That two-tiered system of justice again: DA Mike Schmidt of Portland
…Joey Gibson, the leader of Patriot Prayer was hit with a charge of rioting for the May Day brawl in August of 2019 [in Portland, Oregon]…
Today, Gibson’s case was finally dismissed. He threatened to sue the prosecutor for what he claimed was discriminatory prosecution…
“Judge Benjamin Souede said the decision [to dismiss] was made because there was not sufficient evidence in the case for jurors to find that Gibson and Schultz participated in the act of ‘riot’ as defined by the state.
“’These defendants are not charged with inciting anything, or with encouraging anything, or provoking anything. In each of these cases, the district attorney presented to the Grand Jury for its consideration the charge of riot,’ Judge Benjamin Souede said…
“Gibson now tells KATU News he plans to take legal action aginst the county, accusing District Attorney Mike Schmidt of discriminatory prosecution.
“‘The judge was highly confused why the DA fought so hard for three years to go after people who weren’t even violent,’ Gibson told KATU News.”
The judge may have been confused, but he shouldn’t have been. The DA is Mike Schmidt, a name that might ring a bell.
Here’s a previous mention of Mike Schmidt in one of my 2020 posts:
The city of Portland voted for this catastrophe when they elected a DA such as Schmidt, and they got it.
I wrote more about Schmidt about a year later (and a year ago) in this post. He had dropped a lot of prosecutions of Antifa-type rioters, but I guess prosecuting someone like Gibson suited him more. Schmidt is a prosecutor of the now-familiar “progressive” variety, and although I was unable to uncover any indication that Soros had backed him, he’s very much in the mold of the other prosecutors who fit that description.
Is it possible that Schmidt can be recalled, and meet the same fate as Chesa Boudin of San Francisco (and, hopefully, George Gascon of LA)? Perhaps:
[Schmidt] dropped 600+ riot charges, over 80% during the violent Portland protests.
Under District Attorney Mike Schmidt, Portland homicides jumped 83% — the nation’s highest!
Mike Schmidt has also been investigated by a special prosecutor for biased enforcement.
This makes Multnomah County District Attorney at risk of a citizen recall or at least a much needed course correction.
During the May Primary two tough-on-crime District Attorneys (Washington County, Marion County) defeated liberal challengers in their races. Another sign Oregonians don’t want Leftist soft-on-crime politicians.
Well, if they really don’t want them, they’re going to have to do more than talk about it, they’re going to have to get a viable recall drive going.
And by the way, that investigation of Schmidt for “biased enforcement” was about the Gibson case. This was written a little over a year ago, in March of 2021:
Yamhill County D.A. Brad Berry has been assigned as special prosecutor to oversee an investigation into political and religious bias in the prosecution of Joey Gibson and Russell Schultz for violation of the Oregon anti-riot statute, ORS 166.015 during a political protest held outside the former Antifa hangout known as Cider Riot in Portland.
While a state court judge has found Mr. Gibson’s conduct to be within the protections of the First Amendment, and a federal judge recently declared that both “[Gibson and Schultz] make compelling arguments that their conduct does not rise to the level of ‘tumultuous and violent’ conduct under ORS 166.015,”[1] District Attorney Schmidt has insisted on the continued prosecution of Gibson and Schultz despite turning hundreds of Antifa rioters loose for actual violent conduct…
The policy specifically prohibits selective or bias enforcement against a person based on their religion or political affiliation. Under District Attorney Schmidt’s infamous non-prosecution policy issued last August, charges sought by police against left wing rioters have been repeatedly dismissed by his office even where there is evidence of direct physical attacks on police and others. A federal judge recently noted that the District Attorney “failed to provide any justification for the non-prosecution policy or explain why it was not evidence of [MCDA]’s bias against [Gibson and Schultz].”
And yet the trial apparently got to the beginning stages before the judge dismissed the charges. Now Gibson is suing the county regarding Schmidt’s behavior. I wish Gibson luck.
It’s said that the county won’t pay, the taxpayers will pay. This is true. However, some will notice. Some will wonder where various county services went, or why they can’t be expanded.
Reason….double standards.
So, yeah, they voted for this and they’re paying for this. Only if Schmidt hid his proclivities do the voters get a pass here.
It would be interesting to see a poll asking what proportion of the voters think it was good the Antifa types got off and good that Gibson was prosecuted…at least he has legal fees and lost his job and stuff.
Might tell you where to put your sympathies.
That presupposes that there are still a few sane, rational people left in the city of Portland. Perhaps there are, I don’t know. But given all the news out of that place over the past half decade or so it seems like Lord of the Flies or something.
Prosecutors of his ilk, like Bragg, like Krasner, like Boudin, like Foxx, like Gascon, etc., ad nauseum, are merely members in good standing of the Democratic Party’s shock troops.
Basically antifa in suits. BLM in well-pressed trousers.
If you wanna take apart a country, the best place to start is to infiltrate the institutions of that country—legal, educational, military, LE, legislative, law court—kinda sneak in there when no one’s lookin’ and sayin’ nice things like “progress”, “human rights”, “diversity”, “just say NO to racism”, “freedom”, “liberty”, etc.,…until as a result of all the chaos, mayhem, uncertainty doubt an despair brought on by those rather ingenious saboteurs, things eventually arrive at “just say NO to country”.
(Now who said that??….)
I resent the fact that this scumbag DA has the same first and last names as the GOAT Phillie, Michael Jack Schmidt. It’s a good thing that Harry Kalas, the best broadcaster the Phils ever had, always referred to Schmidt by his full name– as in the call he made on the occasion of Michael Jack’s 500th career home run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCydP8ph8PY&ab_channel=PhilliesHighlights
The Pittsburgh Pirates fans were a class act on that occasion, giving Schmidt a standing O. I doubt anyone will ever give the Portland DA that kind of tribute.
I attended the Phillies’ home opener Schmitty’s last full season and was astounded (I had no real idea of Philadelphia fans at the time, being a visitor from out of town) to hear him roundly booed at his first plate appearance. To my knowledge he’d done nothing to warrant that (in the game) and here he was to me a sure-fire first round Hall of Famer, one of the best third basemen in history, right up there with beloved Brooksie himself. “What the hell sort of place is this?”, I’m asking myself.
Turned out Schmidt had made some disparaging remarks about Phil’s fans in the days prior and they were letting him have it, HoFer or no.
Prof. Lino Graglia has argued that the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment is not an invitation to test laws, but an adominishment to the executive to enforce them impartially.
We also need to strip prosecutors of unqualified immunity.
sdferr–
You hadn’t heard the (true) story about Philly fans (Iggles fans, in this case) being so mean they’d boo Santa Claus?
Here’s what happened to Frank Olivo in 1968:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7C5Y4vH6h4&ab_channel=AnneRoberts
I’m just recalling some of the ‘man on the street’ interviews with long-suffering residents from the CHAZ zone, and other interviews with homeowners a little further out that had hordes of BlacBloc rabble invading their neighborhoods in the second wave of unrest. One would think that it would be impossible to tune the message out, or disregard it, living around Portland and seeing the condition of downtown every single day.
And yet: They voted for it. They must be satisfied with the status quo. It just boggles my mind how people decide to move to beautiful cities like Portland, and then continue to stay there and vote Blue as they steadily become cesspits.
Thunderstormnetworkoutage.
Ha! Yeah, no, PA+Cat, I’d heard the snowball pelting story, seen the fans’ treatment of opponents (Cowboys and Caps fan here) for many years . . . it’s just the boos raining down on Mike Schmidt!, I mean, I just didn’t get it . . . I couldn’t imagine Eddie Murray getting that treatment in Charm City, for instance — Impossible!
Then I moved to Philly in ’95, married a local girl and learned the ways of the world.
}}} The Pittsburgh Pirates fans were a class act on that occasion, giving Schmidt a standing O. I doubt anyone will ever give the Portland DA that kind of tribute.
The Portland DA DESERVES a 21-gun salute.
We should stand him next to a wall while he gets it: “Would you like a blindfold?”
😀
}}} We also need to strip prosecutors of unqualified immunity.
Technically there are qualifications, but it’s hard to get past them. They SHOULD charge the asshole with violating their civil rights under that clause, which, as I understand it, goes to the personal, not just official, assets.
The Portland DA DESERVES a 21-gun salute.
We should stand him next to a wall while he gets it: “Would you like a blindfold?”
21 guns is a waste of ordnance; the state of Utah uses a five-man squad of police officers when a condemned inmate requests a firing squad over lethal injection:
https://www.livescience.com/10710-death-penalty-firing-squad-carried.html
As an alternative, there’s the form of execution the Brits used in India in the mid-nineteenth century called blowing from a gun– which one British officer described as follows:
The prisoner is generally tied to a gun with the upper part of the small of his back resting against the muzzle. When the gun is fired, his head is seen to go straight up into the air some forty or fifty feet; the arms fly off right and left, high up in the air, and fall at, perhaps, a hundred yards distance; the legs drop to the ground beneath the muzzle of the gun; and the body is literally blown away altogether, not a vestige being seen.
I think most Soros-funded DAs would consider a recall election preferable to that version of a gun salute.
I think you may be missing the point.
In Compton, California, the population was ~100% Black with ~100 murders per year. The state and county imported a Hispanic population (and their gangs). The new population targeted the Black gang-bangers, their friends and family. Compton is now ~70% Hispanic with virtually no violent crime.
Most American cities are doomed. The concentration is no longer needed. Some have a ghetto with crime and violence. Some are just useless. Selective law enforcement clears out the troublesome people and leaves an, at least partially, empty area ripe for resettlement with grift and profit for all involved. As long as the replacement population was likely to vote Democratic/Progressive/Socialist, the plan was unlikely to fail. The ghetto people are naturally destructive and the BLM and Antifa are “encouraged” to be that way. Resistance is punished with selective prosecution. The Progressive DAs (Prosecutors) are there to put on a show of anti-something-or-other while the transition continues. Then, if the Democrats/etc. hold power in Washington, there will be grift to rebuild the cities and profit the loyal players. The ghetto people will have no place to go except the “Red” suburbs. If the suburbans are disarmed or demoralized, there can be no effective resistance to the ghetto refugees.
What a Plan!