcome.
An outside observer could believe
police are not doing their jobs, jus-
tifying the effort. That unfounded
assertion needs to be discarded once
and for all. Truth is the Milton-Free-
water Police Department — like all
area law enforcement agencies — is
doing the absolute best it can with
the resources it has. Already down
one full-time officer, the department
is working on burglaries and thefts
and a homicide investigation. In other
words, they have their plate full.
The local group — called Take
Back our Little Town of Milton-Free-
water — is a grass-roots effort to add
citizen resources to the local police.
Arguments can be made about
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Photo/Chloe LeValley
Milton-Freewater Police Chief Doug Boedigheimer explains the current situation of his po-
lice department to the 50 or so concerned residents who attended the city council meeting
Monday to talk about increased crime in Milton-Freewater.
why crime appears — and the key
word here is “appears” — to be
climbing in Milton-Freewater, but in
the end debates about the why fall
short as the effort to seek solutions
takes center stage.
Citizen involvement is crucial in
every aspect of democracy, and the
Milton-Freewater citizens’ patrol is
an excellent case in point.
Residents there could have easily
sat back and pointed fingers at police.
They didn’t do that. Instead, they
plan to band together and make a dif-
ference. Instead of laying blame, they
seek solutions. Instead of spewing
rhetoric, they want to take action.
Our democracy needs more cit-
izen involvement. That is why the
Milton-Freewater effort should stand
as a good example of an engaged
body politic that isn’t looking for
easy answers. Easy answers — such
as blaming police or elected lead-
ers — are not going to slash crime in
Milton-Freewater. Like most things
in life, to be successful in tackling
crime, the citizens of the town are
going to have to work hard.
With the right kind of effort and
right goals, the citizen patrol program
can evolve into a crucial element —
an added weapon — for local police
to combat crime.
Getting involved in democracy
sometimes isn’t easy, but in the end,
it pays dividends for all.
OTHER VIEWS
Talking to my daughter
about war and megafires
W
Can a public education campaign
work to reduce gun violence?
C
fense. And more than 1.5 million children
ould a communications campaign
under the age of 18 live in homes with loaded,
aimed at gun-owning households
unsecured guns, making them 16 times more
lower the incidence of gun violence in
likely to be killed than in safer homes.
America?
Today’s sophisticated marketing and pub-
I know it could, and here’s why — a com-
lic relations professionals can reach those peo-
munications program targeting potential
ple. We have the technology, the communi-
arsonists changed my life.
As managing director of a New York com- cations networks and the strategic planning
munications consulting firm, I received a
tools to design campaigns targeted at those
request for proposal from Aetna, the insur-
homes with messages that will resound with
ance giant. After passing the first screen-
the parents.
ing round, we were given a test assignment.
Technology can help too. If Amazon can
Aetna asked us to design a commu-
recommend a book they think you
nications program to reduce arson.
will like based on your past pur-
chases, those same tools could be
Arsons produce big losses for insur-
ers, of course.
used to make America safer.
We were surprised to learn that
And we don’t need to do a lot
most arson crimes weren’t commit-
of research to learn about the ways
ted in disadvantaged urban areas,
safety can be improved. Just Goo-
gle “how to keep my gun safe at
but rather in rural, mostly Southern,
home” and you’ll get 177 million
communities. The perpetrators were
L ouis
hits. Even the NRA has advice on
generally young, white men and their
c apozzi
gun safety in the home.
motive was revenge — “you seduced
COMMENT
Tim Dees, a former criminal
my wife, I’ll burn your house down.”
justice professor, said, “Injuries to
We also learned that virtually
children from the mishandling of firearms is a
100% of them get caught. So we recom-
mended a campaign aimed at potential arson- 100% preventable problem. The problem’s not
ists. Our key message — “Don’t do it —
a shortage of advice; it’s a problem of access
we’re going to catch you!”
to that advice, and motivation to employ it.
We won the account, and I later got
That’s what marketing and communications
recruited to lead the communications organi-
people do well. We can motivate consumers
zation at Aetna.
to seek out products that fill their needs. We
Targeting potential arsonists turned out
can encourage voters to prefer a candidate.
to be pretty easy. There was lots of infor-
We can even change behavior on important
mation available on their lifestyles and
social issues like automobile safety or smok-
ing. We can, and should be applying those
the media channels that would reach their
skills to this critical issue in America.”
demographics.
———
Could we do the same thing for risky gun
Louis Capozzi is the former chairman of
owners?
According to a study by the Law Center to the MSL Group and teaches in the master’s
degree program at the University of Ore-
Prevent Gun Violence cited in The New York
Times editorial, a gun in the home is 22 times gon. Capozzi is an investor in Central Ore-
gon Media Group, the limited-liability com-
more likely to be used in a family homicide,
pany that owns the Bend Bulletin.
suicide or accident than to be used in self-de-
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of
the East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
e were on the way to bal-
unfathomable 1.5 million acres, an area
let rehearsal. It’s my favor-
three times larger than any known brush
ite 30 minutes of the day. It’s
fire in California, had taken shape in
a chance to break away from work, and
New South Wales and Victoria, the coun-
try’s most populous states.
to touch base with my only child. She’s
That’s on top of the 135 bushfires
14 now. And it won’t be long before
in southeastern Australia that have left
she’s driving herself. I treasure these
at least 26 people dead, killed more
moments.
than 1 billion animals and damaged or
“So,” I asked her. “How was school
destroyed nearly 3,000 homes.
today?”
Writing in The New York Times,
“We were arguing about whether
columnist Paul Krugman
we’re more likely to die from
observed that, in a more ratio-
World War III or climate change,”
nal time, the fires, which have
she said.
been partially a result of cli-
Her response stopped me cold,
mate change, “would have rep-
but I guess I shouldn’t have been
resented a turning point.”
surprised.
“After all, it’s exactly the
With the dogs of war straining
kind of catastrophe climate
at the leash, the missiles flying in
scientists long warned us to
Iran, and our bellicose and unsta-
J ohn L.
ble commander-in-chief lurching
expect if we didn’t take action
M icek
from one scarcely believable justi-
to limit greenhouse gas emis-
COMMENT
sions,” he wrote. “In fact, a
fication to the next, the prospect of
2008 report commissioned by
another American forever war on
the Australian government predicted that
the other side of the globe didn’t seem all
global warming would cause the nation’s
that far-fetched.
fire seasons to begin earlier, end later,
First up, I disabused her of the notion
and be more intense — starting around
that any of her classmates might be
2020.”
drafted, reassuring her that there was no
And all this got me to thinking about
such movement afoot on Capitol Hill.
the world that we’re bequeathing to my
Nor would there likely ever be one. The
daughter and her classmates.
American military remains an all-volun-
teer force comprised not of the nation’s
While much is better about the planet,
elite, but of the sons and daughters of
there’s still much to be concerned about.
Main Street America. Trump’s voters.
And the threat of an uninhabitable globe
Some of my daughter’s classmates — if
should lead us to a united search for solu-
tions, not juvenile taunts hurled at a teen-
they ever heed the call to serve — may
ager by one of the most powerful people
well be among them.
on Earth. Even one dead child in an ele-
She seemed relieved at that news.
mentary school classroom should moti-
Talking to her about the threat of climate
vate us to find ways to reduce violence,
change was another matter entirely.
not watch hopelessly as more bodies pile
it seemed to me there were decades
up.
remaining before the Earth might ever
I’m still firm in my belief that it’s not
be rendered uninhabitable because of
too late for us to shrug off all that divides
climate change, I offered. Which didn’t
us, and to work together to fight these
mean that we shouldn’t do all we can
existential threats.
right now, I added.
But that means having a nation that
“But Australia is burning,” she coun-
tered, her brown eyes wide with alarm,
engages with the global community, not
anger creeping into the edges of her
denigrates it; one that rejects the false
voice.
choice that less gun violence somehow
She had me there. I’d seen the pho-
means fewer rights; and one that doesn’t
tos of scorched koalas and dead kanga-
stare at each over the trenches, each irre-
vocably convinced that its way is the
roos. The endless walls of flame. It’s dif-
ficult to find the words to describe the
only way.
scale, and the scope, of the ecological
My daughter — and all our children
and human catastrophe that’s unfolding
— deserve far better answers than the
on the other side of the world.
ones we’ve been giving them.
As of this writing, NPR was reporting
———
that a hellish “megafire” comprising an
John L. Micek is a syndicated columnist.
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