I know there has been discussion of the need to do something out here in Sandy since Chief Skelton callously ignored concerns from the community about the senseless killing of Fouad Kaady by Officer Bergin and Sheriff Willard. I would be happy to participate in some action, but I do not have the time or ambition to organize such a thing. (Especially since, as a resident of the community, I would be open to the predations of the dept if I were to organize such a thing.) So I guess, if you or someone else wants to take on organizing this -- fliering, promoting, making contacts with groups -- then I would be happy to help.
Yes, we need to show up out here, whether you are from here or not, to say that Chief Skelton and William Bergin need to go. There is no place for killer cops and an old boyz gang in this community. On the 4th of July, there is a community celebration out here. There's a parade and all kinds of things, and it would be nice if lots of radical folks show up to stand with the citizens of Sandy against police oppression. My guess is that it will be hard for local folks to stand up against this on their own. So come on out, bring your families, and speak out. Carry a sign, heckle Skelton if he dares show his face, and have a great time. Celebrate community and direct democracy with the people of Sandy. I do not know if anyone is actually organizing anything -- it would be nice if someone is, but even if they don't, just one at a time of us, with a sign and the courage to speak the truth, will be worth coming for.
Actually, the parade is not on the Fourth... it's Thursday the 6th. There's just fireworks at night on the 4th. The Mountain Festival is Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
I don't know if there are enough folks available to convince Skelton, Bergin, or for that matter, the City of Sandy, that killing an unarmed, injured, burned, naked, DID I MENTION UNARMED? helpless man, after first torturing him into fleeing additional pain, but I do know that I will not be spending any money in that city as long as Skelton and Bergin are allowed to carry badges and guns. Let your dollars speak to the city fathers and mothers, and let them deal with their chicken shit cops.
The police out here are way out of control. They are corrupt, and a killer gang. They have killed and covered it up before. Ask Juan Rubio. He was arrested last year at Sandy Mountain days for following Skelton during the parade and demanding to know why the police killed Carlos Rubio. They arrested Juan for "harassing" Skelton, but the judge threw out the case on the grounds that what he said and did at the parade was protected speech, granted under the First Amendment.
Please, if you can come to Sandy at any time during the festival, please do. Bring a sign condemning police violence. I think the parade would be the best time to do that. I know everyone would be respectful of the members of this community, even though they will try to arrest people and claim that they were not.
They will know...if, and when we show up. Why the hell give em advanced notice? Could be a helluva party, or a bust. Either way, spend not a dime in their fair city, and do what you can to disrupt any effort to fill the city coffers with cash by pretending that Sandy is a cute little town. It is a filthy pig stye.
I support any kind of peaceful protest, but must speak up in response to those who are condemning all of Sandy. I'm sure there was a double entendre there with the comment, "It is a filthy pig stye," but it paints the whole town as being complicit in abusive police tactics.
Many of us who live in Sandy are revolted by the conduct of the cops here. We are outraged and heartbroken by what's happened to the Kaadys and the Rubios and stand behind them in demanding justice. This includes many small business owners - including minority business owners - who are supporting families.
I'm not saying you have to come spend your money here and "fill the city coffers," that's your option. But it's nice to know we're on our own with statements like "let them deal with their chicken shit cops." So, in other words, unless we uproot businesses and endanger the welfare of whole families, we get what we deserve from abusive and out of control cops?!
That's real solidarity, man. Thanks for the support.
I'm not sure how to deal with this. I'm not from Sandy, but from another nearby small town. I would like to do something about this. I had planned just to show up and if Skelton shows his smug face, to shout at him some. I'm sure there could be more effective things, but I sometimes find it makes sense to make a person like that face the social cost of what he has done. And I don't know what else to do. Watching this play out has been very frustrating -- I think for all of us.
To the person who asks that others not condemn all of Sandy, I do not think that is what is meant. People are upset about a tangible reality, and are thinking in abstracts right now. Please don't be offended. The truth is, the Sandy police dept is crooked and dangerous, like some backwater podunk in the movies. That doesn't mean the town is, or the people of Sandy. I know that many people in Sandy care very much about what happened to Fouad Kaady, and also Carlos Rubio.
But as for an economic boycott, sometimes that's the only way to make a difference. For those of us who are not comfortable with taking any really scary direct action, an economic boycott makes sense. It's not meant to punish the people of Sandy, but to make this change. I know there are business owners in Sandy who oppose what Skelton and Bergin have done. But there are many others who are silent. And silence is complicity. Until all business owners speak out, Skelton is not going away. If your business is willing to stand up and demand the removal of Chief Skelton, then do so. If I'm going through Sandy and I see a giant sign on someone's shop that says, "Skelton OUT" I will stop there. But otherwise, I'm going to keep passing through. I hope everyone else will also.
To the three or four Sandy-ites, who do NOT support Skelton
You ask that we not condemn all of you, or the City of Sandy, for the actions of Skelton and Bergin. Sorry, but I cannot go there. The people are responsible for the government that they are paying for. If the people on a local level cannot rise up and get rid of a very bad cop, and a very poor supervisor, then the people, even those well intentioned few who do not condone, but who also do not rise up, must suffer with the faceless and mindless majority that continue to support the malady. You do not get my money, and no, Sandy is not just another small town American City. It is a cancerous growth, on the slope of one pretty mountain. Sandy, my friend, SUX. If you were one of the three or four, again, I feel for you, but just as we all are paying for the sins of the cowboy that the supreme court put into the white house, you must pay for the cowards who are supposed to be serving and protecting you.
You're obviously ignorant or ill-informed if you think there are but 3 or 4 people here in Sandy who do not support Skelton and his murderous gang. I find your generalizations and stereotypes more than offensive. How dare you presume to speak for a whole community?
And so, because we, at "a local level cannot rise up and get rid of a very bad cop," we "must pay for the cowards who are supposed to be serving and protecting" us? Okey dokey then. I'm so glad YOU proclaimed it so!
As can easily be said for the Portland cops, the FBI, and all the others who persecute and unfairly target activists, the poor and people of color. Hey, yes, it's OUR fault here in Sandy, of course we MUST PAY.
Isn't it a bit duplicitous to say there are "those of us who are not comfortable with taking any really scary direct action," yet who then expect "all [Sandy] business owners [to] speak out" by putting "a giant sign" in their "shop that says, 'Skelton OUT'"??
I'm trying to be respectful to "Out of Towner" here, because I know s/he was trying to do the same, but if you live in a small town near Sandy, you live in Clackamas County. Not to downplay Sandy's part in this, but a CCSO deputy was the other half of that deadly duo... Do you have a sign in your front window?? Do you boycott all of Clackamas County?
Go ahead, spend your money elsewhere. But for many of us in town, that is not always an option. But if you think that is a meaningful or effective protest to abusive police tactics, or that it'll do anything BUT punish even the decent people of Sandy, you're deluded.
Actually, My information was based upon VERY personal observation. You see, I was in Sandy for several demonstrations, as well as at the Clacko Commissioner's office. There was no one, not one Sandy citizen represented at Clacko Commission. At the demonstrations by the pig stye, there were two reporters, and one other citizen that I counted, and I did take the time to introduce myself to each of them. Further, the only voice of dissent at your city council meetings was that of the Mayor. Let us see if she gets reelected. Now, in regard to Portland, I have yet to see a demonstration against authority, or for a downtrodden citizen that cannot turn out at least a hundred, but usually thousands of citizens. I myself do not live there, but travel forty miles to get there whenever possible.
Back to Sandy: Other than a few of Fouad's relatives, who mostly live in Gresham, far and away everyone else there was from out of town. There were folks from Scotts Mills(as in forty five freakin miles away) and Colton, and Portland, and Estacaca, but the only Sandy Ites were cops, reporters, and the occasional finger tosser from Sandy.
Now, I am neither ignorant enough, nor naive enough to tar all citizens anyplace with the same brush, but I was bitterly disappointed in you and yours. That said, I realize that this is just what the pigs want, is for us to argue and fight among ourselves, so I sincerely apologize that I may have hurt your feelings. Having grown up in small towns, and lived in them all of my life, I really wanted to express my SHOCK that Sandy could not muster a little opposition to their leaders, and to the COP and his jack booted thugs. My little berg of four hundred souls could have dealt very effectively with such arrogance and overweening violence, and I wish that someone from your community WOULD take up the gauntlet. I am not going to spend the gasoline to get there for any organized dissent, nor will I do lunch dinner, or anything else that puts money into Sandy's coffers. You, of course, should. You live there.
Sorry to have upset you
Just some added info. I attended the demonstration over at the Clackamas County offices, and was surprised that only one person from Sandy stood with us. Surely the citizens of Sandy have more at stake than any of us if a rogue officer like Bergin is turned loose on them. Since then, I have been at a loss as to what to do next. A request was sent to the sheriff's office for a meeting with a group of citizens, but that was discouraged by the sheriff. I did hear that two county residents met with Sheriff Roberts, but that meeting resulted in no changes in policy and no promise of future meetings on the subject.
I would rather not see this degenerate into people from various victimized towns fighting among themselves out of pure frustration at not being able to make the overwhelmingly oppressive police violence just stop. Let us focus, for a moment, on who the enemy is. Chief Skelton, who runs rough shod over the citizens of Sandy, as if he were starring in his own cheezy TV bad-guy western? He is the enemy. Officer William Bergin, of Sandy, who shot and killed an unarmed, defensless, injured human being without so much as an apology? He is the enemy. Sheriff Roberts, who allowed an officer under his command get away with cold blooded murder, and then helped him to cover it up? He is the enemy. Deputy Dave Willard, who foolishly allowed his own cowardice to override reason, costing an injured and innocent man his life? He is the enemy.
Simply put, my friends, the police state is the enemy.
To the person from Sandy who feels no solidarity: I have your back. You are not alone. If you want to put out a call for people to come from other cities to stand with you, then do so. I will be there. I hesitate to attempt to organize anything from where I live, as I do not live in Sandy and do not wish to generate the perspective that this is something coming "from the outside." I believe it matters that it is the people who live there who call for the removal of Chief Skelton from office. And I do not believe that you are the only one in Sandy who feels the way you do. Please, if you want us there, ask. I will be there, and I think others will also.
To the people who are wondering why more people from Sandy were not there when Fouad's family faced first the stacked and secret grand jury, and then the appallingly apathetic Clackamas County Commissioners: I think we all need to recognize that people who live in towns like Sandy often do not have the social networks and the activist experience that people have in places like Portland. Give them time, they will come around. It is possible that people simply did not know what to do, or did not know that it was possible to do anything at all. This is not to dis small towns or the people who live in them. On the contrary, I have seen nothing but strength and dignity in the people who live in the small, rural communities which I have been privileged to be part of. And I believe the people of Sandy have it within themselves to take down Skelton. The rest of us need to do what we can to fight police oppression, and to support the people who live with it -- whether inside Portland or outside. If we are called to stand with the people of Sandy against their own brand of police violence, then I trust that we will.
Regarding an economic boycott of the town, I have to say I am in agreement that I can not, in good conscience, spend a dime in Sandy until Skelton is gone, and I would urge others to consider the same. This is not meant to hurt the people who want Skelton to go, it is meant only to wake up those who do not see any problem with allowing him to stay. In any town, large or small, there tends to be a division in the interests and values of those who are wealthy enough to own their own businesses and those who are not. Often, in fact, wealthier interests see corrupt and violent police officials as being "in their pocket," and hence, on their side. My support for the idea of an economic boycott is to encourage those who are wealthy to see the merits of removing a rogue offender such as Skelton -- something I suspect many of them otherwise would not see, were it not in their own economic interests to see it. I like the idea of making exceptions for those businesses willing to hoist a public declaration of non-support for Skelton. If I see a business with a prominent banner asking for his ousting, then I, too, will except that business from the boycott. This will allow us to re-focus on the problem at hand, rather than the people of Sandy, who are, after all, allies in the struggle against police violence.
(By the way, "--," I believe what Out of Towner was saying, when s/he said "not comfortable with taking any really scary direct action" was not that s/he is afraid or unwilling to take a stand. I believe what s/he meant was, perhaps not comfortable with taking the revolutionary step of real self defense against a violent police state and violent police officers. Maybe, s/he simply meant "I'm not comfortable taking the law into my own hands and taking these fuckers down in a literal manner, so I will do the next best thing, and will take them down politically." And so I believe s/he probably WOULD hoist a banner.)
In any event, I would encourage all of us to recognize our own frustration with the growing violence of the police state, and then to focus ourselves on doing something about it. I know I'm frustrated as hell, every time I have to wade through another horrific story like the story of what happened to Fouad Kaady. It makes me want to scream and rave, and to force it to stop. Sometimes, it makes me angry at people I think are not doing enough to stop it. So I understand the sentiment here, but I think it will be much more effective if we stand together. We do not always have to agree on tactics, but at least we can agree that it is not the people of our respective communities who are at fault. It is the police.
Again, "--," if you want me to stand with you, all you need do is ask. Say when and where, and I will be there. Anyone else?
I, too will be there. Can we please put this string back up front for a day or two?
Besides out of towners, we need more input from family members who knew and loved Fouad. We need to know that they miss him as much as we believe they do. They do not necessarilly have to stand with us, but could not a few of them tell us some personal information about the human being, so that we have more than a faceless victim to address?
What Cat says about the enemy is absolutely correct. We have seen the enemy, and he is not us. Now, we need to unite our will against said enemy. to be effective.
I planned on being there but I will be gone in Idaho. I apologize. If any events occur after the 15th, the day I am returning back to Oregon, I will be there in full support of what ever actions that are being planned.
I know there has been discussion of the need to do something out here in Sandy since Chief Skelton callously ignored concerns from the community about the senseless killing of Fouad Kaady by Officer Bergin and Sheriff Willard. I would be happy to participate in some action, but I do not have the time or ambition to organize such a thing. (Especially since, as a resident of the community, I would be open to the predations of the dept if I were to organize such a thing.) So I guess, if you or someone else wants to take on organizing this -- fliering, promoting, making contacts with groups -- then I would be happy to help.