Mikey bothers the sheep

I saw last week that Mike Schmidt, Multnomah County's boy wonder district attorney, wants to bring back satellite offices around the county, where his prosecutors can interact with the public in their own neighborhoods.

And the kids at the Merc are crucifying him for it! How dare he actually enforce the law, the fascist!

Some of Schmidt's local progressive critics, though, worry that the program would double down on the traditional tools of law enforcement to address Portland’s problems just as the county has made strides toward pursuing alternatives. They are concerned that MAAP would mark a retreat into old-school approaches at a time criminal justice reform is facing vigorous pushback from opponents throughout the country....

Schmidt’s revival of the neighborhood DA program has garnered cautious support from some community groups, while also alarming local civil rights leaders who aren’t convinced by the rebrand. Kelly Simon, legal director for the ACLU of Oregon, is worried that more resources to the DA’s office will only exacerbate racial disparities already seen in local charges and sentencing. Simon also said she was uncomfortable with Schmidt’s framing of prosecutors as a social service....

At least they named someone in that second paragraph I just quoted. In the first, they rely on the good old "critics say" bit, with the "critics" often being the reporter and the person sitting next to them. In this case, the alarmed "progressive critics" and "community organizations" boil down to the ACLU and the public defenders' office. Everybody else they called was fine with it.

Anyway, talk about damned-if-you-do, damed-if-you-don't. Schmidt has always acted like his job is anything but prosecuting. Portland is essentially lawless as a result of that, and the ongoing de facto police strike doesn't help. And yet when Schmidt suggests even Prosecution Lite™, the sheep on the left start bleating.

And they bleat long as well as loud. Spinning the neighborhood prosecutor initiative as evil was one of the longest stories the Merc wrote all week.

Not surprising, of course. The kids over there love Hardesty World just the way it is. There should be no rules, no enforcement. Tents everywhere, garbage, car theft, carjackings, bullets coming through your wall at night, it's all marvelous. It's "equity," or something.