MANNIX MINUTES
The dangers of ‘catch and release’
By KEVIN MANNIX
In 2021, before I was elected to represent House District 21, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 48, which created a dangerous “catch and release” justice system for many criminals.
I have consistently heard from constituents about the increasing fear of criminal activity in our community. Crime is at record highs in Salem and Keizer, and the persistent problem of homelessness and drug use has many on edge about safety.
Senate Bill 48 is only increasing these fears. SB 48 dismantled Oregon’s pretrial release restrictions and allowed more offenders back on our streets before their trial.
Before SB 48, when a person was arrested, the offender was held for arraignment in front of a circuit judge. The judge reviewed the person’s criminal record, considered the charges, and considered the weight of the evidence, to determine whether the person should be released before trial.
Under SB 48, there is a presumption that offenders shall be released before their trial, even before appearing before a judge. The only exceptions are some violent crimes.
This system has led to some serious repeat offenses by criminals.
After a major fentanyl bust in Multnomah County in December, a suspected dealer was arrested, then released the same day. He fled. In 2022, a domestic violence suspect in Washington County was granted pretrial release and went back to shoot and killed his wife and her sister before committing suicide.
Two examples closer to home also illustrate the problem.
A few weekends ago, as a few members of my staff and campaign volunteers approached the office to get some work done, they saw a man sitting outside the building. One of our volunteers recognized that man as Billy Jason Powell, a serial criminal in her neighborhood who had previously broken into a neighbor’s house with an ax as they were home sleeping with their two young children. He had also damaged the surrounding neighbor’s property and was photographed holding the ax and looking into a window. He was arrested and was charged with two class A felonies for burglary.
Because of SB 48, he was given pretrial release.
After our volunteer called the police, Powell was picked up with a warrant for failing to appear for his trial. Luckily, everyone was safe at our office.
The other example comes from last year’s arson of St. Joseph Church in Salem. The arsonist, Billy Sweeten, had a long criminal history of over 40 crimes. Because of his pretrial release, he was free to commit the act of violence on the church.
As a member of St. Joseph Church, I was pleased to see that Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson and her team were able to get a conviction and a serious prison sentence for Sweeten this last month.
I have been and will continue to work hard to repeal this dangerous law to ensure that those who are arrested and who are a danger to our community are held until their trial.
I will again attempt to pass legislation to end this dangerous system through either the legislative process, or a direct vote of the people.
It truly is an honor to represent this community in the Oregon Legislature. If you have any comments or questions, please reach out at: [email protected]. I am happy to hear from you.
(Kevin Mannix (R) represents Oregon House District 21. He can be reached at the Capitol by emailing Rep.KevinMannix@ oregonlegislature.gov or by calling 503-986-1421.)
GUEST OPINION
Denser housing not needed
By TERRY EVEERT
Must we keep strangling ourselves with increased housing density by making taller apartments in the false names of “liveability and being climate friendly?”
Several points in the Keizertimes article (Building taller, Aug. 30) were not explained. For instance, who gave the Keizer Planning Commission the briefing on “why” changes are needed? What was the basis and just what would the impact be? I think we already know, but let’s hear it.
There’s more. What exactly are the “new state regulations” that push for denser housing? Are these “policy” directives, administrative rules, or have they been passed into law by legislators? Policy and administrative rules can be easily changed. Haven’t regulators learned that denser housing won’t cut down on commuting, or trips driven for personal reasons? Don’t they realize that the limited road system of one and two lanes, can’t accommodate more traffic safely or efficiently, especially during peak hours? Finally, how does long lines of frustrated drivers in vehicles stuck at red lights equate to a more livable or climate friendly environment?
There are obviously many more accidents occurring now. The huge increase in traffic in Keizer and Salem is due to the increase in population and dense housing developments. Yet they want more! Buses are not the answer nor is walking. If authorities and developers continue to insist on building more of these high density housing projects, then they should expand the restrictive urban growth boundaries to accommodate and relieve pressure on the rest of us. Oregon has plenty of buildable land that could be used for single family housing instead of packing us in more tightly.
I would like the Keizertimes to report more fully on the questions outlined above, and explain the response from the Keizer Planning Commission members.
(Terry Evert lives in Keizer.)
RE: Embrace Values
By GENE H. McINTYRE
Some among us nowadays don’t see our America as an outstanding place in which to live and work. I tend to agree with those who question America as a place near perfection, the one many of us may have viewed during our young years and until more recent times. Does the future hold the prospect of a viable U.S.? Actually, since our freedoms remain intact because our Constitution and Bill of Rights remain intact, it’s up to all of us to determine our nation’s fate.
There is much we could do to assist our nation to survive as that ‘beautiful place on a hill’ we’ve lived to enjoy. Perhaps a first step in the direction of that reconstructed place is within our grasp by a renewed American family, one rid of anti-family, anti-child sentiments.
Wherever and whenever America’s children are poor, they are inclined to drop out of school; so, we must intervene to keep them in our schools, continuing to learn and master the 3Rs and relevant skills enabling them to realize viable futures and not turning to crime and illicit drugs evolving into homeless lives as so many are inclined today. Our schools and the teachers have been allowed to decline in structure, furnishings and financial support that should be halted and urgently, plentifully reinvested.
Simultaneously, we must assist families to survive, stay together and thereby reduce divorce rates. Further, we must make certain that reliable contraception is available to the unmarried,. and the married not ready for children, so abortions are anethema. Hence, we avoid unwanted offspring while supporting families where couples dominate and are ready to welcome and love the children they make.
We must cut the incidence of poverty among children through established and adequate tax credit advantages. Related in this matter is a need for guaranteed paid maternity leave. Then, also, is universal health care and related expansion of Medicaid whose absence too often results in our nation being more likely than the world’s poorest nations to have children in the U.S. who die before the age of 5 years.
Building more into our nation’s services to its own people is that which underscores and supports the value and worth of households headed by two parents. Those domiciles headed here by single moms are 5 times more likely to live in poverty as those of married couples. So, both political parties should be actively and energetically doing what they can do to see to it that tax advantages are made for couples with children.
Back 50 years ago and earlier yet there were a lot of jobs for all Americans who wanted to work while that number included our youth, who were not going to the streets to become drug addicts, petty criminals, committing retail acts of theft by robbing retail stores. I knew no one during those years of my youth who didn’t want to find a job, live free of illicit drugs, and make something of themselves. We also didn’t have the terrible inequities among our people when comparing those individual persons and families now who’ve acquired wealth and can keep it to themselves by tax breaks accompanied by the nearly bottomless pit of young Americans who drop out of school, take to debilitating drugs, can’t or won’t find a job, and join the growing homeless numbers.
We must re-embrace the value our schools and training centers along with private and public agencies that assist our fellow Americans to find their way to success as citizens. Those American activities that have become sacred cows must be led to moderation. Examples are professional sports having gone mad with excessive money investments played by a few physically gifted younger Americans at the expense of millions of other young Americans often destined to poverty, our political parties now running elections year-around to devour billions of dollars in name-calling, personal insults and threatening those who don’t do as the leader dictates.
Our elections could be cut down in size to a few weeks, as other democracies manage, instead year-round, every year, and not result in persons elected to office who are too often strictly in it for personal gain.
The space program should be harnessed and brought under control from a special class of elites who for years prepare for and take space flights into space where nowadays they spin the Earth for days and months and/or collect more rocks to determine our origins. There are other examples of ways in which the American society cold be organized for an equitable, inclusively shared way of life and living in these United Staes of America.
We desperately need new leadership to usher in a wave of projects and reforms that will bring sanity and equity to all citizens rather than heaping our wealth and adulation on a few who too often become persons who care not at all about the shortcomings and thereby can enjoy the privileges brought for them at the expense of the larger population. We desperately need to find new ways and ventures that will enable the latest generation to embrace the good life here and contribute thereby to its continuation for the next generation. Otherwise, we invite ourselves ‘to go to wrack and ruin.’
(Gene H. McIntyre shares his opinion regularly in the Keizertimes.)