KSLM's right-wing radio talk show host Jeff Kropf has been plugging a Freedom Celebration to be held this Sunday, January 31. I've heard that Trevor Womack, the Salem Police Department chief, won't be attending even though he was invited.
UPDATE: I've heard that 400 people have registered for this event. Oregon's COVID rules for an Extreme Risk area (where this event will be held) say that a maximum of 50 people can attend an outdoor entertainment event. So it looks like the Freedom Celebration will be in violation of that rule. And it could be a super spreader event, given that most of the right-wingers who attend won't be wearing masks or practicing social distancing.
FURTHER UPDATE: A commenter reminded me that this event is to be held in an airplane hanger, so it is indoors. That means six is the maximum number of people who could attend under current Covid rules. I stand corrected. However, that rule seems a bit unfair if everyone is wearing masks, which admittedly almost certainly won't happen. Grocery stores can let in people to the extent of 50% of capacity, I believe it is, if everyone has a mask on. The problem is that most of those going to the Freedom Celebration wrongly think "freedom" means going maskless.
Wise decision, Chief Womack.
While your officers are free to attend on their own time, it would have been a bad idea to give credibility to this event -- given that it was Biden-hating Republican extremists like Kropf who sowed the seed of the insurrection at the nation's Capitol that cost the lives of three police officers (one was murdered by the Trump rioters and two have committed suicide following the attack).
If you want to endure a You Tube video where Kropf speaks his mind at a January 1, 2021 rally at the state Capitol in opposition to Governor Brown's Covid "tyranny," here it is.
I watched enough of the video to learn that, among other things, Kropf is against wearing masks to fight the pandemic and that he believes a wacko accusation of Brown having ties to the Chinese Communist Party needs to be investigated.
Someone sent me a recording of Kropf claiming on his radio show that the Salem Police Department would be attending the Freedom Celebration along with the National Guard, Marion County Sheriff's Office, and other groups. Hopefully none of them will show up in an official capacity.
Jeff Kropf obviously doesn't understand that freedom is defended by many others than the sorts of people invited to the Freedom Celebration: law enforcement, military, first responders.
Trump's failed attempt to overthrown our democracy by having the results of the free and fair 2020 presidential election overturned shows that judges, election officials, Secretaries of State, advocates for voting rights, lawyers, journalists, and many others who don't carry a gun deserve to be praised at their own Freedom Celebration.
Those people also have been "fighting the good fight for our freedom," as the Freedom Celebration puts it. But right-wingers like Kropf don't acknowledge this, which is why I'm a proud progressive.
We on the left side of the political spectrum have a much more expansive view of freedom than conservatives do these days, even though genuine conservatives also believe that democracy is protected by assuring that as many people are able to vote as possible, which means making it as easy to vote as possible.
Tomorrow night, March 15, the Salem City Council will have a work session on the draft performance audit of the Salem Police Department (SPD) that was prepared by a consulting firm.
The consultants' report is nicely written and clearly laid out. But I've got some problems with it.
My main concern is on page 9:
Although a formal, detailed staffing analysis was not part of the scope of our assessment, we noted the number of sworn officers and the total number of SPD employees has not kept up with the growth of the city's population.
Well, I'd argue that not only wasn't a "formal, detailed staffing analysis" what the consulting firm was asked to do, there's no evidence that any sort of staffing analysis was requested by the City of Salem. Here's what the report says in that regard.
The City of Salem identified several community concerns involving the Salem Police Department (SPD). The City and the community want to understand how the SPD prepares for and interacts with unsheltered individuals and individuals experiencing behavioral health crises. Additionally, the City sought more information about the SPD's plans and responses to assemblies, permitted protests and demonstrations, and impromptu crowds.
Yet in several places through the report there are mentions of how a supposed lack of police officers makes it difficult for the Salem Police Department to perform various functions.
Logically, this makes no sense.
The report uses a very crude figure of police officers per 1,000 population as the basis for concluding that the SPD doesn't have enough officers.
This is akin to someone doing the same for dentists without asking some basic questions about the need for dentists in an area. Is the water supply fluoridated? What is the demand for various types of dental services?
I'm also reminded of how the State of Oregon reacted when I used my own money to buy a personal computer (Apple II+) in the 1980s to use in my work at the State Health Planning and Development Agency.
When I asked to have the agency purchase a personal computer, the State Information Technology folks said that centralized mainframe computers were what the state wanted agencies to use -- which turned out to be a stupendously shortsighted conclusion.
I mention this because determining how many police officers are needed in Salem depends on the desired future of the Salem Police Department, not the past.
In a Facebook comment on a post about the performance audit, Levi Herrera-Lopez made some excellent points.
In my opinion, the major findings of this report are that the SPD doesn't have a strategic plan; data collection is also very poor; SPD is not representative of the community so it needs to be more diverse; needs to improve it's relations with communities of color and the LGBTQ community; needs to improve; that their response to the protests was poor, specially in the beginning; and that the SRO [school resource officer] program was not following the national model, and was harmful to the relationship with the community. That's HUGE. So, people should engage still with City Council to make sure the report doesn't get dumbed down to "more police officers".
The performance audit makes dozens of specific recommendations regarding needed improvements in how the Salem Police Department functions.
So how is it that the consultants were able to conclude that the department needs more officers when so many inefficiencies and deficiencies are pointed out in their report?
Doesn't it make sense for the Salem Police Department to implement the report's recommendations, including development of a Strategic Plan, and only after that has been accomplished assess whether it has too few, too many, or just enough officers to carry out its mission?
Here's part of what the new Police Chief, Trevor Womack, said in a recent Salem City Club presentation -- an excerpt from my blog post about his talk.
Womack said that his assessment of the Salem Police Department (he's only been chief for about 90 days) will be informed by the performance audit requested by the City Council last year.
The questions he'll be asking include: What are we doing well? What could we do better? What should we stop doing?
He said that while it is likely the performance audit won't contain any surprises, there's value in having outside eyes take a look at the police department.
Womack will try to implement all of the performance audit recommendations.
Oa a related note, he said that a strategic plan will be worked on during the second half of 2021, with a completion date of January 2022.
He observed that sometimes process is more important than the outcome in such an effort. He'll be seeking input both from his officers and the community at large. Goals, objectives, and measurement metrics will be part of the strategic plan.
Lastly, I found it strange that the performance audit report was so vague about a central concern of many people: whether Salem Police Department officers showed favoritism toward armed "militia" members during a curfew when Black Lives Matter protests were occurring in the downtown area.
The report says:
One stakeholder expressed concern that during a recent protest, some SPD officers told some protesters of color that they needed to leave the area but allowed protestors from alt-right movements to stay. They believe the police treated them differently because of their identity.
Latino community members echoed these concerns and expressed that SPD officers treat protesters from the Proud Boys and other white supremacist groups differently than protesters of color. We did not investigate these claims as part of our assessment; however, even the perception of this being true should concern the SPD.
Wow.
The consultants didn't investigate the claims of Proud Boy/white supremacist favoritism by Salem Police Department officers even though a video of this appearing to occur made national news and led to a lot of outrage here in Salem.
This deliberate oversight calls into question how rigorous the consultants were in assessing the performance of the SPD. And that mention of "even the perception of this being true" seems to show that the consultants didn't take seriously the concerns of people of color.
Trevor Womack is the new chief of police in Salem, succeeding Jerry Moore, who retired. Today Chief Womack talked about his plans for the police department in a Salem City Club Zoom meeting.
I came away impressed.
There was little, if anything, that I could criticize abut what Womack said either in his initial presentation or in the following lengthy Q&A period.
And believe me, I'm not shy about criticizing City of Salem officials when I feel like they deserve it.
Right off the bat, I liked Womack's openness when he spoke about his background and family life. He said that he has a wife and five children, two biological children and three step-children.
His wife is still in Stockton since some, or maybe all, of the step-children are in high school. Womack said that they may decide to stay with their father, or they might decide to come to Salem.
I thought it was great to be so frank about some sensitive details of his life. Having been divorced myself, when my daughter was a senior at South High, I know how difficult it can be for step-children to adjust to a re-marriage of a parent.
Turning to his policing philosophy. Womack shared this slide, which encapsulated how he sees his job.
He said that fighting crime while building trust is the core of his philosophy.
Smarter policing means using data and evidence-based approaches. Principled policing means character and community engagement.
Womack said that his assessment of the Salem Police Department (he's only been chief for about 90 days) will be informed by the performance audit requested by the City Council last year.
The questions he'll be asking include: What are we doing well? What could we do better? What should we stop doing?
He said that while it is likely the performance audit won't contain any surprises, there's value in having outside eyes take a look at the police department.
Womack will try to implement all of the performance audit recommendations.
Oa a related note, he said that a strategic plan will be worked on during the second half of 2021, with a completion date of January 2022.
He observed that sometimes process is more important than the outcome in such an effort. He'll be seeking input both from his officers and the community at large. Goals, objectives, and measurement metrics will be part of the strategic plan.
A questioner suggested that the department could have two tracks, one less militarized, almost like counselors. Womack agreed that police should be removed from situations that don't need a traditional police response.
Asked about dealing with homeless people, he said that this is an extremely complex situation with no easy answers. The lack of a sobering center makes the job of police officers more difficult.
I asked about how steadily declining crime rates nationally and in Salem affected how he looks at the role of police officers, suggesting that perhaps this points to the need for more crime prevention efforts and community policing.
Womack gave a pleasing response, not all of which I can remember since I was trying to listen to him while also scribbling in what turned out to be largely indecipherable handwriting of mine.
One point he made is that crime rates have been dropping while citizen attitudes about the legitimacy of police have been declining. So fighting crime isn't the end-all of policing if it erodes trust in police.
In response to another question, he said that trust-building never ends for a police department, adding "Communities who need us the most often trust us the least."
Regarding Salem Police Department training, Womack said that it is high quality.
He went on to say that additional training areas could include racial healing, trust building, community engagement, and implicit bias -- a term that I was pleasantly surprised to hear a police chief use, though maybe I shouldn't have been all that surprised.
Asked what the most pressing crime is in Salem, Womack said "violent crime." More needs to be learned about the cause of it: drugs? gangs? domestic violence? other factors? He also mentioned serious property crimes such as break-ins.
Lastly, when asked if the department is making recruitment presentations in high schools, he replied "yes," noting that he looks forward to being able to do this in-person rather than via Zoom.
My overall impression was that Womack is a straight-shooter, though I probably should think of a different term to praise a police chief.
He didn't shy away at all from probing questions, even seeming to welcome either implied or more explicit criticism of his department.
I got much the same feeling from his predecessor, Chief Moore, but I think Womack has a more modern and less institutional outlook on policing than Moore did, who sometimes could come across as defensive when people critiqued actions of his officers.
This time of year we like to hear "Santa Claus is coming to town." Such is happening on December 25, but it looks like Salem also is going to be visited by the Proud Boys, who are much more naughty than nice.
And not just once, but up to five times.
The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the Proud Boys a hate group. Here's a report on the upcoming visits to Salem of the Proud Boys, courtesy of an alert shared today by a local activist who goes by Concerned Citizen.
I've boldfaced parts of the message to highlight the dates of the five Proud Boys-related events in Salem over the next few weeks. Hopefully the Salem Police Department will do a better job of enforcing the laws that have been broken by the Proud Boys previous times they've come to town.
You are receiving this public safety alert because you are a member of the media, lawmaker, faith leader, Salem-area community leader, civil rights organization, or a concerned citizen.
Yesterday Joey Gibson, founder of the alt-right Vancouver-based extremist group, announced that he will be hosting an event at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem on Monday, December 21st (See here and here). The protest will take place during the emergency legislative session. Joey Gibson's events are frequently attended by members of the Proud Boys hate group, as well as members of other alt-right militias and violent white supremacists from various backgrounds. Oregon Women for Trump leader (and current Oregon DOJ employee) Janira Brannigan has also created a Facebook event listing for a simultaneous protest.
Reminder - Four other alt-right protests/events are scheduled to take place in Salem in the coming days, as mentioned in a previous alert from us earlier this week.
The first one is scheduled to take place tomorrow, on December 19th at the Oregon State Capitol, and is organized collectively by the Proud Boys, Oregon Women for Trump, Blexit, and Awakening Ministries. Two versions of flyers have been circulated on social media - one by Magen Marie Stevens (seen here), and the other by Awakening Ministries (seen here).
Magen Marie Stevens was on the Lars Larson show this week, stating that the event would be canceled out of 'Antifa-related safety concerns.' None of the other event organizers have announced a cancelation and a comment on the Awakening Ministries Facebook indicates that the event may be getting moved to another location. We are hopeful that the event is indeed canceled, but we don't want to rely solely on the lie-riddled Magen Marie Stevens interview on the Lars Larson Show.
Magen Marie Stevens was recently ordered by a Marion County judge to refrain from attending events pending trial, and is supposed to be wearing a GPS ankle tracking monitor. She has appeared at events with her face obscured in the past, so hopefully, the GPS ankle-monitor data is being tracked to ensure that she doesn't attend any upcoming protests/rallies/events.
A ‘Trump Rally/Open Oregon’ event is scheduled for tomorrow at 1PM [Saturday, Dec. 19], so even if the 'Stop the Scrooge' event is indeed canceled, there will still be alt-right activity in Salem. According to the Facebook event listing, there is no specific location, however, a previous event organized by the same people took place at the Capitol last Saturday. It was not heavily attended, but that is likely due to the fact that many people that attend similar events were in DC for the Proud Boys rally. Saturday’s event has more interest compared to last Saturday’s event, and with everyone back from DC, there could be many violent members of alt-right hate groups such as the Proud Boys in attendance.
On January 1st, another march and protest organized by Oregon Women for Trump will take place, starting at 1 PM. According to the Facebook event listing, the event has significant interest, and similar to the protest and march that occurred on November 27th which was heavily attended by armed Proud Boys and their supporters, the group will start at the Oregon State Capitol and march to the Governor’s mansion and back.
One of the event’s organizers, Oregon DOJ employee Janira Brannigan, was seen on a live stream while in DC last weekend conspiring with members of hate groups that have committed violent acts in Salem in recent months, including violent white supremacists Vincent Burroughs and Jeremy Roberts. The group indicated that they no longer ‘back the blue’ and in the case of Jeremy Roberts, feel that the group should ‘annihilate’ the police back in Salem if/when they are confronted. At the last City Council meeting, multiple citizens and Councilors demanded that the City, including City Manager Steve Powers and Salem PD, take every step to prevent the march from occurring.
Lastly, a pro-Trump ‘All day flash mob cruise downtown’ is scheduled for January 2, 2021 in Salem. The event has significant interest according to the listing on Facebook and states that it will literally be taking place all day according to the listing. The last time that a large Trump caravan came to Salem, on Labor Day, numerous violent acts occurred, some resulting in arrests and some not. The event does not provide a lot of details, but it is something that absolutely warrants an alert from the city, as do all of the other events included in this e-mail, given the violent history (and other crimes committed) in Salem by several alt-right attendees.
Below are links to public resources regarding ongoing Proud Boys and other hate group activity in Salem:
In a presidential debate Donald Trump famously said about the Proud Boys, "stand back and stand by," when asked to denounce white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys.
It looks like the Salem Police Department heard those words and decided it applies to them when it comes to enforcing city ordinances during Proud Boy marches in our city.
Salem police officers have been standing back and standing by when the Proud Boys come to town, openly carrying firearms and marching through streets without a permit.
Here's a letter that Jim Scheppke sent today to the board of the South Central Association of Neighbors, the neighborhood organization that includes the area the Proud Boys marched through on the way to the Governor's mansion.
Scheppke presents arguments and evidence that make a persuasive case against the let 'em do whatever they want attitude of the Salem Police Department toward this far-right extremist group that takes pride in scoffing at laws that the rest of us have to abide by.
After the letter I've shared a video showing the Proud Boys march.
Dear SCAN Board:
I am very concerned that the Proud Boys/Women for Trump march through the streets of SCAN on Friday was a clear violation of City code that saw no enforcement by the Salem Police Department. I wanted the Board to understand exactly how wrong this was. We need to demand that the next time this happens our code is enforced so that our neighbors don’t have to suffer this again and again.
HOW THE PROUD BOYS/WOMEN FOR TRUMP MARCH VIOLATED CITY CODE
Chapter 104 of the Salem Revised Code has the purpose of allowing “expressive activities” in the City while at the same time “establishing reasonable time, place and manner regulations of these activities; and to create mechanisms for cost recovery and use charges” for such activities.
Any activity in which persons “assemble or travel in unison on any public right of way” must obtain a permit from the Public Works Director’s office when “free use of the public right of way will be impeded, obstructed, impaired or interfered with.” This was not done in the case of the Proud Boys/Women for Trump March. We know this because there is video evidence of one officer of the SPD attempting to have the marchers use the sidewalk early in the march which they did not do.
An exception to the permit requirement is a “spontaneous event” that is organized less than 48 hours of it happening. The PB/WFT March was not a spontaneous event. It was promoted on social media for at least a week.
Had this group applied for a permit, it could have been denied on the grounds that it “unreasonably burden[s] City resources necessary to preserve the public’s use of the streets,” that it was not of the “size appropriate to the proposed venue” (i.e., small residential streets like John St.), and that it had the potential to “cause significant adverse impacts on the health or safety of the surrounding residential or commercial uses” (i.e., unmasked marchers, some carrying assault weapons).
Had this group applied for a permit, they would have been required to have liability insurance and provide proof of this in order to obtain their permit. The PB/WFT March had no insurance.
City code requires a permit holder to reimburse the City for “actual costs, when such costs are directly attributable to an activity or event requiring the City to exceed its usual staffing levels," including the cost of personnel “to direct or manage vehicular or pedestrian traffic.” This two hour event involved significant deployment of the Salem Police Department that will not be reimbursed.
In sum, SRC 104.180 states that “it shall be unlawful for any person to engage in an activity or event for which a community event permit is required under this chapter without first obtaining a permit.” SRC 104.220 states that "any person who violates SRC 104.180 shall be guilty of an infraction, punishable by a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $250."
What should have happened yesterday with the PB/WFT March?
1) The March should have been blocked by the SPD shortly after it began. This was done on November 7, 2020, when BLM marchers attempted to march from Pringle Hall to downtown. Why was this not done yesterday? The BLM marchers faced a massive deployment of the SPD in military-style vehicles who threatened the marchers with munitions and tear gas. The BLM marchers were not armed. Why the difference?
2) If the PB/WFT Marchers were not blocked they should have all been issued citations, including fines of $100 to $250 in accordance with SRC 104.220. Why was this not done?
Because of the lack of enforcement of City code by the SPD, the Proud Boys and their allies will be back. This was the third march to the Governor’s mansion through SCAN and it won’t be the last if the Proud Boys continue to suffer no consequences for their illegal behavior.
Jim Scheppke
Here's a video that shows the Proud Boys marching in the street and blocking traffic while Salem police do nothing about it.
The City of Salem has narrowed the search for a Police Chief to replace retiring Jerry Moore to two candidates, Malik Aziz and Trevor Womack. (That link allows you to submit a question to be asked of Aziz and Womack during their October 30 interviews in Salem.)
I spent some time today Googling Aziz and Womack. Obviously this is a very rough way of coming to a conclusion about which man would be best suited to lead Salem's Police Department.
But, hey, us bloggers are opinionated, and I came up with an opinion: Malik Aziz.
First, and most obviously, Aziz is Black. This means something given how the Black Lives Matter movement has been casting a light on the treatment of people of color at the hands of police.
Hiring Aziz would send a message that the police department is committed to ending racial disparities in policing. Sure, there's debate about how much systemic racism exists in the department, but there's clearly a widespread suspicion among a large segment of the community that there is.
Also, Aziz speaks Arabic. That may not mean much in Salem, but it's a cool ability.
Aziz has been a deputy chief in the Dallas, Texas police department and is now a Major, having been demoted in a reorganization recently. A 2016 profile by a Memphis reporter, where he was applying for the police chief job, contains some appealing observations about Aziz.
Dallas Deputy Chief Malik Aziz likes to describe himself as a community guy who fights crime — and he says having that emphasis on the community has made him a better law enforcement officer.
"I'm a public servant and I'm obligated to make sure people are safe. I'm also obligated to hear people who have concerns. I've never gone to a place wearing my rank. I'm a community guy," Aziz said. "When you grow up in (those) communities, you have a better understanding of how to deal with issues that have been plaguing those communities for decades."
...Aziz has a national profile — perhaps more than any other candidate. He's appeared on CNN, PBS and National Public Radio talking about community policing, race relations, the deadly shooting in Dallas and being a black police officer.
...Sara Mokuria, co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality in Dallas, said that while she doesn't know Aziz personally, he reached out to her and they will meet next month.
"He said he wants to bridge the gap and move forward to repair the issues we have regarding police brutality," said Mokuria, whose father was killed by police in 1992.
Aaron Michaels founded the New Black Panther Party in Dallas in the 90s and is critical of the Dallas Police Department, but says Aziz is one of the best deputy chiefs he's ever worked with.
"We couldn't have done some of the things we needed (inside the police department) without him," said Michaels of Aziz.
Michaels says he's known Aziz for about 30 years and that Memphis would be lucky to have him leading the police department.
"He had a hard life coming up and he turned many of the negatives around," he said. "He brings that perspective to the table."
Michaels said Aziz is also not afraid to point out bad officers.
"He's able to spot problem officers."
Aziz currently also is one of six finalists for the Milwaukee, Wisconsin police chief job. He touts his progressivism in a story by a Milwaukee TV station. Since Salem is a progressive city, with six of eight city councilors in the progressive camp, this is another way Aziz would be a good fit for Salem.
A Dallas Police Major hopes he can bring his progressive style to the Milwaukee Police Department as its next chief.
“Whatever city that decides they want Malik Aziz as a progressive police chief, that’s it,” Major Malik Aziz said. “I’m a big city commander. Those things are commonplace, working with communities and progressive cities like Dallas. The Dallas Police Department is a very progressive police department. Very progressive for community relations.”
All that said, Trevor Womack has some strong points in his police background also.
Nationwide, police departments were assuming a protective posture as outrage roiled cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. But Jones was out in his community, talking about the role of police in everything from pre-Civil War slave-catching to Jim Crow enforcement and the carceral policies of the War on Drugs.
“This needs to be said,” the white police chief told the largely African American congregation. “There was a time when police used to be dispatched to keep lynchings ‘civil,’ That’s a fact of our history that we need to acknowledge.”
...That apology marked the beginning of an unprecedented truth-and-reconciliation process with communities of color in Stockton, a high-poverty city in California’s Central Valley that for years has been struggling with a familiar American crisis. When Jones took over as chief in 2012, its annual murder rate was higher than Chicago’s.
That year, the city of 300,000 saw 71 homicides and an overall crime rate more than twice the national average. A municipal bankruptcy had slashed the size of the police force, and it could barely keep up with 911 calls.
After two decades of zero-tolerance policing tactics, a history of local abuse, and high-profile officer-involved shootings, there was a deep well of mistrust between police and the Stockton communities most beset by violence. A career Stockton officer, Jones had begun taking steps to improve, training his officers on fair practices and using more focused, less invasive strategiesto prevent violence.
But he came to believe that they wouldn’t make real headway on addressing the city’s public safety issues unless he embarked on something more radical: not just apologies but atonement.
...For the last two years, the Stockton Police Department has been working toward reconciliation using a trust-restoration script devised by American criminologists and international experts in transitional justice. Along with a host of departmental reforms, police in Stockton have held a series of dialogues and workshops designed to repair their shattered relationship with the communities they serve.
Rather than broad gestures at police “accountability” that promote measures like body cameras, the city has committed to changing departmental norms wholesale. It’s an uncertain, and maybe never-ending process, one that almost certainly will not conclude with a telegenic Hallmark display of forgiveness. What it might yield instead is a foundation for real trust and greater community control.
...Trevor Womack, one of Jones’s deputy chiefs, stood up. “I think what you just offered right there is one of the most important things in this entire training for me,” he said. “So I grew up in North Stockton. I never, ever had an experience where I was stopped by the police. No one that I knew was ever arrested. Nobody I knew was shot or killed.”
That was the understanding—or lack thereof—that he took to his first assignment as a 21-year-old white cop, when he was detaining and pointing his gun at residents of Southeast Stockton, he said. “I wish I could go back to the day I started and have this kind of conversation. I would have been a whole different police officer.”
That's great. Womack's words are admirable.
But the way I see it, Salem has a choice between hiring a Black man, Aziz, to be police chief who has direct personal experience of discrimination, and Womack, a white man who has had to learn second-hand about how police discriminate against people of color.
I'm changing my mind about the Salem Police Department. By and large, I've believed that Salem has been fortunate to have a well-run department marked by honesty, integrity, and a willingness to admit mistakes.
Sure, the department's actions during this year's Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd were questionable at best and outrageous at worst. Using tear gas and playing nice with armed counter-protesters put chinks in the Police Department's "well-run" reputation.
A young Black woman struck and seriously injured by rubber bullets during a protest in May is suing the City of Salem and the Salem Police Department and accusing officers of violating her civil rights, assaulting her and intentionally targeting Black people with deadly force.
...Salem police drew sharp criticism from community members for using tear gas on the protesters and were accused of showing favoritism toward armed right-wing militias gathered outside downtown businesses.
The allegations made in the lawsuit contrast starkly with an after-action report released by Salem police in the weeks after the protests.
The report said police responded to the crowd with tear gas and "other munitions." The report mentions a female protester was injured after being struck in the head with a brick thrown by another protester but it makes no mention of the rubber bullet injuries reported by McCrae.
...McCrae said she, her sister and riend linked arms and silently knelt at the front of the march.
Suddenly, police sirens blared. McCrae said she turned around to leave but was shot twice with rubber bullets.
"At least one bullet struck her chest and one bullet struck her eye," Brague said in the lawsuit. "SPD Officers intentionally shot Black participants using deadly force in violation of SPD Policy."
The force of the blow caused McCrae to double over in pain holding her eye.
She stumbled a few feet. Her vision was gone, and her ears were ringing. Tear gas stung her uninjured eye.
McCrae fell and passed out.
She said she awoke to the chaos and commotion around her. She heard footsteps rushing toward her.
"I can't see," she told the person.
"That's what you (expletive) get," the unknown man replied.
McCrae said she then became afraid for her safety. Another voice identified themselves as Salem police and helped her to her feet.
"(She) begins crying from fear and pleads, 'please, I don’t want to talk to you'," Brague said in the lawsuit. "One of the Salem PD officers responds and states 'talk or get arrested'."
Brague said McCrae begged the officer to let her leave and find her family, but he refused.
After a medic examined McCrae, she was rushed to the emergency room and was later diagnosed with retinal hemorrhage, macular hole and vitreous hemorrhage.
Contrast those allegations in the lawsuit with what Police Chief Jerry Moore said in a June 24 after-action report to Steve Powers, the City Manager. The following is part of a description of what happened on May 31, the day Eleaqia McCrae was shot by rubber bullets.
At 2158 hours, Lt. VanMeter authorized the use of CS gas and other munitions on the unlawful protestors and those launching items at the officers. LRAD announcements continued to be given. While we are not aware of any injuries to those in the crowd due to police actions, we were able to assist one female protestor who officers witnessed being struck in the head by a brick thrown by another protestor/rioter. After providing medical assistance and ensuring she was safe we had her transported to the hospital via ambulance.
This sure sounds like a Salem Police Department cover-up. There's little or no doubt that McCrae's injuries were caused by rubber bullets. She says that a police officer spoke with her after she was shot in the chest and eye. She was taken to the Salem Hospital Emergency Room.
Yet Chief Moore claimed that he wasn't aware "of any injuries to those in the crowd due to police actions."
Wow. Chief Moore must not have done much investigating before the after-action report was written. Or his police offices lied to him about their not being any injuries to protesters. Or Chief Moore deliberately withheld the rubber bullets injuries from his report.
Whichever possibility is true, it's a big blow to the credibility of the Salem Police Department. Shouldn't the department have contacted the Emergency Room to learn if there were people admitted with injuries caused by the actions of police officers?
They learned about a protester being struck in the head by a brick thrown by another protester. Yet the department was clueless, supposedly, about a protester being shot in the eye and chest by bullets fired by a police officer or officers.
There's no doubt that Chief Moore's after-action report was deeply flawed. The only question is whether this was deliberate or a result of incompetence.
Hopefully we will learn which is true in the course of the lawsuit being adjudicated.
Should police officers see themselves as warriors or as peacemakers? Most experts I've seen who have weighed in on this question argue for peacemakers, not this sort of officer.
After all, most of what police officers do has nothing to do with violence. Here's one of the images in a blog post called "Policing Explained in a Few Graphs" by Jerry Ratcliffe, a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple University. Ratcliffe says:
1. Policing is overwhelmingly a social service
Graph no. 1. This is from the second edition of my book “Intelligence-Led Policing“. The area of each box represents the volume of incidents in 2015 in the City of Philadelphia (about 1.5m in total). These incidents can come from verified calls for service from the public (something really took place as confirmed by a police officer), or from officer-initiated events (such as drug incidents).
What is clear from the graphic is that violent crime plays such a small part in the day-to-day demands on police departments, even in Philadelphia, one of the more troubled cities in the U.S. While the media frets over homicide, it can be seen in the lower right as one of the least noticeable boxes in the graph. The majority of the police department’s workload is the day-to-day minutiae of life in a big city.
However, I strongly doubt that most would-be police officers would be motivated by a pitch to "do your part to manage the day-to-day minutiae of life in a big city." Or, a medium sized city like Salem.
Here's part of a job summary for entry level officers in the Salem Police Department that someone sent me. I've boldfaced parts that relate to the very small part of a police officer job that involves violence or the need to have a warrior mentality.
As a law enforcement leader in the Pacific Northwest, the Salem Police Department is searching for outstanding candidates for the position of entry level police officer. Our agency has a full complement of special teams and units to include: SWAT, Bomb Squad, Riot Team, Tactical Negotiations Team, Narcotics Unit, DEA Task Force, Detectives, Motorcycle Unit, Mountain Bike Unit, School Resource Officers, Crash Reconstructionist, Computer Forensics, Mental Health Unit, Training Division, Peer Support Team, Civil Investigations Team, and Patrol.
We are the second largest municipality in the state of Oregon whose responsibilities include providing public safety services and peace of mind to the nearly 175,000 residents in the capital city. In September of 2020 the Salem Police Department will move into the largest, stand-alone police facility in the state. This will provide you the opportunity to serve in a state-of-the-art public safety facility.
The Salem Police Department is the recognized leader in our region for technology and training to better serve our community and neighboring agencies. We have a fleet of state-of-the-art patrol cars with the latest computer technology, cameras, automated license plate reader systems, and weapons platforms. As a Salem Police Officer, you will be issued your needed equipment to include: uniforms, weapons (handgun and rifle), boots, duty gear, iPhone, and more.
Officers will use their city-provided iPhone hugely more than their handgun and rifle. But when people think of what police do, talking on a iPhone probably doesn't come to mind.
For some reason the Salem Police Department used its SWAT team during the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Salem, maybe because the SWAT team has so little to do. Regardless, it is painfully clear that when police treat citizens who are protesting injustice as if they were an enemy force, the result usually doesn't turn out well.
Case in point: the nightly protests in Portland. Yes, some of those involved do appear to be anarchists who aren't so much interested in peacefully protesting as in provoking the police to respond with force.
But when the police react to a tossed water bottle or firework with tear gas, flash bangs, and non-lethal (supposedly) rounds, the counter-reaction is entirely predictable -- additional protests fueled by the police actions. And so it goes, like two elementary school children arguing on a playground. (Do children still say doofus? I could be showing my age.)
"You're a doofus!" "No, you are!" "Takes one to know one, doofus!" "I may be a little doofus but you're a GIANT doofus!"
After Trump sent federal agents into Portland in a desperate attempt to rekindle his fading reelection chances, the situation got worse in the city. Nightly protests were winding down before Trump unleashed untrained federal personnel wearing camouflage gear and carrying assault rifles on the protesters.
Now we're in what could be called Theater of the Absurd, if the absurdity hadn't already almost cost a protester his life after he was struck in the head by a "non-lethal" round that nonetheless left him with fractures that required facial reconstruction surgery.
Trump's escalation of the situation by further militarizing it has led to a standoff with no apparent end in sight.
This is the danger of police, or pretend police in this case, buying into a warrior rather than peacekeeper mentality. Likely Trump won't allow the federal agents to be withdrawn so long as the protests are continuing, because that would make him look weak given his pseudo-masculine sense of self.
And the protesters probably feel that they can't stop what they're doing and thereby give Trump a win, which would encourage him to try the same stunt of sending federal agents into other liberal cities just to show... I don't know, that he can?
Is this how we want police to behave? The guy being hit in the video below with a baton, and barely flinching, is a Navy veteran who went to a Portland protest because he was upset with the federal agents abducting people off the street and taking them away in unmarked cars, an obvious violation of their constitutional rights.
The video infuriates me. And it adds fuel to the flame of the protests. All because police in general, and the federal agents in particular, view themselves more as soldiers fighting an enemy than as peacemakers keeping people safe.
Wow! Last night, for the first time, I watched a Salem-Keizer school board meeting. It was gripping, almost like a soap opera, filled with emotion, inspiration, and, yes, aggravation.
It was clear that the school board is dysfunctional under the inept leadership of chair Marty Heyen. There were more than 180 people signed up to testify at the meeting, where the district budget was to be approved, including money for the highly controversial school resource police officers.
Yet at the beginning of the meeting Heyen took the time to engage in a pity party for herself, talking about how unjust it was for her to be accused of being a racist and white supremacist by students and others involved in the Black Lives Matter protest movement.
Well, someone sent me this photo of Heyen supporters, with some observations about who those people are.
There’s the guy making the “Three Percent” sign in the lower right corner. There’s Angela Roman who you can Google and see all her White Nationalist affiliations (to the left of the little boy). Marty Heyen is in the very back right in the blue t-shirt. Her husband Jeff is second from the left. I think that’s Denise Quinn Nanke next to Jeff. I think there are other White Nationalists in the picture that I can’t identify, but others have.
Heyen claimed not to know many of these “volunteers” who came out to wave signs for her. Right. it might be true that her husband is more cozy with the White Nationalists than she is, but she’s close enough to deserve the criticism she is getting. Dr. Satya needs to answer for this too.
The good news is that after the low point of Heyen's self-absorbed opening remarks, I was mesmerized by a powerful statement from Salem-Keizer Superintendent Christy Perry.
It was amazing.
I've included the entire statement at the end of this post, boldfacing parts that stuck out for me. Perry courageously criticized the school board for their weak-kneed responses to student demands in the wake of weeks of Black Lives Matter protests here in Salem.
Here's a few excerpts to whet your appetite for reading the whole statement.
We have provided opportunities to help understand our own biases. Our board members barely engage in the training. We have instances of social media display of white supremacy, a black face mask and mockery over that mask. All actions I can’t defend.
... I will advocate for Director Blasi as your next board chair because she is one of the few leaders who have at least the embers of trust from our communities of color.
... I am so committed to this, that I will only continue to do this work if I can have will and the strength to do this even if it means calling you out.
... I commit to the vision for creating the conditions for safe and welcoming schools, especially for our students of color, which includes an antiracist agenda and truly listening to our communities of color. I urge you to reaffirm your commitment to my contract as well knowing full well my support for anti-racist learning.
Really gutsy of Perry.
The school board hires and fires superintendents. Yet she was willing to publicly call them out for failing to do their duty to protect and serve students of color and other disadvantaged students. I liked her statement that she wants the board to reaffirm their commitment to her contract.
Here's a You Tube video of the school board meeting that starts with Perry's statement if you'd prefer to listen to it rather than read it.
Perry's reference to a school board member wearing a black face mask is in regard to Paul Kyllo holding up a photo of a Black man in front of his face during almost an entire meeting. Astoundingly, no member of the school board asked him why he was doing this or if it was appropriate.
The community asks for your support in calling for:
1. The District to remove police from schools
2. School Board Member, Paul Kyllo, to resign from his position
3. The removal of any school board members aligned with white supremacy beliefs/groups
4. All the other school board officials to issue a clear apology and indicate their stance on white supremacy
KOIN TV in Portland has a story about this, "Superintendent calls out Salem-Keizer board over blackface." It includes a video and this image of Kyllo. Excerpt from story: (In a very partial defense of Kyllo, it looks to me like he was wearing a black "virus" face covering under the cutout of the Black man, who I believe is ex-Trailblazer Cliff Robinson, rather than actual blackface.)
The black face mask was worn during a 97-minute school board meeting via Zoom on March 30, 2020. In that meeting, board member Paul Kyllo holds up a black face mask for nearly the entire time. When he put the mask down, Kyllo is seen with black face from his nose down through his neck.
When it came time to hear public comments, both via phone and video, I was hugely impressed by the passion and coherence of the student activists who gave the school board well-deserved criticism in the course of calling for the defunding of school resource officers and the resignations of Kyllo and Heyen.
What struck me was how the students had their act way more together than the school board did. They spoke clearly and calmly with a consistent message. That included promises by several students that they wouldn't be attending classes in the fall if the school board didn't meet their demands.
This needs to be taken seriously by the school board, because based on their actions over the past weeks, the students sure seem to be ready and willing to engage in a student strike come September if the board continues to downplay their concerns.
At the end of the meeting, another unusual thing happened.
The board members were blathering on about how to address the controversy over school resource officers, trying to figure out what to do without actually doing much of anything. At one point the attorney for the school district reminded them that they had to approve a $1.5 billion budget at this meeting, so maybe they should get to that at some point.
Then, when the Heyen-led board seemed poised to pass a motion about how to deal with the school resource officer issue, the attorney spoke up, saying he'd never done this before, but needed to do it now -- remind them of board rules specifying that action items are to be part of an advance agenda so the public can be aware of the proposal and have a chance to weigh in on it.
Pretty amazing that the board of a billion-dollar-plus organization is so clueless about elementary ways of doing their business. I didn't watch until the very end of the meeting, but I've read in news stories that the board wants to have the school resource officer issue wrapped up by the end of August, prior to the start of the school year.
That may be, but from what the attorney said, seemingly that desire will need to be codified in a motion at the next school board meeting. Which I'm confident will generate more controversy, since as you can read below, Superintendent Perry says, "You’ve centered every conversation around how we will get the voices in the room who share your perspective."
That was my impression also. The board seems to want to engage in outreach to the Salem community mainly to get input from those who want to keep school resource officers in order to justify what seems to be a clear majority on the school board who want to do this.
In fact, while board member Satya Chandragiri talked a lot about wanting to have a broad community discussion about school resource officers, his recent Facebook post indicates that he's already made up on his mind on this subject.
Here's the statement from Christy Perry. Again, I've added the boldfacing for emphasis.
Full Statement from Salem-Keizer Superintendent Christy Perry
Chair Heyen, Vice Chair Lippold and Members of the Board,
On May 28, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, I asked every employee in our school district one question: How are you actively antiracist? Our staff responded, and they also committed to growing in their path of antiracism. So, tonight I feel I can no longer challenge my staff without truly demonstrating the same. As the single employee of you, our seven-member board, I cannot sit quietly any longer. On behalf of our 42,000 students and over 5,000 staff members, I must stand up. If i can’t do this and speak truth to power, how can I expect it of everyone else in our organization?
Over the past week, I’ve been asked why I sit quietly. Parents are texting my staff asking why I don’t stand up for them in the Board room. I find myself quietly explaining why a seven-member board who is elected by the people is in charge of my employment. Over the past week, as we’ve met with students from our district who have experienced real traumas in our classrooms because of racism, I’ve shared that my ability to keep the equity work moving means I must keep the real issues out of the Board room. That goes against the very principles that I’ve been sharing with my staff – I am not being actively antiracist. Instead, I tell my team that we are going to show up the next day after a Board meeting to do what we’re here for – the right things for kids. Tonight, the right thing for our students is to use my position of power to do what’s right for all of our kids – our transgender students, our Black students, our queer students, our Latinx students, our Indigenous students, our students with disabilities, our Micronesian students, our immigrant students and every other child that comes through our doors.
And to all of those who are saying, “It’s about time!” I agree. And I’m truly sorry. This moment is a long-time coming, and I’m committed to getting it right. And there are thousands of educators in Salem-Keizer who share that commitment along with me.
As a cis gendered white female, I must first acknowledge that I have all kinds of privilege. While I grew up with alcoholism and a volatile household, I ultimately grew up in a world where white feminism, although new and strange, still was acceptable. I had female white role models, like my mom who was a school board member for many years and my grandmother who fought for full-day kindergarten. I could see myself as a leader because I was white. I saw myself in books, movies, and within my own family. While female leaders still face challenges including challenges in the superintendency, we don’t face the challenges that our leaders of color face.
I have quietly worked behind the scene to help you be better. But I need our community to know publicly the challenges you face as a board and what our community faces as we know better so we can do better. Being antiracist is more than the adoption of an equity lens and then using it as a hammer on district staff. It’s about examining your own biases and how you show up for not all students but specifically our historically underserved and marginalized students whose achievement does not match that of our white students. It’s about understanding racism and what it means to be a student of color in our district. And it’s about actively understanding the culture and community in which you serve, beyond adopting an annual safe and welcoming schools proclamation.
I have a fundamental belief that the best learning happens behind the scenes and that difficult equity work is hard to tackle in the board room. I remember the work session where we listened to our educators of color about their experiences and differences. It was one of the most compelling meetings we’ve had… and then you went right back to work worrying about things like who would be the next board chair and how would you tackle any concerns about policy governance.
As I’ve engaged our students and families these past 10 days, I’ve tried to help you understand the experiences of our students of color, but you have discounted the students’ experiences in a multitude of ways. After 71 comments in public testimony – the most we have ever had in my memory as superintendent – two of our members made it clear that those comments fell on deaf ears. Instead, you asked people who share your perspective to submit comment. Through that process, you white-centered the process and systematically discounted the very real experiences of our students of color even when a black man with a doctoral degree attempted to tell you it was true.
What we’ve seen from our Board in the SRO process isn’t unique. It’s been prevalent, from wanting to rewrite the equity lens to failing to stand up for our transgender students when a small portion of our community wasn’t ready to recognize Transgender Day of Visibility. Even reading the Pride Month Proclamation becomes a hot-button issue, with it always falling to Director Blasi, because she’s the only member who isn’t afraid to say the words.
We saw this systemic failure with our budget committee process, when you almost chose to prevent Levi Herrera Lopez from serving on the committee, despite him having the experience of chairing our budget committee in the past, and doing a really remarkable job of it. The membership of both Levi Herrera Lopez and Adriana Miranda bring perspective and strength to our budget committee that we don’t have when they are not there.
We have provided opportunities to help understand our own biases. Our board members barely engage in the training. We have instances of social media display of white supremacy, a black face mask and mockery over that mask. All actions I can’t defend.
We have worked to understand that when students come to us with experiences of racism in our schools, we listen. And after we listened this week, we have continually had to defend to you the experiences of our students of color. You’ve centered every conversation around how we will get the voices in the room who share your perspective.
On behalf of our students of color and our educators of color who experience racism every day in our classrooms along with their white anti-racist allies, I need you to commit to moving forward with antiracism as your guiding principle. You won’t get it it perfect. You won’t, I won’t. But we can commit to being ongoing learners together. Our youth have initiated a powerful conversation, and we applaud them. Now, together with their support, we need to develop a positive relationship that focuses on constructive results.
Moving forward:
I will take on my own views on as a learner and ensure that you also have that opportunity.
I will advocate for Director Blasi as your next board chair because she is one of the few leaders who have at least the embers of trust from our communities of color.
I commit to continuing to learn about racism, the racism our students experience and my own biases, and I will ask you to do the same.
I will learn what antiracist work is and what it requires, and I will create space for you as our Board members to learn too.
I will denounce Board member affiliations to groups that are considered hate groups, organizations that are discriminatory or have a specific agenda that perpetuates systemic racism.
I commit to apologizing specifically for my mistakes and to doing better as I will make more mistakes. But I will tend to this impact every time while centering reparation.
I am so committed to this, that I will only continue to do this work if I can have will and the strength to do this even if it means calling you out.
I commit to the vision for creating the conditions for safe and welcoming schools, especially for our students of color, which includes an antiracist agenda and truly listening to our communities of color. I urge you to reaffirm your commitment to my contract as well knowing full well my support for anti-racist learning.
I know that you want the process of SRO contracts to be yours as a board. I commit to providing you a deliberate community-centered process related to related to SRO contracts that supports ALL students, specifically our Black students, our queer students, our Latinx students, our Indigenous students, our students with disabilities, our transgender students, our Micronesian students, our immigrant students and every other child that we have the privilege to welcome into our schools. Be learners with an open heart in that process.
I want to thank a number of leaders of color who show up in our communities every day from the NAACP, Mano a Mano, the Coalition for Equality, Causa Oregon, PCUN and Latinos Unidos Siempre. Their leadership pushes me to be better. Certainly, we owe tremendous gratitude to our educators of color – licensed, classified and administrators – who experience racism in our community every day but never let that waiver in their commitment to our students. We must all follow their lead.
l understand why "Defund the Police" has become a rallying cry for Black Lives Matter protesters. But it can be misunderstood as calling for the abolition of police departments, which very few people really want to do.
"Reimagine the Police" strikes me as both more accurate and more politically palatable.
“Defund the Police” is candy to the one-liner simpletons. It’s a cry that launched a thousand memes about the lawless anarchy to come. It’s a loping softball to the grumping Trumpers who swat it away with a red hat.
Just like the “Abolish ICE” outcry that followed our nation’s shameful treatment of immigrants meant “Open the borders and let every criminal in” to too many folks, “Defund the police” sounds like “Get rid of all police everywhere and let anarchy reign” to anyone who doesn’t want to figure out what’s really going on.
The needed change isn’t about defunding the police. It’s about reimagining the police.
And that's what two members of the Salem City Council are proposing at next Monday's (June 22) meeting. Here's the motions that Tom Andersen intends to make, as shared in a Facebook post.
Here are two motions I will make at Monday's Council meeting. I believe that the City IT will have arranged a way for citizens to speak via zoom. If not, send an email to the Council and we will read it. The agenda items are 5.a (first one) and 5.b. Each motion is just the starting point for serious discussions on these issues to be shortly followed by appropriate action.
First motion relates to police in schools:
I move that City Council schedule a work session to consider the issue of Salem Police Department officers in Salem schools.
DISCUSSION The work session may include as discussion of the City’s agreement with the District, statistics showing the number of contacts within the school system that result in criminal charges, statistics showing the percentage of officer contract between Caucasian students and students of color, and the percentage of students in each class whose contract resulted in criminal charges, input from the District administration, and any other appropriate issues.
Second motion concerns use of police for non-criminal matters:
I move that Council schedule a work session to discuss the use of City funds for various non-criminal matters that are currently handled by the Police Department.
DISCUSSION The work session may include items such as mental health services, addiction services, and any other appropriate topics, and the potential to shift these and any other appropriate responsibilities to agencies other than the Police, such as a Cahoots type service.
I will be making a motion at the next City Council meeting for a performance audit of the Salem Police Department, to be completed by the next Citizen Budget Committee Meeting. Here’s why:
Around the country and right here in Salem, people are demanding change in policing. Our society faces multiple public health crises, like racism, homelessness, opioid addiction, mental illness, and more. Many times, these trigger 911 calls. But not every 911 call is best handled by a police officer. You need the right tool for the right job.
In places like Eugene, a mental health professional and a paramedic can be dispatched at a fraction of the cost of dispatching a police officer in a program known as CAHOOTS. It allows persons who are too traumatized to talk to police, to talk to someone else. And, it frees up police to focus on higher acuity calls.
The call for change is ringing loud and clear across the city. But how do we do it? How do we involve stakeholders? How do we get buy-in? How do we avoid unintended consequences? In other words, how do we get lasting, positive change? By having a transparent, accountable, and public process. We need time to do it right, and with the benefit of public input, especially from marginalized communities and others who have not been heard.
Change should be informed by a systematic, impartial, evidence-based review of policing in our city. Performance audits can do that. They evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of government programs with the goal of making them work better. We can amend budgets as appropriate once we have reviewed and discussed results as a community.
Change is coming, folks. Let’s open the dialogue and decide, as a community, what we want public safety to look like in Salem.
I'm inclined to prefer Nordyke's approach, though Andersen's idea for City Council work sessions could be part of the Salem Police Department performance audit Nordyke is calling for.
Also, Councilor Jackie Leung said at the previous council meeting that she'd be making a motion to eliminate funding for school resource officers in the Salem Police Department budget -- which is part of the City of Salem budget for the next fiscal year that will be voted on at Monday's meeting.
It'd be great if the City Council approved each of the motions by Andersen, Nordyke, and Leung.
Andersen and Nordyke want to take a measured let's-think-this-through approach to reimagining the Salem Police Department and reallocating funds that currently go to the police. That makes a lot of sense, but it will seem unduly bureaucratic to those who want to see immediate change in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.
After all, for many years there has been a lot of talk about reforming the police but little action. That's why I think the City Council would be wise to take a small chunk out of the Police Department budget -- money for school resource officers -- as a sign that councilors are serious about changing the way policing is done in Salem.
Then engage the community in a year-long Reimagine the Police effort, the performance audit Nordyke is calling for, that would be completed in time to make potentially big changes to the police budget in the fiscal year that follows the one being voted on next Monday.
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