Multnomah County Republicans

Multiple sources have requested an explanation for the decision of the Central Committee of the Multnomah County Republican Party at its Monday, June 26, 2017 meeting, to adopt the following resolution:

“Resolved that the MCRP may utilize volunteers from the Oregon Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, and other security groups to provide security where such volunteers are certified to provide private security service by the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training.”

The cover of this week’s Portland Mercury asks readers to turn to page seven to learn how “Republicans’ Health Care Meddling Could Screw the County”.  The story, however, documents how Multnomah County is now set to spend $19.3 million this year on inmate healthcare, up from just $13 to $14 million as recently as 2011.

The Multnomah County Republican Party is saddened to learn that a Hosford Middle School student was recently accosted by men shouting racist slurs, and that groups have been putting up racist flyers in that neighborhood.  “I said at the June 4^th rally, and I’ll say it again:  there is no room for racists among the patriots trying to restore constitutional government to this country,” said Multnomah County Republican Party Chairman James L Buchal.  

Last week’s murders have all of us thinking about the rising political polarization in this country and this city.  The tragic deaths of the heroes who stepped forward to protect vulnerable women from abuse anger us all.   Many people feel less and less safe as political tensions rise.

With an avalanche of negative media attacks against the Trump Administration, it is easy to lose sign of the concrete accomplishments, including signing thirteen Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions in his first 100 days, more than any other President. These resolutions nullified unnecessary regulations and blocked agencies from reissuing them.  President Trump also signed 30 executive orders during his first 100 days, and has worked with Congress to enact 28 laws during the first 100 days of his Administration.  Below is a timeline of accomplishments to help us all remember that things are better than the media makes them look.

Earlier this week, a notice in the Business Tribune reported that the Portland Public Schools (PPS) have already drafted findings for what they call “an exemption from the Competitive Bidding Requirement for the following work:  District-wide Fixture and Partial Pipe Replacement”.  This language refers to the poster child for the PPS bond measure:  fixing the lead problem PPS concealed for years. 

A concerned Portland parent writes to the Multnomah County Republican Party about a revolution in education within the Portland Public Schools.  As the schools teach a history focused on race, gender and oppression, they raise a generation that is no longer a united America, but a seething mass of conflicting groups.  Deliberately-engineered ignorance of American history is a threat to us all.  If, after reading this "Letter from Kate," you are interested in meeting with other concerned parents in Portland to work for reform, let us know.

[Text of the e-mail:]

The Multnomah County Republican Party had been looking forward to its annual participation in the Avenue of Roses Parade, but has now received word that the criminal elements have succeeded in cancelling the entire Parade. 

We had written a letter to the Mayor, Chief of Police, and District Attorney asking them to help us make this a safe event, a copy of which may be reviewed here, but we received no response from the City or the parade organizers, copied on the letter.  This is one more regrettable step away from the rule of law in Oregon.

The Oregonian agreed to publish my guest column on liberal Portland ignoring its working class - the folks who pay all those taxes. ~ Jeff

[THIS POST SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS OFFERING LEGAL ADVICE.  IN THE CURRENT POLITICAL CLIMATE, ANY CITIZEN'S ARREST MAY BE CHALLENGED AND COULD RESULT IN SUBSTANTIAL LEGAL LIABILITY FOR REASONS EXPLAINED BELOW.]

Our own Leo Stratton has posted video of the Lake Oswego screamer.  In light of apparent decisions by local police forces to “stand down” when anti-Trump agitators like the screamer interfere with public displays of support for Trump, questions have arisen as to the scope of authority for those assembled to act in lieu of the police.  This memorandum reviews the pertinent law.

Oregon law provides that “[a] private person may arrest another person for any crime committed in the presence of the private person if the private person has probable cause to believe the arrested person committed the crime.  A private person making such an arrest shall, without unnecessary delay, take the arrested person before a magistrate or deliver the arrested person to a peace officer.”  ORS 133.225(1).  Given that police are typically present, it is easiest to deliver an arrested person to an observing officer, but it is also conceivable that delivery to a sympathetic judge (if one could be identified) would also be useful.  See ORS 133.030 (“magistrates” means judges).

This is a speech I got about halfway into before the anti-free speech fascists in Lake Oswego succeeded in shutting us down at March 4 Trump.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to the most important part:  what we need to do to help President Trump and help America.  We'll have to try harder next time.

The motto of the Texas Rangers was “one riot, one ranger”.  The motto of the Portland Police appears to be "with more than 800 policemen and reinforcements from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department, and the State Police, we can’t do anything because we are outnumbered and concerned about officer safety”.  We doubt that heavily-armored SWAT teams really fear for their safety when faced with a handful of unarmored anarchists with bats and their snowflake fellow travelers.  We don’t think the police force on the street is made up of cowards.

The battle of the soul of the Trump Administration now begins.  Only time will tell whether this Administration will bring real reform to lift unreasonable shackles of government from the rural West or adopt the Bush Administration’s policy of neglect.  As always, the result will depend on people.  Whom Trump chooses to occupy the thousands of Federal offices, the inhabitants of which are presently eating out the substance of rural America, is critical.

Oregon Republican Party Chairman Bill Currier issued a statement late Friday urging Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins to cease making statements that effectively suppress Republican votes. Her recent remarks to the media "mischaracterize the State Party’s efforts to reactivate inactive Republican voters across Oregon and openly encourage them to ignore calls from the State Party providing information on how to get a ballot and vote."

On October 30, 2016, the Oregonian published Leonard Pitts’ syndicated column in which he stated that he did not want the Republican Party to be defeated;

“I want it immolated.

“I want it razed to the foundation, reduced to a moonscape, left unlivable even for cockroaches, much less newts. I want it treated like boot heels treat ants and furnaces treat ice cubes, treated like a middle-school basketball team playing the '71-'72 Lakers.

“Defeat is not enough. Let there be humiliation. Let there be pain.”