Local attorney Chris O’Connor writes, drawing attention to similarities in the language used by Parks Commissioner Nick Fish over two rather different incidents. “While generally I am not happy about people vandalizing a city park by building their own trail and cutting down trees,” O’Connor writes, “the statements by City Council member Nick Fish on the issue are disturbing when compared to his more hesitant statements regarding the shooting of Aaron Campbell.” Compare Commissioner Fish on this topic :
“I wish to express my deep regret over the death of Aaron Campbell. This young man should not have died. As the parent of two children, I cannot imagine the anguish and sense of loss experienced by his family. I fully support the announced plans of Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Chief Rosie Sizer to conduct a thorough, timely and completely transparent investigation of this tragedy. I endorse making their findings and recommendations available to the public immediately.I also support the ongoing efforts to strengthen civilian oversight of the Police Bureau, and to make it more independent…” [from KATU]
To Commissioner Fish on the new topic:
“It’s outrageous, actually,” he said Tuesday.”This is nothing less than vandalism of our natural areas, and it will not be tolerated and the fact it happened in a pristine wildlife habitat makes it all the more outrageous.” [From today’s Oregonian] and “Nick Fish: “This kind of vandalism to our natural areas will not be tolerated. Our director of security is investigating. We will cooperate with law enforcement — we’re going to find out who did this. This was a significant act of vandalism.” [OPB News today]
“Fish knows how to use the word outrage and announce that certain behavior will not be tolerated,” O’Connor writes. “But one statement is passive – a tragedy has occurred and it is sad for the family and we should try to understand what happened. The other is active – we will stop the outrageous activity – we are going to get the guys who did this. Which set of statements implies that the wrongdoer will be punished?”
Got a news tip? Batter up! Meanwhile I hope Commissioner Fish responds to this post when he gets round to checking his Google alerts.
Great catch, Chris. In a sane world, cops wouldn’t shoot unarmed people and human beings would be able to use their parks. Unfortunately, we live in this world. It’s good to know where Fish’s priorities lie.
Or maybe Fish’s comments are so different because the situations are so different. Other than the obvious facts that it one is about human life the other about plant and animal life….
In one situation (bike trail) a person or persons made a conscious effort to break the law and over time created a large illegal thing in the park. The other situation (the shooting) happened in an instant of high stress when not all information is available or able to be processed in an instant.
To me it seems obvious that the reactions should be very different. One is about people who set out with every intention to participate in illegal activity and the other was a person who went to work on a day and ended up in a horrible situation not of his own creation, in which he had to make split second decisions.
One is outrageously illegal and the other is one of the unfortunately horrible things that happen in life.
Chris, good point. Having left Portland 2 years ago, it’s a little interesting to hear the outrage concerning a park vs. someone dying. You forget how skewed things can get there.