Mikey flips out
Multnomah County's version of a district attorney, Mike Schmidt (lifetime batting average .058), has been on the intertubes a couple of times this week. First we learned that he's taken a new $30,000 cash donation to his re-election campaign from the Drug Policy Alliance, the dark money outfit that pawned off drug decriminalization on Oregon's childish electorate.
No surprise there. But last night, lil' Mikey posted this remarkable tweet:
Tonight I testified in support of HB 4002. In Portland, we see open use of hard drugs on our streets – in front of our businesses, our parks, and our schools. We absolutely cannot continue to tolerate this. We can approach addiction as the health issue it is, while also holding…
— Mike Schmidt (@DAMikeSchmidt) February 27, 2024
Now that's hilarious. With less than three months to go before the voters hand him his overdue pink slip, the guy thinks he's going to sell a law-and-order pose on drugs.
Mikey, old buddy, it's over. You were a message that we sent the cops about cleaning up their act. They sent back a message that we now see in feces, death, and violence on the streets. I think both points were pretty well taken. And now that that conversation is over, it's time to get a real law enforcement person in your office.
Until last night, I would have suggested that you ask Tera Hurst for a job, but now that's probably out. Maybe Carmen Rubio will have something.
when you are an unpopular politician facing re-election, it’s always a challenge to avoid being photographed with an exit sign in the shot.
ReplyDeleteAge & inexperience here?
ReplyDeleteIs deputy DA is the major challenger, endorsed mostly by the police union?
Larry Krassner seems to have hung on and done OK in Philadelphia with serious poverty & a way larger city?
Also seems older, more experienced & less of a grandstander?
SF successfully recalled Chesa Boudin.
If Mike narrowly wins, idk that it’d be the ‘worst’ thing?
I think there’s some chance he’d get the message & the police union wouldn’t just get their guy in there by default like they did with Gonzales?
Let’s not become like Florida and Georgia where we hand out crazy stiff sentences & bail arrangements to protesters of stop cop city in the Atlanta forest.
Before 9/11 and the country went insane/police were ever more militarized, many laws were shaping up to make environmental & anti-corporate civil disobedience very criminal. They hasn’t changed, just Santa put 9/11 down the chimney and the worst people got everything they wanted from the public.
You were saying one of the problems is clueless electeds often revolve in and out and the entrenched bureaucrats run the city as ever, which I think is correct. Narrow victory for Mike is probably not so bad seen in that light?
I think it’s ok to keep Mike, and won’t feel any relief having him go.
Hardesty on the other hand…not that with the reforms we’re it’s likely not to be more Hardesty clones.
Much as I don’t like Gonzales, having him be a punching bag is fine.
Having a police union sponsored Gonzales clone as DA seems like it’d do a lot more damage than one more visible council seat (or even very weak mayor).
Too little, too late. Bye bye.
ReplyDeleteSo is the assertion a depolicing situation rather than M110 is to blame for the situation in Portland? I'd like to make sure I understand the chicken-egg sequence.
ReplyDeleteIf he is genuinely in favor of holding people accountable he should resign immediately. Why should the city wait until next January for a replacement while he continues his insanity?
ReplyDelete