This op ed appeared in the Lake Oswego Review on October 11, 2022.

Time to protect citizens, not criminals

Over the last decade, under the banner of "criminal justice reform", discredited utopian theories have re-emerged with the predictable result: rapidly increasing property and violent crime. In Portland, the defunding, demonization, and demoralization of police have led to an epidemic of lawlessness and impunity. Portland experienced 36 homicides in 2019 but that number exploded to 92 in 2021 and 2022 is on track to be worse. Armed robberies and felony assaults are also increasing.

But it isn't just Portland. Here in Lake Oswego, there is rising concern over burglaries, car break-ins, car thefts, and theft of catalytic converters from vehicles.

In 2013 the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 3194 and in 2017 House Bill 3078. Both bills reduced voter-approved sentences for incorrigible repeat property criminals.

We aren't immune to violent crime. Case in point: the unprovoked brutal beating by a fifteen-year old girl of an elderly Lake Oswego woman in her home in 2020.

The Oregon Legislature, under the influence of well-funded radical de-incarceration groups, enabled this breakdown of public safety. A prime example is Senate Bill 1008 which, in 2019, undermined the voter-approved Measure 11 and ensured that most 15, 16, and 17-year old violent criminals will receive short sentences. Under SB 1008, virtually all violent teenage criminals convicted of felony assault, armed robbery, rape, and murder, can be released from the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) at any time and must be released at age 25. Furthermore their criminal records are sealed from public view.

This is the case for the violent girl who brutally beat the elderly Lake Oswego woman. She was remanded to the custody of the OYA in November of 2021 for burglary and felony assault. While the law requires her release on her 25th birthday, the OYA has the authority to release her at any time and her criminal record will be sealed from public view.

In 2019 the legislature passed and Governor Kate Brown signed Senate Bill 1013 which eliminated the voter-approved death penalty for most of the worst murderers. For example, Dayton Leroy Rogers, who murdered seven women in Clackamas County, had his death sentence overturned because of SB 1013. Governor Brown then emptied death row, sending the worst murderers into the general prison population. She then went on an unprecedented commutation tear, commuting the sentences of over 1000 criminals including murderers sentenced to true life in prison. So the governor and the legislature effectively took both the death penalty and life without parole off the table for some of the worst murderers in the history of our state.

These are but a few of the many examples of legislative bills and executive actions that have eroded public safety. They are part of a decades-long campaign to undermine consequences for crime. Combined with the recent agitation to delegitimize the police and to install pro-criminal district attorneys, this campaign is destroying the credibility of the criminal justice system and respect for law. All of this is done in the name of kindness to criminals, but it is cruelty to victims and to the law abiding citizens who will be future victims.

It's time for voters to hold elected officials accountable and to send an unambiguous message: the first duty of government is to ensure the safety of law-abiding citizens. Candidates for office need to hear this message from the voters loud and clear.

Howard Rodstein is a director of Crime Victims United of Oregon and Lake Oswego resident.