AND THOSE POT HOLES!!!

I am tripping over the latest and very weird Oregonian editorial favoring a Recall of Mayor Sam Adams.  I take it to be a means to try to amplify Avel Gordly’s request for $75,000 from somewhere out there to “Get This Thing Off The Ground.”  So, if someone out there has $75,000 lying around — just send it to Avel Golly — Time Ir Running Out!

The commenters in the piece coming out for a Recall seem to do a good job making the case against the Recall.  Take this item for instance.

Posted by 67falcon
April 07, 2010, 10:36AM

Mr LIBBY: I agree, your sickness, is what this is all about, if your sick, think how well feel..LIED TO GET ELECTED, OVER THE TOP COSTLY PROJECTS…..TRAM, SOUTH WATER FRONT, STADIUM FIASCOS, RIVER PLAN, MORE UNFUNDED MANDATES, 600 MILLION DOLLAR BIKE PROJECTS..140,000 LOOS, STUPID DIESEL CONTRACTS, COP PROBLEMS, LACKING FISCAL SKILLS IN HIS ON LIFE VS RUNNING A CITY INTO THE GROUND, COMPUTOR ISSUES……CITY PROCLAMATIONS INTO MATTERS OF NO CONCERN TO THE CITIES BUSINESS…..DID I MENTION LIED TO GET ELECTED….ALL CAPS FOR A REASON….WE ARE SICK AND FED UP.

Now run along, and have a nice day.

He forgot to mention the POTHOLE ON HIS HOME STREET.  Recall Sam Adams for that, why don’t you?  IN ALL CAPS!!!

It’s almost interesting that the “COP PROBLEMS” are inserted into this thing.  So we go to the issue of “apathy”.

Posted by wurzburg
April 07, 2010, 9:34AM  Portland, will never get rid of Sam Adams! This is the most Politically Passive places that I have ever lived. Sam, and his gang of crooks are here to stay and they know it. & Stay they will until there is nothing left for them to ruin! “Oh Well”, for those of us that have been here prior to Katz and Adams can always talk about the “Good Old Days”.
Times change.  It was only a few years ago that the writer of a book called “Bowling Alone”, bemoaning the death of citizen community political participation, would cite Portland as the exception to the rule.  But some things we dismiss as Ritual Theater.  Take for instance the recent Police Violence Protest.  A bunch of people easily caricatured took to the streets.  I swear I saw The Oregonian report them as members of a group called “Black Blocks”.  The phrasing was laughable, for reasons I’d explain if the right analogy could come into my head.
To line up your recent police incidents.  They’re not all created equal.  Jack Dale Collins’s death — sad as it may be, I have a real problem faulting the police officer.  Sure, work on Lines of Communication.  But I’m throwing away any “f the pigs” cred I may or may not enjoy on this one.
Maybe I can regain it by positing that the other incidents show them as f-ed?
Consider the bean bagging of the teenage delinquent.  Here.  Actually, about as much of a problem as the incident in question is the Police Response to Public Outrage.  I don’t quite understand it except as a disorienting “Rally around the Troops, Siege Mentality” sense.  They give the line, “Any reasonable person would see it was justified” — or something to that effect.  I’m not a big believer that common sense is always correct, and if they want to defend this — fine — but they’d have to explain it to the lay person who sees, on first blush, in common sense terms — one unarmed undersized juvenile (delinquent) and two heavy set officers who can easily subdue her without aid of blunt objects.
Well, maybe it becomes an inkblot test.
Next they came out with a great “F the Public” show of force with everyone asserting in unison that “I Am”, indeed, “Chris Humphreys”.  Sorry about that?
The other case of note, Aaron Campbell, I can suggest that it is common sense to avoid the police — who are trained and have a mentality working against handling this particular situation (a Seize Mentality which will presume the armed man will be gunning for them) — that they are not who you turn to in a tense Suicide Situation.  Your bullet points here are a fairly wise arena of steps — though, mostly in this particular situation I largley just kind of align with this.  Isn’t there a Suicide Prevention Line that’d be more helpful with this one?
The “Recall Sam Adams” crew? — I suppose I’d be interested in seeing the commenters calling for Sam Adams in a more natural element placing their politics on the matter of “COP PROBLEMS” divorced with Sam Adams, and see where it falls.

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