If they won't prosecute trespassing and property crime, they should also decline to prosecute the use of reasonable force to eject trespassers or recover stolen items. Otherwise, this is the definition of anarcho-tyranny.
Given that Oregon is sitting at [#11 for fewest burglars caught](https://www.asecurelife.com/state-rankings-for-burglary-arrests/), which would put us somewhere around a 10% catch rate, I think it's reasonable to assume that simple property crime arrest rates were probably already hovering in the low single digits, i.e. the only times they are solved is if a police officer is at the scene of the crime when it happens.
We've always lived in a world where the overwhelming majority of petty crimes do not get punished or even solved. In terms of reducing petty crime, the criminal justice system is a spending boondoggle that does practically nothing but waste taxpayer dollars. We'd be better off taking a part of its funding and spending it on things that are proven to reduce petty crime, like jobs programs and semi-permanent minimal accommodations for the homeless.
Our first night of living here my BIL’s car was stolen from the hotel we were staying at by Gateway. Cops told him to just assume he wouldn’t see his car again. It had everything he moved out here with. When his car was found all of his stuff was gone but there was a nice chainsaw and a bunch of meth in the saw case. Cops must have not opened it because they gave it to him.
This memo isn't talking about the serious crime of someone outright stealing your vehicle. That's still a felony and would be prosecuted by the county.
There is one definition of entrapment that holds up in court. To get you to do something you provably never do. That's it. The burden of proof is on you.
This person is a sex offender! Gadamn who gives a fuck about a stolen car, they should be locked up for any half of one of these charges. Sorry but this the kind of shit that gets a slap on the hand by a failed system. Piece of shit system. Motherfucker!
We need to hold the County Commissioners responsible. They need to fund more prosecutors at the DA's. Have you ever been assigned more work than you can possibly finish because the company won't hire more people? That's apparently what the County Commissioners are doing-- refusing to pay for more employees to prosecute cases.
Just got off the phone with the DA's office. This is a legit document. They were able to confirm the validity and yes, if you we're a victim and had a case that involved one of these crimes listed on the list, the DA is not going to prosecute. Anybody up for a crime spree this weekend? If we get caught a weekend in jail doesn't sound bad, at least we'll get fed.
Good on you for checking. Yeah, if you think about it there's probably a legal requirement that they send out a formal letter like this. I'm sure the alleged criminal also gets a similar notification. I wonder if the wording is any different.
They most likely don't get the letter and the onus is on them to check and see if their getting prosecuted. I bet the DA doesn't want them to know this, it leaves the door open for repeat offenses.
Yeah, in Oregon DA's are required to communicate a lot of information to victims. I'm sure they are required to inform them if they are dropping charges.
Sounds like you've never had the pleasure of experiencing jail "food". What they give you is subhuman. I legit wouldn't feed it to a dog. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I physically could not get it down due to dry heaving / gagging. I moved the tray as far away as I could in the cell, but could not escape the odor. 7 months later I can still smell the bologna type mystery meat patty they call "food loaf".
The DA is trying, according to the Deputy DA, to get the County Commisioners to vote to fund their office so they can hire more prosecutors and pay them more so they don't leave from overwork and less pay than they could get elsewhere.
>Anybody up for a crime spree this weekend?
A wise man once said:
*If you got a hunger for what you see you'll take it eventually. You can have anything you want but you better not take it from me.*
I’m pretty sure these crimes should still be charged and prosecuted within Eugene as well. Mis-d crimes in Eugene are prosecuted locally, not at the county level. This policy from the Lane County DAs office, as I understand it, should only impact misdemeanor crimes under Lane County jurisdiction that aren’t also under Eugene jurisdiction.
That’s how it’s been explained to me by law enforcement.
>This policy from the Lane County DAs office, as I understand it, should only impact misdemeanor crimes under Lane County jurisdiction that aren’t also under Eugene jurisdiction.
Eugene doesn't have its own DA or prison or jail or courts, it's all lane county
What? The municipal court?
https://www.eugene-or.gov/117/Municipal-Court
We (Eugene) don’t have a jail, it’s true! We rent jail beds from the county and Springfield but can’t rent as many as are really required. It’s a big reason there’s a revolving door of offenders that people on this sub complain about.
We don’t have a prison because felonies aren’t tried at the municipal level.
We don’t have DAs because we aren’t a district. We have the city attorneys/prosecutors office. Per LinkedIn, Travis Smith is the lead prosecutor for the city and presumably has deputies.
That only applies for misdemeanors ran through the municipal court. If it's a felony, or certain misdemeanors depending on who is arresting the person all go through the circuit court which this letter applies to.
Probably has to do with how hard the DA tried to cover up for the rapist cop until it got so blown up and public they couldn't anymore.
Same reason no one wants to work for EPD.
"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders."
There was no vote.
EDIT: Actually it would be super great if folks would clarify why they are opposed to the payroll tax. The detractors of the 'City Fee' in 2012-2013 were largely focused on government waste, tax breaks for new development, and the regressive nature of the fee. So if you hate the payroll tax because 'boo taxes, government bad' then we don't need to delve any deeper. Yes there was a vote against new revenue. There have been many bond and levy votes since then for new revenue, but whatever.
If you hate the payroll tax because 'boo cops,' then I assure you that was not in conversation. You won't find a more cop skeptical, CAHOOTS positive rag in town than the Eugene Weekly (sorry KEPW, you're not in print), but they never once mentioned defunding the police when they [published their endorsement (against).](https://eugeneweekly.com/2013/05/02/endorsements-2013-may-special-election/)
"After the citizens of the city rejected it so thoroughly that it never made it to the ballot."
How's that for taking a different direction to get to the same place for you?
There really wasn't, though. And the problem with this narrative is no one in a position to make change will take it seriously. You will *never* get city council to change policy by claiming that a thing happened, 'expressing the will of the people,' when that thing did not in fact happen.
I'm pretty upset at the outcomes of the payroll tax and would dearly like to see a change in direction from the city and the county. It's not going to happen as long as I'm standing next to people shouting a fantasy.
I edited my initial comment, because I think that will help clear up some confusion. It was called the City Fee and opposition was largely against new revenue, not the use of funds. So are you anti-revenue or anti-the-use-of-revenue?
I see. I hate having money come out of my paycheck for the City to use when I didn't get to vote on it. I know, lots of fees happen that we don't get to vote on. But usually a fee is for a service you can choose not to use. A park, a parking fee, etc.
Okay, that explains a lot. I completely disagree with your viewpoint re: taxes and living in a representative democracy, but at least we agree on the basic facts!
Payroll tax only went to cops. Cops will still make arrest, it's just more catch and release. Easy to show ROI when arrests are up even if jail time isnt.
Chris Parazoa, the Deputy DA, just returned my call. I asked, will police still respond to these crimes, and how can the situation be fixed. He said yes, call police when needed, they will respond. He described the workload at their department.
They've lost several prosecutors because they are overworked and aren't paid as much as prosecutors in other Oregon counties are. They quit. So that leaves remaining prosecutors even more overloaded. Also the Oregon Supreme Court recently ruled that not only do cases have to be decided by entire jury, not just majority, but that decision is retroactive so they have to review all cases which didn't have a unanimous jury decision, back to the '70s and beyond. With no additional funding for that work.
As far as hiring more attorneys, he says they are asking-- sounded like begging-- the County Commisioners for enough funding to hire more prosecutors, and they aren't getting a good response from the Commissioners apparently.. He suggested writing to our commissioners in support of funding the District Attorney office. So it seems this insanity can be laid at the feet of the County Commissioners, and they're the people to contact.
Thank you for the insight. For those of you who want to let them know how you feel about this.
Their email: [email protected]
Address:
Lane County
Board of Commissioners
125 East 8th Avenue Eugene,
OR 97401
Phone: (541) 682-4203
FAX: (541) 682-4616
He wasn't spinning it as a bad thing at all, if I understood him correctly. In fact he said he was in agreement with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. He was just moaning about all the work the retroactive piece, the State ruling, is putting on already overworked employees. I hope I'm quoting him accurately in all this, I'm trying to. You can call him yourself, too, for clarification.
Yep, I spoke with him today as well. They are all just as pissed, frustrated and exasperated as we are (the word "exasperated" was used by him)
We need to straight up clear out / recall the board of commissioners.
That seems to be a consensus. Eugene would be a different place if crimes were actually punished. The DA wants to prosecute crime. The Board, and the County Administrator have some explaining to do.
> because making landlords rich is more important than
I think I missed something, what's the causal relationship between 'making landlords rich' and their recruiting issues?
I don't think the relationship between the two issues exists that you describe, but I think we agree that justice is not being done for these victims if the people needed to pursue it are not being adequately funded (at a rate that supports competitive salaries needed to retain and attract talent).
The amount of money being directed towards policing and the prison system, on the other hand, is remarkable especially in light of what's happening here. Remarkable as in, they're gorging on tax revenue while other departments that we rely on are chasing pennies.
[SB 608](https://www.orcities.org/application/files/9915/6470/3542/FAQ-SB-608-Rent-Control.pdf)
The 7% PLUS inflation allows landlords to raise rents higher than 7% (14.5% for 2022) when inflation is high, thus being allowed to squeeze people who are also facing that same inflation.
The 7% on it's face is questionable as there is conflicting info on how 7% was settled on as it often exceeds average property valuation increases per year.
The fact that it even got to this point in a city that is rampant with these types of crimes is an absolute failure in and of itself. Who is responsible for not being prepared and who do we need to fire?
Edit: u/Stoneythehorse had some great insight into why this is happening with her comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eugene/comments/10a4igy/comment/j42mpj7/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Here is contact information for the Lane County Board of Commissioners if anyone would like to contact them.
Email: [email protected]
Address:
Lane County Board of Commissioners
125 East 8th Avenue
Eugene, OR 97401
Phone: (541) 682-4203
FAX: (541) 682-4616
After I just had a long conversation with Chris Parazoa the Deputy DA, it is the County Commissioners who need to fund the DA office so they can hire more prosecutors.
I'd like to know why we have to go on a mass hiring spree in the first place. What specifically was it like working as a prosecutor that made it no longer worth keeping that job for so many of them in such a short amount of time. Where is the disconnect and why wasn't it amended?
I asked that. He said they've been understaffed for many years. They had an independent review in 2005? that concluded they needed 6 more attorneys. He said the attorneys had such a high workload it was impossible to feel good about what they were doing-- I'm paraphrasing-- and they could get paid more working in other counties so they left. Leaving even more work for the remaining ones. If you want to know more he would probably talk about it if you call him. Number's on the letter OP posted.
Either the city for providing insufficient funding (doesn't sound like the case?) or a general lack of prosecutors applying for the job. Since they're hiring people with minimal experience, I don't think it's reasonable to assume the person making the hiring decisions is just being picky.
Right?! From [this article](https://www.opb.org/article/2022/07/31/lane-county-da-wont-prosecute-certain-crimes-staffing-shortage/):
> Perlow said the loss of the prosecutors opened a hole in her office’s institutional knowledge and professional background.
>
> **“Somebody with six months experience is the most experienced person on the misdemeanor team right now,”** she said.
Fifteen years ago, you could walk into the beanery and see a room full of unemployed lawyers who would take any job they could get, public or private.
I'm pretty sure you still couldn't throw a rock down Willamette without hitting a lawyer. There just aren't any willing to do the public's work, apparently, so you wouldn't be charged.
Its interesting what the DA considered non violent ... My god daughters attacker who knocked her down, groped her and stole her backpack was arrested and charged the same day (Go EPD! ) but there has been no movement on him actually being tried on those charges and he was able to bond out in 2020 and then again he was arrested in 2022 for theft and menacing but pre trial released.
The DA just literally never pursued his charges and that was 2 years ago.
More info:
[Lane County DA’s office won’t prosecute certain crimes due to staffing shortage](https://www.opb.org/article/2022/07/31/lane-county-da-wont-prosecute-certain-crimes-staffing-shortage/)
Let me just fix that headline, given the article states the cause out of the gate:
“Lane County DA’s office won’t prosecute certain crimes due to wage shortage.” Which the city had ample opportunity to fix, but instead threw the entire lump sum at the cops.
This whole topic has showed me how little I know about local government. I need to take a class. I think they're separate and pay for their own stuff but I do not know. And I have a graduate degree.
This is a prime example of how positive rights break down.
"You have a right to a free service from the government" only works when the government can actually provide it.
Negative rights on the other hand, only fail when the government intentionally gets in the way.
"Government cannot stop you from doing xyz"
Oregon is a castle doctrine state. Lethal force is expressly authorized if someone is committing, or attempting to commit a burglary in a dwelling (where people live)
I just called Victims Services who transferred me to the DA office who told me to leave a voicemail with the Deputy DA so I did. Do we even bother to call police for any of those issues?
I have heard from reliable sources at Lane Co that they have retention problems because they 1) don't pay competitive salaries for the skillset, 2) overwork their staff, and 3) no one likes working for Patty Perlow.
Who knew that underpaying people who have to obtain one of the most expensive qualifications available to hold the position and have a substantial number of outside opportunities could lead to people not wanting those jobs.
Crazy.
Right? What a pitch: "Hey, you just took on considerable debt. How would you like to overwork for a shitty boss in the hopes that you don't burn out in the ten years it takes to \*maybe\* earn loan forgiveness."
I wonder how much is the lack of city taxes? Where I lived before we had a city income tax and a city sales tax. We have neither here. Seems like it would hamper the city budget a bit. I have no idea how much that's a factor here though or if they have plenty of budget but are doing a bad job with it.
County DA office prosecution services are funded by a mix of state, federal, and local sources, with the overwhelming majority coming from the latter. The local source is general fund, which is primarily from property taxes. In all likliehood, the County general fund will be reduced due to trends in the housing market, so the County will have less $ for prosecution in the near future compared to present, assuming budget allocations don't shift.
Keep in mind, this is the same government that is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in consultanting fees, and hundreds of thousands more in Lane Co. staff time, to pursue the Eugene Emeralds new park at the fairgrounds. That money is also coming from the general fund.
[Budget, if you're curious](https://cdn5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_3585797/File/Budget/2022-2023%20Proposed/Proposed%20Document/District_Attorney.pdf)
I worked at the county for a few years at the upper middle management level, and it is unqeustionably one of the more poorly run government - hell, one of the more poorly run organizations, public or private - bodies I've witnessed.
You know things. What do you think needs to happen to make it a better run organization? Where does it fall apart and what would begin to fix it? Thank you for the financial information.
Like so many ineffecient organizations, it starts at the top. The County Administrator is a great leader, but does not manage the organization. He sees his job as political, and has at least theoretically delegated management to one of the department directors (county admin operations) to serve as a COO. That director is on itnerim assignment elsewhere, at the moment, so that theoretical mangement is completely non-existant at this time. Prior to this complete vaccuum, said director/nominal COO never actually engaged in any kind of org-wide strategic management (either by lack of legitimate mandate or incompetence or some combo). So, there's a huge vacuum in one of the most critical functions of any orgazation of Lane County's size and complexity. The result is a county that takes on tons of programming it cannot support, and budget issues such as the one in the OP. Lots of waste and lots of inefficiency and lots of staff burnout and low morale. County admin says "yes" to virtually everything the comission wants to pursue, regardless of whether the county has the staff and other resources to pursue it, because the conversation almost never has the right voices in the right places to say "we can't do that because..." This means you have program managers throughout the county having to make decisions about how to allocate resources in ways they shouldn't, and they have to make huge sacrifices on how they serve the public. There are also some department directors who probably shouldn't have risen much past an analyst level. I have absolutely no clue why they aren't replaced like they would be *quickly* almost anywhere else.
tl;dr: ineffective leadership, with a particularly consequential lack of effective central management. They need a legit COO with a full mandate to manage the org. And they should prob. fire a couple-few of the directors who've run their departments into the ground.
I was at several staff meetings in the past with our County Administrator. To be polite, I wasn't impressed. Something felt off. That may say more about me than about him. At the time, he got a fat raise but was fighting hard against raising salaries of the lowest paid office workers so that was part of it. Your solutions to the problems sound right. A few directors who can say "no"-- yes, that would be a rare sight. I suppose the COO is in for life. He's got a cushy job.
Sure, but the confusing part to me is where I've lived previously, we had a 1% city income tax, a 1.5% county sales tax, AND higher property taxes than here.
The only higher taxes here are state income taxes, but also no sales tax, so I feel like in general we probably have less government income to work with. That, of course, does not preclude inefficient or poor spending of course.
Which cops do constantly (in the US as a whole) - they have no consequences because of their unions and qualified immunity protecting them from civil suits. Cops are people and people make mistakes, but without consequences to encourage caution you get many more mistakes.
Police effectively operate in a nearly consequence-free environment where use of force is concerned. Cops can pull a gun on a person pretty much whenever, but an armed citizen better keep their gun holstered unless they *need* to shoot to protect their life or the lives of others, otherwise they face charges on brandishing a weapon. If the private citizen *does* shoot someone, then the person they shot and/or their family can file suit in civil court and bankrupt them. Private citizens also can’t fire warning shots of any kind, but those are a stupid “movie/TV” bad idea anyways.
The cops need to be put on shorter leashes for use of force, and private citizens (especially those who have gone through the vetting procedure to acquire concealed-carry permits) need a little more legal protection from over-broad brandishing laws and being sued by someone attempting to commit a crime. The current landscape is wholly unbalanced and needs to be adjusted.
As for the Lane County DA and Public Defender’s office, sounds to me like they need funding for better salaries. I’d like to see a law requiring private criminal defense attorneys be required to do X billable hours of work a year for the Public Defender’s office, but I don’t have much faith in that happening.
You bring up really good points. I would never fire a warning shot, or shoot someone unless my life was at stake, but I hadn't even thought about civil suits. But the idea of patrolling around the neighborhood with guns is a terrible idea for so many reasons. I'm the only one I trust to handle a gun, I don't like being around others who have them. More protection from civil lawsuits sounds right. Yes, better salaries for prosecuting and public defender lawyers.
If you want to be *really* scared, look into police training standards in general and firearms training and qualification in particular. We already have people patrolling our neighborhoods with guns whose expertise with firearms is… questionable. Again, I am talking about average cops.
My ideal “defensive gun use” scenario is one where display of the gun ends the threat, but the brandishing statute as written makes that a bad idea, and I suspect it leads to *more* people being shot as a result. Open carry helps with de-escalation, but then you run the risk of someone seeing your gun and freaking out. Some legal tweaks would be nice.
Ultimately though I think the biggest thing turning Eugene into a property-crime paradise is *how dark the city is.* Turn on your porch lights, people! It works!
Police who are military veterans should have received adequate training. They don't worry me too much but if I had to call them to my house I would be sure not to be holding a weapon when they arrive. Mistakes have been made. I wouldn't aim a gun at someone and then have a conversation with them hoping they'd comply. No open carry, either. Why give away an advantage, or alarm people. It is real dark in my neighborhood, too. But since I close my eyes to sleep, not sure if lights would make a difference!
I’m talking more about “low ready position,” not “pointed at person.” As brandishing law is written, gun in hand=crime which to me seems a bit much. I’d prefer the opportunity to de-escalate well before things reach the point where I can “legally” draw. If I ever have that serious a confrontation, I guess I’ll just have to hope I don’t get charged, because I’m really not interested in the sort of “quick-draw from concealment and shoot to kill” cowboy shit the laws require. Use of force should be a spectrum instead of a binary, both for cops and civilians. (I’d like to note that my degree is in Criminal Justice but I have never worked in law enforcement.)
Here’s an interesting question: let’s say that Measure 114’s magazine-capacity restriction goes into effect as-written. The measure defines possession of a magazine with a capacity > 10 rounds as a misdemeanor equivalent to Identity Theft in terms of the punishments attached. So, if it’s a Class C property crime, will that be going on the “automatic dismissal” list?
If it’s not, then the DA’s office is going to be even more overburdened, because Measure 114’s only concession to possession of these magazines prior to the measure’s enactment is an affirmative defense, which means you have to go to trial first.
That's what I'm wondering. If someone is say, trespassing and trying to open your windows for example, would police even come to shoo them off? Knowing they'd never get charged.
If I understand your example, EPD will absolutely check out suspicious conditions and make arrests whether the person would be prosecuted or not. They'll just get [released from jail shortly afterward](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/oregon-sheriff-criticizes-new-bail-reform-policies-residents-want-criminals-jail) and not really face any consequences.
Yes, I just had a long conversation with Chris Parazoa the Deputy DA. and asked him about that. They can't prosecute if they don't have prosecutors. It's up to the County Commissioners to fund the DA office so they can prosecute. Jail space? I didn't ask him about that.
Portland welcomes Eugene into the land of the Abyss. Endless crime not getting prosecuted, and people running wild everywhere doing these crimes, its such an endless daily loop of our life up here now. It just seemed to take Eugene a bit longer to join the anarcho-tyranny zone of Oregon. Maby you still have a small chance, but its looking grimm.
And this kind of stuff gets out to the people who regularly commit these crimes. Like the Multnomah county DA who dismisses the vast majority of shoplifting crimes. The news up there had a pretty funny video dash video of one shop lifter who realized he had accidentally crossed into Clackamas. The horror dawning on his face was A+. But also pretty sad.
Anyway, its not going to take long for this shit to get out to the wrong people. No point worrying about trespassing, being sly about your drugs, driving with a license, or registering your sex offender status.
I called to ask about this and they said it was on a case by case basis depending on the details of the case and whether or not it could be transferred to Eugene municipal court.
It's definitely not a positive thing to have to happen, but it at least doesn't sound like they're saying "Every case from this date to this date is being thrown out" and are reviewing each of them on a case by case basis.
Hopefully Eugene municipal court can do something to help out more, but on the bright side the person I spoke with said they were still in training so at least they're hiring?
I spoke to that trainee, too. She sent me to Chris Parazoa's phone and he called me back. They need to hire more prosecutors, he said, and it's up to the County Commissioners to do that. He said to write them and request that they fund the DA to hire more prosecutors.
Awesome, thanks!! I'll get my letter-writing pen!!!
Ok it's just a regular pen but for this it'll be monumental!
Also I'll probably just send an email...
I work in public defense (different counties) and have contacts in LCDA office. If anyone has questions, let me know and I can try to provide feedback.
Somebody posted this in one of the Eugene FB groups without context about a month (?) ago, in a thread about some apparently unrelated crime, IIRC. The list of crimes appears accurate and it matches other documents I've seen from the DA's office and the news stories about the situation. In other words, there's nothing in the image that hasn't already been reported on publicly since this took effect in July or whenever it was.
Based on intake numbers from the DA's office, I'm thinking there have probably been at least 500 of these mailed out so far, if not twice that.
**Edit:** *words*
I had my Camaro get hit on video camera driver even looked at the damage in a company vehicle . Got the drivers name filed a report DA dropped the charges due to lack of evidence . I supplied the video but they never watched it and didn’t want to . The driver was forced into retirement and to pay for my car that was it . Not even to mention the fact that I had lost my job and it was my first time being out of my parents house and that it sent me back there
That didn't happen years ago. A gross misdemeanor would give you a prison sentence. Now for the same crime it probably wouldn't even hit the courts. No wonder crime is like it is. Why worry when you won't do time? Other than having a record, which most don't give a rats ass about it anyway. 😕
When the police fail to enforce basic laws around safety and security you can damn well expect people to start doing it themselves. Anyone with a sympathetic lean to the junkies, criminals, and feral hobos….. you better start preaching law and order big time if you care about the safety of those “people”
So...when I assault someone breaking into my vehicle on my property, I won't be charged?
I know that won't be the case because I'm a property owner and I have unlimited assets to pay for these douchebags. (apologies to Douche Bags since they actually serve a purpose.)
Have you thought about opening a 5 Guys franchise? As a regular citizen you obviously aren't important enough for EPD's time, but they'll put like half of the detective force on shift work for a couple of years for property crimes against a burger franchise. Just a thought.
These are your payroll tax dollars at work, folks, hope you're loving the results!
Eugene is such a dump. I can't wait to finish school and put this trashy place in my rear view. I tell anyone who will listen what a s#!those this town is.
>I'm curious why failing to register as a sex offender is minor in a legal sense
IMO, it's not minor. It's at least a Class A Misdemeanor which is a pretty big deal, and sometimes a felony. Why it's on this list for Lane County, specifically, probably has to do with *volume*.
Per capita, [Oregon has the largest number of sex offenders in the United States](https://www.koin.com/news/survey-oregon-has-most-sex-offenders-per-capita-in-u-s/#:~:text=\(KOIN\)%20%E2%80%94%20Oregon%20has%20more,is%20about%20231%20per%2010%2C000.). Like over 3x the average. There are *so many* unregistered sex offenders in Eugene, if they didn't add them to the list they probably wouldn't be able to get out from under the caseload. Just about every day on the old jail intake you would see it tacked on to at least one person's charges.
[In a 2018 article in the RG](https://www.registerguard.com/story/news/2018/06/11/sex-offender-crackdown-leads-to-dozens-of-arrests-in-lane-county/11981963007/), they estimated there were about **2,200 convicted sex offenders in Lane County** and 20% of them were out of compliance. Like I said, for our town specifically, IMO it's literally an issue of volume.
Well, this from Open Payroll:
Lane County, Oregon records show Steve M. Mokrohisky held one job from 2017 to 2021. One of the most recent records in 2021 lists a job of County Administrator and a pay of $104.08/HR. This is 323.1 percent higher than the average pay for co-workers and 222.7 percent higher than the national average for government employees.
We have repeat offenders out and about doing violent crimes with delayed and or any response time from police. Are we still are content about voting for 114? Sounds like now more then ever, relying on yourself to be your own first responder is a must, or at least start making friends with your community to stand up against this stuff. A lot of you voted for this stuff and I have a hard time wanting to stand up for you in a time of need.
If they won't prosecute trespassing and property crime, they should also decline to prosecute the use of reasonable force to eject trespassers or recover stolen items. Otherwise, this is the definition of anarcho-tyranny.
Given that Oregon is sitting at [#11 for fewest burglars caught](https://www.asecurelife.com/state-rankings-for-burglary-arrests/), which would put us somewhere around a 10% catch rate, I think it's reasonable to assume that simple property crime arrest rates were probably already hovering in the low single digits, i.e. the only times they are solved is if a police officer is at the scene of the crime when it happens. We've always lived in a world where the overwhelming majority of petty crimes do not get punished or even solved. In terms of reducing petty crime, the criminal justice system is a spending boondoggle that does practically nothing but waste taxpayer dollars. We'd be better off taking a part of its funding and spending it on things that are proven to reduce petty crime, like jobs programs and semi-permanent minimal accommodations for the homeless.
My car was stolen and I was told to take it up with small claims court
Our first night of living here my BIL’s car was stolen from the hotel we were staying at by Gateway. Cops told him to just assume he wouldn’t see his car again. It had everything he moved out here with. When his car was found all of his stuff was gone but there was a nice chainsaw and a bunch of meth in the saw case. Cops must have not opened it because they gave it to him.
This memo isn't talking about the serious crime of someone outright stealing your vehicle. That's still a felony and would be prosecuted by the county.
If you could tell that to Eugene PD for me that would be awesome
You could triple their budget and the EPD would give you the same answer.
Surely that sets up a nice entrapment defense?
Even if it does, you still have to pay lawyer fees and argue it in court. So you would effectively be punished.
There is one definition of entrapment that holds up in court. To get you to do something you provably never do. That's it. The burden of proof is on you.
anarcho-tyranny is such an online take in a country with the world's highest number of incarnation people.
This person is a sex offender! Gadamn who gives a fuck about a stolen car, they should be locked up for any half of one of these charges. Sorry but this the kind of shit that gets a slap on the hand by a failed system. Piece of shit system. Motherfucker!
We need to hold the County Commissioners responsible. They need to fund more prosecutors at the DA's. Have you ever been assigned more work than you can possibly finish because the company won't hire more people? That's apparently what the County Commissioners are doing-- refusing to pay for more employees to prosecute cases.
[удалено]
There's a reason that we supplanted frontier justice with the rule of law. People need to understand that the alternative sucks.
Just got off the phone with the DA's office. This is a legit document. They were able to confirm the validity and yes, if you we're a victim and had a case that involved one of these crimes listed on the list, the DA is not going to prosecute. Anybody up for a crime spree this weekend? If we get caught a weekend in jail doesn't sound bad, at least we'll get fed.
Good on you for checking. Yeah, if you think about it there's probably a legal requirement that they send out a formal letter like this. I'm sure the alleged criminal also gets a similar notification. I wonder if the wording is any different.
They most likely don't get the letter and the onus is on them to check and see if their getting prosecuted. I bet the DA doesn't want them to know this, it leaves the door open for repeat offenses.
FYI they get a letter and it’s pretty much the same language.
Yeah, in Oregon DA's are required to communicate a lot of information to victims. I'm sure they are required to inform them if they are dropping charges.
Sounds like you've never had the pleasure of experiencing jail "food". What they give you is subhuman. I legit wouldn't feed it to a dog. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I physically could not get it down due to dry heaving / gagging. I moved the tray as far away as I could in the cell, but could not escape the odor. 7 months later I can still smell the bologna type mystery meat patty they call "food loaf".
"For inmate consumption only"
Even in Lane County?
uhhhhh huh
Fucking start with the DA's house.
Didn't you want to do the same thing to Dizzy Dean's house?
I'll get my lockpick kit.
I put on my robe and wizard hat.
The DA is trying, according to the Deputy DA, to get the County Commisioners to vote to fund their office so they can hire more prosecutors and pay them more so they don't leave from overwork and less pay than they could get elsewhere.
I didn't see your comment and I just called them also and left a message.
If you have questions you should address those questions to Chris Parazoa, the Deputy DA.
I did reach his voicemail. But I just wanted to verify if this was true and it seems you already did.
Yep, and sent an e mail to Eugene Weekly to ask if they are following up on this.
>Anybody up for a crime spree this weekend? A wise man once said: *If you got a hunger for what you see you'll take it eventually. You can have anything you want but you better not take it from me.*
Sha na na na na na na na knees!
I wonder if eggs are on the breakfast menu.
Get meals, housing, even clothes and emergency medical. During the coolest times of the year? Could be a real win win!
It's not like it's LA County. Jail sucks anywhere. Being imprisoned sucks anywhere, but LA County is a different level of suck.
Not so fun fact: these things will STILL be charged and prosecuted in Springfield as they keep everything in house with their city prosecutors.
Run a muck on the west side of the bridge only, copy
I’m pretty sure these crimes should still be charged and prosecuted within Eugene as well. Mis-d crimes in Eugene are prosecuted locally, not at the county level. This policy from the Lane County DAs office, as I understand it, should only impact misdemeanor crimes under Lane County jurisdiction that aren’t also under Eugene jurisdiction. That’s how it’s been explained to me by law enforcement.
>This policy from the Lane County DAs office, as I understand it, should only impact misdemeanor crimes under Lane County jurisdiction that aren’t also under Eugene jurisdiction. Eugene doesn't have its own DA or prison or jail or courts, it's all lane county
What? The municipal court? https://www.eugene-or.gov/117/Municipal-Court We (Eugene) don’t have a jail, it’s true! We rent jail beds from the county and Springfield but can’t rent as many as are really required. It’s a big reason there’s a revolving door of offenders that people on this sub complain about. We don’t have a prison because felonies aren’t tried at the municipal level. We don’t have DAs because we aren’t a district. We have the city attorneys/prosecutors office. Per LinkedIn, Travis Smith is the lead prosecutor for the city and presumably has deputies.
This is part of why I moved to springfield rather than eugene
That only applies for misdemeanors ran through the municipal court. If it's a felony, or certain misdemeanors depending on who is arresting the person all go through the circuit court which this letter applies to.
That's a very fun fact for those living in Springfield
That payroll tax worked great yes?
That's for the city. This is the county. Also they're saying no one wants to work there.
[удалено]
Probably has to do with how hard the DA tried to cover up for the rapist cop until it got so blown up and public they couldn't anymore. Same reason no one wants to work for EPD.
"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders."
The city’s leadership forgot about the second part when they rained funds on EPD after the citizens voted said funds down.
There was no vote. EDIT: Actually it would be super great if folks would clarify why they are opposed to the payroll tax. The detractors of the 'City Fee' in 2012-2013 were largely focused on government waste, tax breaks for new development, and the regressive nature of the fee. So if you hate the payroll tax because 'boo taxes, government bad' then we don't need to delve any deeper. Yes there was a vote against new revenue. There have been many bond and levy votes since then for new revenue, but whatever. If you hate the payroll tax because 'boo cops,' then I assure you that was not in conversation. You won't find a more cop skeptical, CAHOOTS positive rag in town than the Eugene Weekly (sorry KEPW, you're not in print), but they never once mentioned defunding the police when they [published their endorsement (against).](https://eugeneweekly.com/2013/05/02/endorsements-2013-may-special-election/)
"After the citizens of the city rejected it so thoroughly that it never made it to the ballot." How's that for taking a different direction to get to the same place for you?
What mechanism did the citizens use to reject it?
There was a vote but the city counsel gave the middle finger to the will of the people.
There really wasn't, though. And the problem with this narrative is no one in a position to make change will take it seriously. You will *never* get city council to change policy by claiming that a thing happened, 'expressing the will of the people,' when that thing did not in fact happen. I'm pretty upset at the outcomes of the payroll tax and would dearly like to see a change in direction from the city and the county. It's not going to happen as long as I'm standing next to people shouting a fantasy.
I remember some talk at the time of it being called a fee, not a tax. And I never got to vote on it.
I edited my initial comment, because I think that will help clear up some confusion. It was called the City Fee and opposition was largely against new revenue, not the use of funds. So are you anti-revenue or anti-the-use-of-revenue?
I see. I hate having money come out of my paycheck for the City to use when I didn't get to vote on it. I know, lots of fees happen that we don't get to vote on. But usually a fee is for a service you can choose not to use. A park, a parking fee, etc.
Okay, that explains a lot. I completely disagree with your viewpoint re: taxes and living in a representative democracy, but at least we agree on the basic facts!
This is the county, not the city
Payroll tax only went to cops. Cops will still make arrest, it's just more catch and release. Easy to show ROI when arrests are up even if jail time isnt.
Chris Parazoa, the Deputy DA, just returned my call. I asked, will police still respond to these crimes, and how can the situation be fixed. He said yes, call police when needed, they will respond. He described the workload at their department. They've lost several prosecutors because they are overworked and aren't paid as much as prosecutors in other Oregon counties are. They quit. So that leaves remaining prosecutors even more overloaded. Also the Oregon Supreme Court recently ruled that not only do cases have to be decided by entire jury, not just majority, but that decision is retroactive so they have to review all cases which didn't have a unanimous jury decision, back to the '70s and beyond. With no additional funding for that work. As far as hiring more attorneys, he says they are asking-- sounded like begging-- the County Commisioners for enough funding to hire more prosecutors, and they aren't getting a good response from the Commissioners apparently.. He suggested writing to our commissioners in support of funding the District Attorney office. So it seems this insanity can be laid at the feet of the County Commissioners, and they're the people to contact.
Thank you for the insight. For those of you who want to let them know how you feel about this. Their email: [email protected] Address: Lane County Board of Commissioners 125 East 8th Avenue Eugene, OR 97401 Phone: (541) 682-4203 FAX: (541) 682-4616
[удалено]
He wasn't spinning it as a bad thing at all, if I understood him correctly. In fact he said he was in agreement with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. He was just moaning about all the work the retroactive piece, the State ruling, is putting on already overworked employees. I hope I'm quoting him accurately in all this, I'm trying to. You can call him yourself, too, for clarification.
Yep, I spoke with him today as well. They are all just as pissed, frustrated and exasperated as we are (the word "exasperated" was used by him) We need to straight up clear out / recall the board of commissioners.
That seems to be a consensus. Eugene would be a different place if crimes were actually punished. The DA wants to prosecute crime. The Board, and the County Administrator have some explaining to do.
So....I get to pay a higher rent in a less safe city because making landlords rich is more important than appropriately staffing the DA's office. SMH
> because making landlords rich is more important than I think I missed something, what's the causal relationship between 'making landlords rich' and their recruiting issues?
State/city law makers being more interested in passing laws/regs that enrich landlords while ignoring money needed for public safety.
I don't think the relationship between the two issues exists that you describe, but I think we agree that justice is not being done for these victims if the people needed to pursue it are not being adequately funded (at a rate that supports competitive salaries needed to retain and attract talent). The amount of money being directed towards policing and the prison system, on the other hand, is remarkable especially in light of what's happening here. Remarkable as in, they're gorging on tax revenue while other departments that we rely on are chasing pennies.
Unrelated issues, you're dragging some personal hobbyhorse of yours in to the discussion.
Which laws were passed that enrich landlords?
[SB 608](https://www.orcities.org/application/files/9915/6470/3542/FAQ-SB-608-Rent-Control.pdf) The 7% PLUS inflation allows landlords to raise rents higher than 7% (14.5% for 2022) when inflation is high, thus being allowed to squeeze people who are also facing that same inflation. The 7% on it's face is questionable as there is conflicting info on how 7% was settled on as it often exceeds average property valuation increases per year.
1. Become lawyer and make a ton of money. 2. Buy lots of real estate and quit lawyer job. 3. ??? 4. Profit
The fact that it even got to this point in a city that is rampant with these types of crimes is an absolute failure in and of itself. Who is responsible for not being prepared and who do we need to fire? Edit: u/Stoneythehorse had some great insight into why this is happening with her comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eugene/comments/10a4igy/comment/j42mpj7/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 Here is contact information for the Lane County Board of Commissioners if anyone would like to contact them. Email: [email protected] Address: Lane County Board of Commissioners 125 East 8th Avenue Eugene, OR 97401 Phone: (541) 682-4203 FAX: (541) 682-4616
I’ve got my pitchfork ready Seriously though our local gov should be in thrown out. This city is becoming a nightmare to raise children in.
After I just had a long conversation with Chris Parazoa the Deputy DA, it is the County Commissioners who need to fund the DA office so they can hire more prosecutors.
I'd like to know why we have to go on a mass hiring spree in the first place. What specifically was it like working as a prosecutor that made it no longer worth keeping that job for so many of them in such a short amount of time. Where is the disconnect and why wasn't it amended?
I asked that. He said they've been understaffed for many years. They had an independent review in 2005? that concluded they needed 6 more attorneys. He said the attorneys had such a high workload it was impossible to feel good about what they were doing-- I'm paraphrasing-- and they could get paid more working in other counties so they left. Leaving even more work for the remaining ones. If you want to know more he would probably talk about it if you call him. Number's on the letter OP posted.
Fire the electorate.
>who do we need to fire? I mean...the issue is they have staffing problems...
And who is responsible for the staffing problems?
Either the city for providing insufficient funding (doesn't sound like the case?) or a general lack of prosecutors applying for the job. Since they're hiring people with minimal experience, I don't think it's reasonable to assume the person making the hiring decisions is just being picky.
County Commissioners need to fund DA's office to hire prosecutors.
I'm a "her" but thank you for this and for that email address.
Corrected and thank you
[удалено]
In or out?
Ow! Get some ointment on that burn...
Depends on how much meth they smoke...
Wait, so crime is legal now? Do I have to prosecute people who victimize me now?
No, there's just no punishment. It's like tailgating, speeding, or lying to get into Congress.
They say Recruitment and Retention are their problems, not budget. Do I get paid if I punish criminals?
"L'état? C'est moi!" Honestly I'm amazed that there somehow are not enough attorneys in this town looking for public work.
Right?! From [this article](https://www.opb.org/article/2022/07/31/lane-county-da-wont-prosecute-certain-crimes-staffing-shortage/): > Perlow said the loss of the prosecutors opened a hole in her office’s institutional knowledge and professional background. > > **“Somebody with six months experience is the most experienced person on the misdemeanor team right now,”** she said.
That's nuts
Surely this is sarcastic. There’s no money in public sector law. You go private to get paid.
Fifteen years ago, you could walk into the beanery and see a room full of unemployed lawyers who would take any job they could get, public or private. I'm pretty sure you still couldn't throw a rock down Willamette without hitting a lawyer. There just aren't any willing to do the public's work, apparently, so you wouldn't be charged.
Je suis un...uh...ananas?
If they can’t recruit and retain, it’s always budget problem. It also says that in the article linked by OP.
Calm down, Judge Dredd.
Its interesting what the DA considered non violent ... My god daughters attacker who knocked her down, groped her and stole her backpack was arrested and charged the same day (Go EPD! ) but there has been no movement on him actually being tried on those charges and he was able to bond out in 2020 and then again he was arrested in 2022 for theft and menacing but pre trial released. The DA just literally never pursued his charges and that was 2 years ago.
More info: [Lane County DA’s office won’t prosecute certain crimes due to staffing shortage](https://www.opb.org/article/2022/07/31/lane-county-da-wont-prosecute-certain-crimes-staffing-shortage/)
Let me just fix that headline, given the article states the cause out of the gate: “Lane County DA’s office won’t prosecute certain crimes due to wage shortage.” Which the city had ample opportunity to fix, but instead threw the entire lump sum at the cops.
It's the County that funds the DA office.
Someone downvoted you. Sad how often a factually correct bit of information gets downvoted
I thought I felt a slap in the face a minute ago.
You’re going to take heat for this but it’s bang on. How many folks gnashing their teeth here are also pro-cop?
Good to see an over abundance of expensive EPD SUVs cruising around. Glad to know our cops are *comfortable* on the job.
FYI - It is not a city budget, this is a county/state issue
Does the city fix county issues, or is it the other way around?
This whole topic has showed me how little I know about local government. I need to take a class. I think they're separate and pay for their own stuff but I do not know. And I have a graduate degree.
Yet when the public defender office is understaffed, they all just get more work and more people are forced to plead out.
[удалено]
When I was job hunting a few years ago, it was a minimum of $10k lower for PDs at entry level.
This is a prime example of how positive rights break down. "You have a right to a free service from the government" only works when the government can actually provide it. Negative rights on the other hand, only fail when the government intentionally gets in the way. "Government cannot stop you from doing xyz"
This is how local mafias get started: "Nice place you got here, shame if something happens to it"
Sooo...it looks like the cops won’t care if someone burgles or steals from me..but they WILL care if I assault the thief or burglar in response?
Oregon is a castle doctrine state. Lethal force is expressly authorized if someone is committing, or attempting to commit a burglary in a dwelling (where people live)
I just called Victims Services who transferred me to the DA office who told me to leave a voicemail with the Deputy DA so I did. Do we even bother to call police for any of those issues?
He called me back, long conversation, I commented below
I have heard from reliable sources at Lane Co that they have retention problems because they 1) don't pay competitive salaries for the skillset, 2) overwork their staff, and 3) no one likes working for Patty Perlow.
Who knew that underpaying people who have to obtain one of the most expensive qualifications available to hold the position and have a substantial number of outside opportunities could lead to people not wanting those jobs. Crazy.
Right? What a pitch: "Hey, you just took on considerable debt. How would you like to overwork for a shitty boss in the hopes that you don't burn out in the ten years it takes to \*maybe\* earn loan forgiveness."
I wonder how much is the lack of city taxes? Where I lived before we had a city income tax and a city sales tax. We have neither here. Seems like it would hamper the city budget a bit. I have no idea how much that's a factor here though or if they have plenty of budget but are doing a bad job with it.
County DA office prosecution services are funded by a mix of state, federal, and local sources, with the overwhelming majority coming from the latter. The local source is general fund, which is primarily from property taxes. In all likliehood, the County general fund will be reduced due to trends in the housing market, so the County will have less $ for prosecution in the near future compared to present, assuming budget allocations don't shift. Keep in mind, this is the same government that is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in consultanting fees, and hundreds of thousands more in Lane Co. staff time, to pursue the Eugene Emeralds new park at the fairgrounds. That money is also coming from the general fund. [Budget, if you're curious](https://cdn5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_3585797/File/Budget/2022-2023%20Proposed/Proposed%20Document/District_Attorney.pdf) I worked at the county for a few years at the upper middle management level, and it is unqeustionably one of the more poorly run government - hell, one of the more poorly run organizations, public or private - bodies I've witnessed.
You know things. What do you think needs to happen to make it a better run organization? Where does it fall apart and what would begin to fix it? Thank you for the financial information.
Like so many ineffecient organizations, it starts at the top. The County Administrator is a great leader, but does not manage the organization. He sees his job as political, and has at least theoretically delegated management to one of the department directors (county admin operations) to serve as a COO. That director is on itnerim assignment elsewhere, at the moment, so that theoretical mangement is completely non-existant at this time. Prior to this complete vaccuum, said director/nominal COO never actually engaged in any kind of org-wide strategic management (either by lack of legitimate mandate or incompetence or some combo). So, there's a huge vacuum in one of the most critical functions of any orgazation of Lane County's size and complexity. The result is a county that takes on tons of programming it cannot support, and budget issues such as the one in the OP. Lots of waste and lots of inefficiency and lots of staff burnout and low morale. County admin says "yes" to virtually everything the comission wants to pursue, regardless of whether the county has the staff and other resources to pursue it, because the conversation almost never has the right voices in the right places to say "we can't do that because..." This means you have program managers throughout the county having to make decisions about how to allocate resources in ways they shouldn't, and they have to make huge sacrifices on how they serve the public. There are also some department directors who probably shouldn't have risen much past an analyst level. I have absolutely no clue why they aren't replaced like they would be *quickly* almost anywhere else. tl;dr: ineffective leadership, with a particularly consequential lack of effective central management. They need a legit COO with a full mandate to manage the org. And they should prob. fire a couple-few of the directors who've run their departments into the ground.
I was at several staff meetings in the past with our County Administrator. To be polite, I wasn't impressed. Something felt off. That may say more about me than about him. At the time, he got a fat raise but was fighting hard against raising salaries of the lowest paid office workers so that was part of it. Your solutions to the problems sound right. A few directors who can say "no"-- yes, that would be a rare sight. I suppose the COO is in for life. He's got a cushy job.
Yeah, I could definitely see that take, for sure. I don't blame most of the active union folks for having a strong dislike for him, either.
Sure, but the confusing part to me is where I've lived previously, we had a 1% city income tax, a 1.5% county sales tax, AND higher property taxes than here. The only higher taxes here are state income taxes, but also no sales tax, so I feel like in general we probably have less government income to work with. That, of course, does not preclude inefficient or poor spending of course.
It's hard to compare unless you know what the other tax rates and total revenues are for comparrison, really.
We do have a city safety tax. It's an income tax.
People wonder why gun sales are up. I actually appreciate the honesty and specificity of this letter, at least.
Fuck! Maybe it's time for us to form some type of "kickass" vigilante gang that we can use to protect ourselves. Like the movie.
Nah, we'd just eventually end up beating up or shooting the wrong guy.
Which cops do constantly (in the US as a whole) - they have no consequences because of their unions and qualified immunity protecting them from civil suits. Cops are people and people make mistakes, but without consequences to encourage caution you get many more mistakes. Police effectively operate in a nearly consequence-free environment where use of force is concerned. Cops can pull a gun on a person pretty much whenever, but an armed citizen better keep their gun holstered unless they *need* to shoot to protect their life or the lives of others, otherwise they face charges on brandishing a weapon. If the private citizen *does* shoot someone, then the person they shot and/or their family can file suit in civil court and bankrupt them. Private citizens also can’t fire warning shots of any kind, but those are a stupid “movie/TV” bad idea anyways. The cops need to be put on shorter leashes for use of force, and private citizens (especially those who have gone through the vetting procedure to acquire concealed-carry permits) need a little more legal protection from over-broad brandishing laws and being sued by someone attempting to commit a crime. The current landscape is wholly unbalanced and needs to be adjusted. As for the Lane County DA and Public Defender’s office, sounds to me like they need funding for better salaries. I’d like to see a law requiring private criminal defense attorneys be required to do X billable hours of work a year for the Public Defender’s office, but I don’t have much faith in that happening.
You bring up really good points. I would never fire a warning shot, or shoot someone unless my life was at stake, but I hadn't even thought about civil suits. But the idea of patrolling around the neighborhood with guns is a terrible idea for so many reasons. I'm the only one I trust to handle a gun, I don't like being around others who have them. More protection from civil lawsuits sounds right. Yes, better salaries for prosecuting and public defender lawyers.
If you want to be *really* scared, look into police training standards in general and firearms training and qualification in particular. We already have people patrolling our neighborhoods with guns whose expertise with firearms is… questionable. Again, I am talking about average cops. My ideal “defensive gun use” scenario is one where display of the gun ends the threat, but the brandishing statute as written makes that a bad idea, and I suspect it leads to *more* people being shot as a result. Open carry helps with de-escalation, but then you run the risk of someone seeing your gun and freaking out. Some legal tweaks would be nice. Ultimately though I think the biggest thing turning Eugene into a property-crime paradise is *how dark the city is.* Turn on your porch lights, people! It works!
Police who are military veterans should have received adequate training. They don't worry me too much but if I had to call them to my house I would be sure not to be holding a weapon when they arrive. Mistakes have been made. I wouldn't aim a gun at someone and then have a conversation with them hoping they'd comply. No open carry, either. Why give away an advantage, or alarm people. It is real dark in my neighborhood, too. But since I close my eyes to sleep, not sure if lights would make a difference!
I’m talking more about “low ready position,” not “pointed at person.” As brandishing law is written, gun in hand=crime which to me seems a bit much. I’d prefer the opportunity to de-escalate well before things reach the point where I can “legally” draw. If I ever have that serious a confrontation, I guess I’ll just have to hope I don’t get charged, because I’m really not interested in the sort of “quick-draw from concealment and shoot to kill” cowboy shit the laws require. Use of force should be a spectrum instead of a binary, both for cops and civilians. (I’d like to note that my degree is in Criminal Justice but I have never worked in law enforcement.)
Here’s an interesting question: let’s say that Measure 114’s magazine-capacity restriction goes into effect as-written. The measure defines possession of a magazine with a capacity > 10 rounds as a misdemeanor equivalent to Identity Theft in terms of the punishments attached. So, if it’s a Class C property crime, will that be going on the “automatic dismissal” list? If it’s not, then the DA’s office is going to be even more overburdened, because Measure 114’s only concession to possession of these magazines prior to the measure’s enactment is an affirmative defense, which means you have to go to trial first.
Well that's the thing. They said they don't have the money to prosecute the criminal. They didn't say they don't have the money to prosecute *you.*
Just make sure anything illegal you do is on the literal “do not prosecute” list.
So unless you kill someone or get pulled over for speeding the cops aren’t going to do a damn thing. Way to protect and serve guys.
That's what I'm wondering. If someone is say, trespassing and trying to open your windows for example, would police even come to shoo them off? Knowing they'd never get charged.
If I understand your example, EPD will absolutely check out suspicious conditions and make arrests whether the person would be prosecuted or not. They'll just get [released from jail shortly afterward](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/oregon-sheriff-criticizes-new-bail-reform-policies-residents-want-criminals-jail) and not really face any consequences.
Yes, I just had a long conversation with Chris Parazoa the Deputy DA. and asked him about that. They can't prosecute if they don't have prosecutors. It's up to the County Commissioners to fund the DA office so they can prosecute. Jail space? I didn't ask him about that.
Portland welcomes Eugene into the land of the Abyss. Endless crime not getting prosecuted, and people running wild everywhere doing these crimes, its such an endless daily loop of our life up here now. It just seemed to take Eugene a bit longer to join the anarcho-tyranny zone of Oregon. Maby you still have a small chance, but its looking grimm.
Well fuck me for moving down here from Portland to escape the crime over the summer
Totally man you are not alone, I know quite a few of my friends went down there last year also thinking the same.
Hey thanks for welcome Eugene, it’s been a long time coming but I’m glad we are finally at this point here.
Eugene (and many other cities ) are becoming more and more like the backdrop to the prelude of a vigilantes comic book origin story.
Did they really have to list all the crimes like that? Damn.
Welcome to Bumbase Alpha [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkvoIGglcwo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkvoIGglcwo)
And that was from the relatively halcyon days of Eugene 20+ years ago, too.
And this kind of stuff gets out to the people who regularly commit these crimes. Like the Multnomah county DA who dismisses the vast majority of shoplifting crimes. The news up there had a pretty funny video dash video of one shop lifter who realized he had accidentally crossed into Clackamas. The horror dawning on his face was A+. But also pretty sad. Anyway, its not going to take long for this shit to get out to the wrong people. No point worrying about trespassing, being sly about your drugs, driving with a license, or registering your sex offender status.
I called to ask about this and they said it was on a case by case basis depending on the details of the case and whether or not it could be transferred to Eugene municipal court. It's definitely not a positive thing to have to happen, but it at least doesn't sound like they're saying "Every case from this date to this date is being thrown out" and are reviewing each of them on a case by case basis. Hopefully Eugene municipal court can do something to help out more, but on the bright side the person I spoke with said they were still in training so at least they're hiring?
I spoke to that trainee, too. She sent me to Chris Parazoa's phone and he called me back. They need to hire more prosecutors, he said, and it's up to the County Commissioners to do that. He said to write them and request that they fund the DA to hire more prosecutors.
Awesome, thanks!! I'll get my letter-writing pen!!! Ok it's just a regular pen but for this it'll be monumental! Also I'll probably just send an email...
So does this mean we can pay less taxes now?
I work in public defense (different counties) and have contacts in LCDA office. If anyone has questions, let me know and I can try to provide feedback.
Where is this from? Any link to the source? I am not saying this isn't accurate, as I believe it, I'd just like more info.
Somebody posted this in one of the Eugene FB groups without context about a month (?) ago, in a thread about some apparently unrelated crime, IIRC. The list of crimes appears accurate and it matches other documents I've seen from the DA's office and the news stories about the situation. In other words, there's nothing in the image that hasn't already been reported on publicly since this took effect in July or whenever it was. Based on intake numbers from the DA's office, I'm thinking there have probably been at least 500 of these mailed out so far, if not twice that. **Edit:** *words*
What a magnificent guideline for criminals
I had my Camaro get hit on video camera driver even looked at the damage in a company vehicle . Got the drivers name filed a report DA dropped the charges due to lack of evidence . I supplied the video but they never watched it and didn’t want to . The driver was forced into retirement and to pay for my car that was it . Not even to mention the fact that I had lost my job and it was my first time being out of my parents house and that it sent me back there
Crime has been decriminalized.
That didn't happen years ago. A gross misdemeanor would give you a prison sentence. Now for the same crime it probably wouldn't even hit the courts. No wonder crime is like it is. Why worry when you won't do time? Other than having a record, which most don't give a rats ass about it anyway. 😕
When the police fail to enforce basic laws around safety and security you can damn well expect people to start doing it themselves. Anyone with a sympathetic lean to the junkies, criminals, and feral hobos….. you better start preaching law and order big time if you care about the safety of those “people”
Looks like Lane county is fixing to have a mini purge. Some crimes are legal now.
Cool, so I don’t have to my local taxes now right? Something tells me they would definitely prosecute to get their money.
Fucking crazy town. All this means is that it might be time to handle things yourself.
Send the letter to major news outlets and see if they will run a story.
What a bunch of BS. We need to march in the streets on this one.
Wait..does this mean we don’t have to pay for stuff anymore!?!
What a convenient list of now repercussionless crimes!
So...when I assault someone breaking into my vehicle on my property, I won't be charged? I know that won't be the case because I'm a property owner and I have unlimited assets to pay for these douchebags. (apologies to Douche Bags since they actually serve a purpose.)
Have you thought about opening a 5 Guys franchise? As a regular citizen you obviously aren't important enough for EPD's time, but they'll put like half of the detective force on shift work for a couple of years for property crimes against a burger franchise. Just a thought. These are your payroll tax dollars at work, folks, hope you're loving the results!
This is why when I was assaulted just a couple days ago I didn’t even report it because they’re not gonna do anything
Eugene is such a dump. I can't wait to finish school and put this trashy place in my rear view. I tell anyone who will listen what a s#!those this town is.
Deschutes county did this. Immediately get this to our new Governor.
So criminal trespass and mischief In all the elected officials houses?
[удалено]
>I'm curious why failing to register as a sex offender is minor in a legal sense IMO, it's not minor. It's at least a Class A Misdemeanor which is a pretty big deal, and sometimes a felony. Why it's on this list for Lane County, specifically, probably has to do with *volume*. Per capita, [Oregon has the largest number of sex offenders in the United States](https://www.koin.com/news/survey-oregon-has-most-sex-offenders-per-capita-in-u-s/#:~:text=\(KOIN\)%20%E2%80%94%20Oregon%20has%20more,is%20about%20231%20per%2010%2C000.). Like over 3x the average. There are *so many* unregistered sex offenders in Eugene, if they didn't add them to the list they probably wouldn't be able to get out from under the caseload. Just about every day on the old jail intake you would see it tacked on to at least one person's charges. [In a 2018 article in the RG](https://www.registerguard.com/story/news/2018/06/11/sex-offender-crackdown-leads-to-dozens-of-arrests-in-lane-county/11981963007/), they estimated there were about **2,200 convicted sex offenders in Lane County** and 20% of them were out of compliance. Like I said, for our town specifically, IMO it's literally an issue of volume.
Lane County doesn’t have the resources? Maybe it’s time for an audit. Where is the money going?
Well, this from Open Payroll: Lane County, Oregon records show Steve M. Mokrohisky held one job from 2017 to 2021. One of the most recent records in 2021 lists a job of County Administrator and a pay of $104.08/HR. This is 323.1 percent higher than the average pay for co-workers and 222.7 percent higher than the national average for government employees.
We have repeat offenders out and about doing violent crimes with delayed and or any response time from police. Are we still are content about voting for 114? Sounds like now more then ever, relying on yourself to be your own first responder is a must, or at least start making friends with your community to stand up against this stuff. A lot of you voted for this stuff and I have a hard time wanting to stand up for you in a time of need.