MONKEY SAY, MONKEY DOO
DEAREST MERCURY—Sometimes you are like a monkey playing with its own feces. But what the fuck is up with your most recent “feature” on the homeless man who was killed while attacking a police officer [“The Life and Death of Jack Dale Collins,” Feature, April 1]? I mean, Sarah Mirk’s sophomoric attempt to glamorize, even romanticize, this man’s life is downright offensive. And to insinuate that [Officer] Jason Walters was not justified in using lethal force, in what seems to be an attempt by Ms. Mirk to rile the public is just pathetic. Any competent police officer in Jason Walters’ shoes at the time would have done exactly the same thing—or else would quite probably now be dead.
-Christopher Lovett
CONTEXT
I was visiting my girlfriend in Portland, and we went to the arboretum that day [“The Life and Death of Jack Dale Collins,” Feature, April 1]. We left about an hour before the shooting. We did not encounter Jack Dale Collins, but there was a weird vibe there that day, which I hadn’t experienced before. The day before, we were walking past St. Francis Church when a homeless man began shouting obscenities. A day or so prior, a deranged woman approached us as we were walking down the downtown street in her direction and insisted we stop following her. Your article contextualizes a lot of that, in my mind.
-posted by The Visitor on portlandmercury.com
USING THE FORCE
For those of us concerned about a picture of the knife and what kind it was, allow me to point out a few facts to you [“The Life and Death of Jack Dale Collins,” Feature, April 1]. An X-Acto or box knife can be a very dangerous and lethal slashing weapon. In a better world there would be better less-than-lethal options, and this man wouldn’t be dead. Naturally all of you would have handled it differently, and talked him down or disarmed him or Jedi mind tricked him, right?
posted by The Showstopper on portlandmercury.com
SAVING THE OWLS
While [Owl City] may not be the most original music in the world, it’s still good music [“Give Up,” Music, April 1]. I didn’t even read the whole review, I read the whiny line at the beginning of each paragraph, scanned through the rest of the whhhhhaaaaaa!, and I still didn’t see anything in here of any worth other than you being upset that one very successful artist sounds like another successful artist. Music snobs have no place reviewing music, because they don’t understand music. Believe it or not, just because something isn’t “your thing” doesn’t mean it’s bad music. And if you’re just upset that it’s like another artist, then you should probably quit your job (is this a job?), because almost EVERYTHING is a rip off of something else anymore, even if someone isn’t trying. You can go back to tunelessly strumming your guitar, while reciting the emo poetry in your Moleskine journal down on Hawthorne.
-posted by mollymaverick on portlandmercury.com
MAKE BETTER MOVIES
Maybe the majority of reviews are disapproving because most movies are worthy of disapproval [The Gods Must be Lazy,” Film, April 1]? You want more enthusiastic reviews: Get better movies made. How to do that: Well, the first step to that is to stop giving your money and attention—hence your endorsement—to garbage.
posted by PeretDesnos on portlandmercury.com
WHO DOESN’T WANT better movies? At last, we agree! PeretDesnos can enjoy a good movie or two with two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater and lunch at No Fish! Go Fish!, where they also disapprove of bad movies.
But Mr. Lovett, had Officer Walters been equipped with the proper measuring device, he might have, after slowing time down Matrix-style to a manageably slow pace, whipped it out at the appropriate moment while he was being attacked, determined the smallness of the blade being wielded against him by the crazed, blood-drenched man, paused, taken some time to come up with a reasonable plan of counter-attack, carefully pondering all the potential consequences of his actions, selected a less lethal weapon to use in defending himself, perhaps even deciding to engage Mr. Collins in a bout of unarmed fisticuffs, and further bloodshed might have been avoided!
I’m going to have to disagree with mollymaverick, Owl City was the most god awful music my ears have ever been exposed to. They will never get those minutes back, and that’s the real crime here.
Darn you Portland Mercury, how dare you edit my comment and post it in the letter section! Actually , that is a good editing job in that you got to the more salient points. The tragic death of this man should not be used as a soapbox, to me the other shooting is the elephant in the room. This (assuming the shooting report is true, and people need to stop thinking they are all fiction) pretty much looks like the officer had to defend himself. Would I have handled it differently? Perhaps, but then again i was’nt there and neither were any of You
Lovett, if you had actually read the article, you would know that the police officer was equipped with not only a gun but also a TASER. Which he could’ve used instead of a gun. He didn’t HAVE to kill Collins. There was nothing justified about the killing.
@ Christopher Lovett
Your love affair for fascism is outstanding!
Noone ever “glamorized” Jackie Collins, sir. The article was, instead, an actual account of his life & what [ultimately] lead to his killing at the bloody hands of Ofc.Walters. Also, at NO point was Walters ever under attack! So you can stop your lies here.
If you’re “soo offended” by the idea that a publication might dare to provide an account of [yet] another man who was shot down by Portland police, then why don’t YOU join the gestapo & do something about it, YOURSELF!
@Collen_Monster – I can’t say it any better than Lovett or or Blasphemer already have, so I’ll just say: Nope, you’re completely wrong. The decision to use lethal force was completely justified, and the only acceptable response.
“…and the only acceptable response (bloodshed).”
So YOU mean to tell us that if Walters had [instead] chosen to TASER Collins & take him into custody ALIVE, that would NOT be acceptable?
Oh no!! Portland lost a crazed, cop attacking, knife wielding, highly unstable, violent, alcoholic, homeless guy who liked to hang around the Children’s Museum and Zoo. What a loss. What do people in this white bread city think that pulling a knife on a cop (or anyone carrying a gun) is going to result in? Drum circle? A quick round of hacky sack? Naked bike ride? Jesus….. Don’t wanna get shot? Don’t try to stab a cop.
thank you, clem. just THANK YOU.