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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
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news@bakercityherald.com
EDITORIAL
Badgers,
Antelopes
make us
all proud
They gathered in the parking lot at Baker High
School, the Powder Valley Badgers fans clad in red
and blue, the backers of the Adrian Antelopes in
green and gold.
They mingled and talked football and enjoyed
hamburgers and hot dogs grilled by Badger support-
ers.
Then they walked over to Baker Bulldog Memo-
rial Stadium and cheered for the young men who
have made these two small communities swell with
pride this fall.
The Antelopes from Adrian, population 157, pre-
vailed 46-38 to complete a perfect 13-0 season with a
Class 1A state championship.
The Badgers from North Powder, population 504,
led almost the entire game but settled for second
place and a record of 11-2, the only two blemishes on
the schedule etched by the Antelopes.
The events of Saturday, Nov. 27 epitomize the
prominent role that high school sports play in East-
ern Oregon.
And the pregame tailgate party put on by Powder
Valley boosters was a fi ne example of how sports can
foster camaraderie even between the fans of oppos-
ing teams.
Rivalry too often is a word with negative conno-
tations, saddled with adjectives such as bitter and
heated.
But the Badgers and the Antelopes have shown
that two teams, and their fans, can compete at the
highest level while maintaining a mutual respect
that persists regardless of the numbers on the
scoreboard.
Congratulations to both sides for reminding us of
what high school sports can, and should, be about.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
Your views
Herald giving too much attention
to allegations
I must ask why you’re giving atten-
tion to the unfounded and frankly, at
best disingenuous allegations by Jason
and Susan Bland regarding Kerry
McQuisten?
A front page article of Jason Bland
was run accusing Ms. McQuisten
of defamation. When one reads the
article, there is one small sentence
admitting she never spoke about the
man in public, or to anyone outside the
City Council. Was the headline just for
grabbing reader attention? Is the BCH
in the habit of headlining what has, so
far, proven to be false information and
allegations? What has happened to fact
fi nding and truth in journalism?
I seem to recall you also ran a false
accusation article that smacks of a hit
piece, written by another gubernatorial
campaign that was written directly af-
ter Ms. McQuisten announced her bid.
Has Ms. McQuisten been given space
for a reply?
I appears that Mr. Bland, is, himself,
the individual who is running to the
media and public meetings repeatedly.
His wife, Susan went to the council
on more than one occasion to make un-
founded accusations about the mayor’s
campaign fi nances and the BCH
printed them without performing its
journalistic due diligence to see if they
were in fact true. They were not.
This is strongly suggesting that the
BCH is very willing to do political hack
pieces against conservatives and has
drums they are beating that does not
remotely support the above mentioned,
“truth in journalism,” and sadly, even
integrity, apparently.
I have been hearing of both,
“liberal,” and, “conservative,” friends
canceling their subscriptions to your
paper.
If, collectively, the paper is more in-
terested is promoting a political agenda
than to the keeping of accurate report-
ing, as well as being willing to promote
yellow journalism type headlines, I can
certainly see why.
Kate Grace
Halfway
Finding beauty in faith and the
sights, smells of winter
The nice thing about winter is that
it’s very quiet and peaceful. The rush of
summer activities are put to rest. The
pleasant prospect of enjoying what we
worked for is sometimes carried out by
a blazing fi re in a fi replace, or pleasant
spot by a window. This solace matches
the season of the renewal of life, dis-
played in nature.
Hot chocolates, teas, roasted meats,
and the smell of fresh baked goods
fi ll the home with pleasant times and
quiet repose. Soft snowfl akes fall lazily
to the ground turning the world into a
beautiful winter wonderland. Happy
sounds of children’s laughter and play.
It’s time for sleds, snowmen, snowballs,
skating and of course snow angels; a
wonderful time of year.
Sometimes the earth looks dead
and barren, cold and foreboding. But
the promise of renewed life is in every
plant and the animal kingdom as well.
When the time is right, life will burst
forth in newness and the trials of win-
ter forgotten.
When you enter the “winter of life”
you are not alone. God has given us the
promise of peace and hope (Matthew
11-28). Though the “howling winds
of adversity” may assail you, making
all look dead and hopeless, relax and
trust in the Lord. He has given us the
promise of spring (Gen. 8:22) and new
life (John 3:16). In the beauty of faith
fi nd solace and peace.
Bertina Eastman
Baker City
Schools regret ending campus police
By NICHOLAS GOLDBERG
The idea of “abolishing” or “de-
funding” the police has always struck
me as risky, to say the least, and not
very well thought through. It has the
potential to cause at least as many
problems as it solves.
So when some school districts
actually decided give it a try, I worried
they might come to regret it sooner
rather than later.
Which is exactly what happened in
Pomona, California.
To recap: In July, after a long
campaign by community activists, the
Pomona Unifi ed School District ended
its contract with the Pomona Police
Department, saying it would do away
with on-campus police patrols and
rely instead on “proctors” trained to
deescalate tense situations.
Guess what? Four months later,
after a shooting near Pomona High
School left a 12-year-old injured from
glass and debris, the school board
reversed course and voted to renew
the contract. Last week, the Pomona
City Council ratifi ed that decision.
And Pomona is not alone. Fre-
mont, in Northern California, also
reversed its decision to defund school
police. Several other cities among the
dozens that eliminated their school
police have also considered reinstat-
ing them.
So does this suggest that defund-
ing school police was a crazy idea from
the start and we can soon go back to
the way things were?
Well, sort of. But sort of not.
On the one hand, of course we
need police — in schools as elsewhere.
Eliminating them, especially without
signifi cant study and clear alternative
plans, is reckless.
There are, after all, millions of in-
cidents of drug use, theft, fi ghts, gang
activity, sexual assault and weapons
possession each year in public schools
around the country. Not to mention
the infrequent but horrifying school
shootings that plague the country.
Police are not the root of the prob-
lem, and they need to be part of the
solution.
But we shouldn’t revert to business
as usual.
No reasonable person should want
to see one more cop than necessary
in a school. Police presence sends a
message to students that they are
suspected criminals, and need to be
surveilled, controlled and disciplined.
Furthermore, by many accounts,
school police have a tendency to
criminalize nonviolent, run-of-the
mill misbehavior.
“When I taught in Watts, I saw
cops who were great when there was
a gun threat,” said Nick Melvoin, a
member of the L.A. Unifi ed school
board. “But I also saw cops ticket-
ing kids who were late to class, or
responding when they talked back
to teachers. These are things that
shouldn’t be handled by armed police
offi cers.”
There have been repeated allega-
tions of excessive force by school po-
lice. In August, for instance, a deputy
at Lancaster High School was seen
on video slamming a student to the
ground. In September, a Long Beach
school safety offi cer shot and killed an
18-year-old after a fi ght near school.
What’s more, repeated studies
around the country have shown dispa-
rate treatment of students of color by
school police, including disproportion-
ate arrests for Black and Latino kids.
So reform is in order.
Here in Los Angeles, LAUSD
— which serves more than 600,000
students — tried to fi nd the middle
ground. The school board didn’t elimi-
nate the police, but it did vote in June
2020 to reduce the funding for the Los
Angeles School Police Department by
one-third, or about $25 million. That
meant cutting about 133 positions,
including about 70 sworn offi cers.
The board said it would divert the
money to improving schools with large
concentrations of Black students.
That sounds good in theory, but
it was worrisome too — because
the board acted precipitously under
pressure from students and activists
in the wake of George Floyd’s killing,
without waiting for recommendations
from a task force on the issue already
convened by then-Supt. Austin
Beutner.
Why not wait for the experts to
report back? Was the problem really
the number of cops, or something
else? Why cut 70 offi cers rather than
10 or 200? (After the cuts, the task
force took such questions off the table
and focused, instead, on how to move
forward.)
Now, what’s done is done. It’s too
soon to judge the effect because school
has been mostly virtual, but with full
in-person school back as of August,
some principals are already saying
they want their police restored.
The district, to its credit, is trying
to encourage less dependency on
police. Alfonzo Webb, L.A. Unifi ed’s
director of operations, told me that the
diverted $25 million (and more) is be-
ing used to, among other things, add
psychiatric social workers, restorative
justice counselors and staff trained in
“trauma-informed practices.” Police
are no longer based routinely in high
school buildings and only come in
when called.
The district in recent years wisely
banned the use of pepper spray and
certain chokeholds by school offi cers.
It did away with random searches of
students for weapons, and stopped
the horrifying practice of accepting
surplus military equipment from the
Pentagon, including grenade launch-
ers and assault rifl es.
Maybe it’s now time to take away
guns from the school police. (For the
record, no L.A. School Police offi cer
has ever fi red a gun on campus since
the force was created in 1984, Beutner
said last year.)
Continued training in confl ict dees-
calation is important. And training on
systemic racism and implicit bias.
Serious incidents in schools will
continue to require a law enforcement
response. But let’s hope L.A. Unifi ed
closely monitors the cutbacks so it can
authorize more police offi cers where
necessary and fi nd other, more appro-
priate solutions where they are not.
Nicholas Goldberg is an associate
editor and Op-Ed columnist for the
Los Angeles Times.
CONTACT
YOUR PUBLIC
OFFICIALS
President Joe
Biden: The White House,
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,
Washington, D.C. 20500; 202-
456-1111; to send comments,
go to www.whitehouse.gov.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley:
D.C. offi ce: 313 Hart Senate
Offi ce Building, U.S. Senate,
Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-
224-3753; fax 202-228-3997.
Portland offi ce: One World
Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon
St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR
97204; 503-326-3386; fax 503-
326-2900. Baker City offi ce,
1705 Main St., Suite 504, 541-
278-1129; merkley.senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden:
D.C. offi ce: 221 Dirksen
Senate Offi ce Building,
Washington, D.C., 20510;
202-224-5244; fax 202-228-
2717. La Grande offi ce: 105
Fir St., No. 210, La Grande,
OR 97850; 541-962-7691; fax,
541-963-0885; wyden.senate.
gov.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz
(2nd District): D.C. offi ce:
2182 Rayburn Offi ce Building,
Washington, D.C., 20515,
202-225-6730; fax 202-225-
5774. La Grande offi ce: 1211
Washington Ave., La Grande,
OR 97850; 541-624-2400, fax,
541-624-2402; walden.house.
gov.
Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown: 254 State Capitol,
Salem, OR 97310; 503-378-
3111; www.governor.oregon.
gov.
Oregon State Treasurer
Tobias Read: oregon.
treasurer@ost.state.or.us;
350 Winter St. NE, Suite 100,
Salem OR 97301-3896; 503-
378-4000.