Mikey's last week

I see that Multnomah County's lame duck district attorney, Mike Schmidt, is spending his final days in office doing what he does best: letting criminals off the hook. His successor, Nathan Vasquez, and the prosecutors who locked up the crooks in question are crying foul, particularly about the timing of Mikey's dealing of the get-out-of-jail free cards but also about the procedures being employed.

Not only is this happening at the very end of the Schmidt show, but it's also coming down over the holidays, when he probably hoped the public wouldn't notice – the ultimate scoundrel news dump. Well, KGW got a call, and it's got the lowdown here. 

I guess Mikey is digging himself as giving out Presidential pardons. The fact that he's able to do it says as much about the clowns in our state legislature as it does about his arrogance and fecklessness. Criminal justice in Oregon has become a bit of a joke.

But I'll take part of the blame. I voted for Schmidt back in Covid time. It was a way of telling the Portland cops and their prosecutor buddies to clean up their act. But you have to wonder whether it did any good. The police force basically quit or quiet-quit rather than answer to Mikey. Meanwhile, the situation on Portland's streets got worse. A lot worse.

It was an interesting experiment, but it's over now, and it must never be repeated. As for Mikey, he must never be put in charge of anything having to do with law enforcement, ever, ever again.