As soon as Mike Schmidt, the new district attorney for Multnomah County, started his term in early August, he announced a policy that dropped hundreds of charges from the nearly rioters currently awaiting trial in Portland's jails. This completely nullifies the deterring factor that prosecuting these charges has. Some of the charges that Schmidt is refusing to prosecute include harassment, interfering with an officer, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass.
Instead of charging the rioters, Schmidt is arguing that the criminals "need to be heard" and is interested in implementing a form of progressive "negotiated dismissal" to get the rioters back out into the streets of Portland:
In a democracy where speech is important, being the system that's being criticized and then using that system to shut down speech, I think we have to hold ourselves to an even higher level of tolerance for that speech to take place… We're going to give people three months to make it right, to work with the victim to pay back any restitution. And if those things can happen or we can come up with a restorative solution, we're going to dismiss those cases.
"Restorative justice" leads to more deaths
While these progressive talking points may sound good on paper, in reality their effects have become deadly for Portland. Schmidt's "restorative justice" policies are what allowed Michael Forest Reinoehl, who had citations back in July for interfering with a police officer, resisting arrest and possessing a loaded gun in a public place, to serve no jail time. All of the charges against him were dropped. Reinoehl would then go on to become the alleged shooter in the death of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a Trump supporter and member of the conservative group Patriot Prayer.
Despite this and criticisms from local law enforcement officials, including Mike Reese, the sheriff of Multnomah County, Schmidt has stood by his policies. (Related: Oregon State Police officers in Portland deputized as federal officers to avoid having rioters repeatedly released by Left-wing Soros-funded prosecutors.)
“I understand what they're concerned about… I have my job and my duties, which is to have the discretion on whether or not to pursue charges,” said Schmidt.
After the shooting, Schmidt charged Reinoehl with second-degree murder with a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon with a firearm. This caused Reinoehl to flee the state. When a federal fugitive task force finally found him, he died in the shootout that followed – which gave Schmidt the clearance to drop all of the charges against him and turn his attention back to the police by starting an investigation about the shootout.
Despite the fact that sometimes dozens of rioters are being arrested every night by local and state law enforcement officers, Schmidt continues to release them back out into the streets of Portland. It should not be surprising if, one day, another Reinoehl is set free from the grasps of the police thanks to the DA's “restorative justice” system.
While Schmidt and local Democrats and progressives like him continue undermining law and order in the local level, national Democrats like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are preparing to declare Republicans to be “enemies of the state.” Find out more by listening to this episode of the Health Ranger Report, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he explains how, if this declaration goes unchallenged, it will allow the Democrats to arrest Republicans and have them removed from their office.
Schmidt rationalizes policy by citing lack of resources
When Schmidt announced his new “restorative justice” policies, members of his team tried to justify it by saying that Portland needed to use its resources elsewhere.
Lakayana Drury, a member of Schmidt's transition team, called for law enforcement resources to be redirected to instead support Multnomah County's vulnerable communities of color.
“This is not an attack on officers, or an affront to the system,” said Drury. “It is saying that we must prioritize Black lives and we must focus on our community, and until that we cannot thrive and Portland cannot be the city that it pretends to be.”
During the press conference, Drury reiterated how a deluge of criminal trials might put further strain on Portland's limited resources.
“The question is,” he said, “will we choose to use our resources – very valuable and limited resources – to prosecute our neighbors who are exercising their First Amendment rights to support Black people? Or will we instead use those limited resources to uplift and battle against White supremacy at all levels within our city?”
As Schmidt continues to ignore tried-and-tested law enforcement policies that help stop riots and deter future criminals from participating in violent actions, Antifa and Black Lives Matter continue to wreak havoc in other parts of the country.
Learn more about riots in places like Minneapolis, Kenosha, Chicago and Sacramento by reading the articles at Rioting.news.
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