Letters to the Editor 08/31/2016

To the Editor:

The letters in the August 24 Nugget written by Jensen Newton and Larry Benson illustrate the main problem facing people of color in the U.S. with regards to racial bias in law enforcement: denial. Specifically, denial by people who enjoy white privilege.

Despite numerous videos explicitly showing - on major news outlets - beatings, choking and extrajudicial killings of law-abiding black people by rogue police officers, the two letter-writers insist that no injustice has ever occurred. Instead, they attempt to paint Black Lives Matter - a group that espouses peaceful civil disobedience- as a violent or, in Mr. Benson's bewildering view, "anti-capitalist" group.

Just because an anarchistic element has sometimes infiltrated Black Lives Matter's demonstrations to perpetrate violence and property crime doesn't mean Black Lives Matter supports their actions. Do the few Republicans who have attacked people at Donald Trump's rallies prove that the Republican Party is violent? Of course not.

To be sure, police are justified with using deadly force when faced with a violent criminal, whether black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American or any other ethnicity. But it's become disturbingly clear lately that there is widespread racial bias entrenched in many urban police forces, and unjustified and excessive use of force is frequently being used in policing many black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

According to http://www.mappingpoliceviolence.org, police killed more than 100 unarmed black people in 2015 alone. Unarmed black people were killed at five times the rate of unarmed whites in 2015.

It's easy to overlook or deny these facts if you're white. People who are white - myself included - have no idea of the degree and frequency of discrimination people of color face, potentially with deadly consequence, in their daily lives. Thanks to Bonnie Malone for eloquently shining a light on this civil-rights issue in the August 17 Nugget.

Michael Cooper

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To the Editor:

What follows is hard-hitting and somewhat unfair, but it's offered with an un-jealous clear conscience. It's prompted by the praise proffered to the private landowners involved in the Whychus Creek rehab work. Deserved, yes, but as one who is sensitive to pilfered landscape my muse prompted this letter.

I'm surely not one who could ever afford the choice to "develop" on the rim of a gorge or the cliff above untrammeled beach, or to dig into a steep slope for a city view! But given the choice, I wouldn't want to!

My hike last summer in the Whychus Canyon Preserve from head to toe, though rewarding, was sullied without break by the housing crowding the north rim. It's probably true that the "development" occurred prior to the Trust's interest in Whychus. My point is, that those individuals who originally chose to dominate a prominent landscape while stealing it from the rest of us could have chosen otherwise. The effect of this rim-hogging could have been somewhat mitigated by simply constructing back from the rim to allow vegetating the foreground (not possible now!) While a sacrifice by the landowner, it would've retained for the commons a more preserved natural view.

Many will scoff at my naivety. But thanks to protected land on the South Oregon Coast, for example, natural, undeveloped coast is retained for the commons! Those areas not protected, you guessed it, are wall-to-wall housing, many are gated, but all are definitely view-grabbing!

Leslie Haggard

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To the Editor:

With the new school year starting, parents' to-do lists are now filled with shopping for school clothes, school supplies, and school food. That's right - school food!

In past years, our nation's schools were used by the USDA as a dumping ground for surplus meat and dairy commodities. It is neither a surprise nor coincidence that one-third of our children have become overweight or obese. Such dietary mistakes at an early age become lifelong addictions, raising their risk of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.

Then came President Obama's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, requiring double the servings of fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, less sodium and fat, and no meat for breakfast. The guidelines are supported by 86 percent of Americans.

Most U.S. school districts now offer vegetarian options. More than 120 schools - including the entire school districts of Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Oakland, Philadelphia and San Diego have implemented Meatless Monday. Some schools have dropped meat from their menu altogether.

As parents, we need to involve our own children and school cafeteria managers in promoting healthy, plant-based foods in our own schools. Going online and searching for "vegetarian options in schools" provides lots of good resources.

Skyler Nash

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To the Editor:

In the August 24 Nugget, Jenson Newton chastised Bonny Malone with many words including: "Please show us one case where a police officer murdered a minority individual and went unpunished for it."

Had Malone cited all the examples of police killing unarmed black men and boys The Nugget would have needed to publish a supplement. All you need to do, Jenson, is Google something like "police kill unarmed black man and boys" and you will find many examples, some from police video cams. It is not a "vague claim unsubstantiated by evidence" to watch a cop on a police video cam gun down a black man holding his hands up. You can find these examples on the web if you choose to look.

These killings are very real to the victims and their families - if not for Jenson living up here in pristine Sisters Country where "Law 'n' Order" are alive and well. Despite your hand-wringing alarmism, law and order is not being destroyed in this country. In fact, crime has been falling steadily in the nation for the last 30 years and is lower than it was in the 1980s.

I don't provide "evidence" of that, Jenson, but you can Google that information, too. After all, if you're going to complain about Bonnie Malone's lack of examples, you ought to cite some of your own.

R.T. Tihista

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To the Editor:

I don't think that there is a lot of merit in the "tit for tat" that takes place with letters to the editor. And everyone has a right to their own opinion. But I do think it necessary at times to correct some wrong thinking or at least provide information to allow some to rethink their statements.

I am referring to the letter from Jensen Newton (August 24 letter to The Nugget) referring to the letter to The Nugget (August 17) from Bonnie Malone who had written to challenge some of the interview by The Nugget of Sheriff Shane Nelson and Black Butte Chief Denny Kenney.

Mr. Newton took exception with Ms. Malone not giving specific cases where law enforcement focused on an individual just because of the color of their skin. We need only go back a few decades to the atrocities committed by law enforcement in Mississippi and other states in the South to remember how racism was rampant. It took years, but some of those responsible were finally brought to justice.

If that is too far back, let us look at the incident subsequent to Hurricane Katrina where New Orleans police officers shot and killed unarmed African Americans walking across a bridge. It took a while, but they were finally convicted. And now we have others awaiting trial.

I'm pleased that Mr. Newton wants to defend law enforcement, but we can't be blind to the fact that racism still exists. I was in law enforcement for 30 years, retiring as sheriff of Benton County here in Oregon. We did not have many African Americans in our county, but we had many Hispanics. I always tried to instill in my folks that everyone was to be treated with respect and dignity.

Are there incidents that require quick judgment in life-and-death decision-making? Yes, there are, and I have been there. But there doesn't seem to be the same training or leadership to be better prepared for making these decisions. And this goes beyond race. Chief Kenney should know that, having come from a department which has had much scrutiny about many shootings and excessive-force complaints.

Sheriff Nelson made a good point in saying a discussion about a deputy's (or police officer's) procedure at the time of a stop may not be appropriate. But the deputy or officer, most of the time, sets the tone at the time of the stop.

Stan Robson