Public comment: Eugene Police Chief Skinner must go

Presenter: Public comments at the Eugene City Council May 11 say that after eight years in office, Police Chief Chris Skinner is still presiding over a racist and misogynistic organizational culture—and it’s time for a change. 

Kevin Cronin: Hello, my name is Kevin Cronin. Yesterday, Officer (unconfirmed name) told me not to worry. Eugene has the highest standards of any police department in the country. 

I say tonight we review Chris Skinner’s tenure and see if he’s meeting those standards. He started April 30, 2018, eight years ago. Following the former EPD officer catching a child pornography charge In 2017, Skinner told us he would bring a culture change to EPD.

Culture starts with leadership. Currently, EPD has zero women in leadership above sergeant and currently the culture is one of a casual attitude about women and their lives and then the people that we serve. 

September 2018. An officer resigned when a woman complained to the auditor’s office about a sexual relationship with him. 

2019. Officer (Samuel) Tykol shot and killed Eliborio Rodrigues while he was collecting cans. Tykol lacked probable cause. Tykol was promoted to sergeant. He hires and trains new officers. 

2020. When on duty, Officer (Christopher) Drumm followed up on a domestic violence victim, visiting her home and raping her twice, the second time at gunpoint. He pleaded guilty. 

2021. Wes Darling resigns after being accused of rape. 

2023. (unconfirmed name) was found to send inappropriate photos, to make unwelcome comments, inappropriately touching one of his coworkers. All eight claims of misconduct were substantiated. 

2024. Officer (Kirsten) Cardwell told KVAL that a sergeant continued inappropriate behavior with her for four months after she asked to be removed. 

2024. Joshua West was arrested and charged for domestic violence and strangulation of his girlfriend. 

2025. The Flock fiasco. 

It’s clear that after eight years at the helm, Skinner has failed to change the culture at EPD. Your only leverage over the police is to fire the chief. It’s time to pull that lever. 

City: Our next speaker (is) Tim Lewis. 

Tim Lewis: I’m the person with Picture Eugene, along with Jetty Etty, who released the short video. And I’m not an arrogant guy or anything too much, but you’re thanking each other for all the work you’ve done, the police and ‘how we responded’ and everything, but nobody thanked us for releasing this video footage that forced to do some of those things, you know? And, so, just a little bit of recognition would be cool. 

Usually I have other people speak for me, and Jetty’s going to speak tonight because she’s a lot more eloquent. But when I was trying to make a decision on releasing the 23 minutes or the four-minute video, it took me about a week and a half to two weeks to figure that out. I struggled with it.

I talked with people, talked with friends, talked to my attorneys because frankly, I sort of felt for this officer because he was being thrown under the bus because it’s a culture, that I said in this video, ‘It’s just a small taste of police culture.’

And that’s not unusual. Like you heard from Kevin (Cronin) right here, all the different things that have gone on and this window dressing that you’re talking about, and the police auditor doesn’t really have any strength either, because it’s with the chief of police and the city manager. 

So the things that we’re going to do (Mike was helping with this)—quite a good marketing strategy to get that 23-minute out quick before we could—and that’s really why we’re here also, to continue this dialogue and let everybody know in the city that we’re having our own press conference, and it’s going to be on Friday. 

We’re working on a spot, but we’re also going to have a live feed on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, and we’re going to have key people in the neighborhood talking about their experiences with the EPD. And that’ll be happening on Friday somewhere around 10 a.m., and we’re going to get it out there on the internet. 

But anyway, it wasn’t an easy decision for me to release this stuff. And we’re all human. But again, I don’t pack a gun and I’m not living that kind of culture that has to be accounted for. Thanks. 

City: Our next speaker is Jetty Etty. 

Jetty Etty: So here’s some things. 

I know all about cop culture. My dad was a cop. I grew up with that in my life. And breaking the law has been something that causes extreme anxiety in my life. 

I have been criminalized over and over and over by EPD, and I’ve reached out to most of you guys. I’ve sent emails, I’ve emailed you. I don’t even know how many times, Chief Skinner, I’ve—a lot. I think he’s got me on block because he absolutely won’t respond. 

This council has arrested me because I tried to talk to you the correct ways. You ignored me, ignored me, ignored me. I was staying out on the streets—with people who were surviving—for five days. And in those five days, five sweeps happened. 

So I came in here desperately begging for somebody to listen to me about the police misconduct out there, about the the city workers breaking 72-hour notices, and guess what happened? Y’all freaking sent me to jail. 

I begged the city council to please react, to please listen, to please help. I was arrested, I’ve been harassed by multiple EPD officers. I have filed complaints with the city police board, whatever they’re called. They say, ‘Yeah, we see some misconduct here.’ Then guess what happens? 

It gets sent over to Sgt. (unconfirmed name) over at EPD and he says, ‘There’s nothing wrong here. This is fine.’ Like multiple times. Five times. 

I don’t take any anyone in the city serious because none of you guys are going to come to our help. None of you are. In fact, the chief mocked me on the podcast when I talked about being followed and how the Flock cameras were dangerous to me. 

I’m helping people living outside. I’m not being a criminal. I’m helping 72-year-old women not freeze to death. I’m doing good things in this city that you guys are not doing. That EPD is not doing. And I say shame on every one of you. 

I want to know why. I want to know why we keep hearing over and over and over: ‘Training,’ blah blah blah. It’s like a two-hour training once a year on a computer with multiple-choice questions. 

I want to know why this cop resigned and was not fired, because he will get his pension for the rest of his life. Shame on you. 

Latiffe Amado: My name is Latiffe. I’m here because what is happening with this police department is not okay, and the systems meant to hold them accountable are not working. 

An EPD officer with the department of seven years—seven years!—was caught on his own body camera making racist remarks about Black people and immigrants while protesters were being tear-gassed outside the Federal Building for standing up for immigrant rights. 

The video sat hidden for months, and it only came out because of the community members behind me posting it online. And when it did, the officer just resigned. And that’s not accountability. That’s the loophole and the cowardly way to address the problem. 

And there is zero chance, zero chance that in those seven years that officer expressed …that was the first time that… that officer expressed that for the first time. 

So it isn’t a ‘bad apple’ problem. This is really an infestation of rotten culture protected by a system of impunity. So let’s not act surprised. This is the culture of an entire department, not just a former EPD officer. 

Last year I personally witnessed an abduction by ICE and I called 911 and the dispatcher told me they could not help because they don’t interfere with federal operations, even though the man had already been taken, and I was simply asking them to take a report. 

My tax dollars pay for that service and it should work for all of us. 

I’ve also seen EPD interfere with legal observers and rapid responders and EPD violate First Amendment rights. Officer [unconfirmed name], in front of his supervisor, Officer Ware, stated out loud on camera that he does not know the Constitution. 

I’m sorry, but you don’t get to carry a gun and not know the Constitution.

I filed a complaint with the auditor and they closed it because EPD said that there was no policy violation. I requested a public records request, and that was denied to every avenue that the city has offered for accountability has led to a dead end. 

And let me read directly from the auditor’s closing letter: ‘We received a memorandum from Capt. (Roy) Wright indicating he reviewed the records from the incident that gave rise to your complaint and investigated the event. Based on what he said, Capt. Wright says that the actions were within policy of the established standards of the Eugene Police Department.’

How can EPD close its own case and then deny access to that memorandum? The auditor’s office is not enough. We need a new chief of police and we need actual reform.

City:  Our next speaker (is) Justin Burns. 

Justin Burns: I’ve spoken to you guys plenty. You don’t listen. (Turns back to council and speaks to audience)

I’ve come in front of the city council multiple times asking for help from the looming threat of fascism that is attacking every facet of American society. 

I’ve asked the mayor and the entire city council to stand up against ICE and DHS, only to see EPD work side-by-side with them. He has been recorded meeting with ICE in their very own parking lot. When confronted, EPD tried to intimidate the recorder, telling them they couldn’t be in public property. 

I’ve personally seen three EPD officers engaging in a conversation with Will Turner, the head of DHS in Eugene. When asked, Officer (Michael) Klews (who’s sitting in that corner right over there, you can ask him later about it), what he actually said when I asked him what they were talking about, he told me they were talking about the weather, the weather. 

First of all, why are you guys even hanging out with each other? If you if there was something really pertinent, something you needed to do, do it. Don’t be talking about the weather. You shouldn’t be hanging out with each other. 

And also, Will Turner, the local Gestapo, was carrying a manila envelope labeled EPD. Now we have this new video showcasing in 4K the racist and misogynist culture that is obviously prevalent in Eugene Police Department.

Chief Skinner, Mayor Kaarin, do you want us to trust you after working directly with DHS fascists, adopting Flock cameras without public consent, and now after having your police department’s racist and misogynist culture revealed?

I think the only acceptable response would be for leadership—you, in the corner, Police Chief Skinner—to resign. Shame on the city for not standing up for its most vulnerable people. 

City: Our next speaker is Andrew Becker. 

Andrew Becker: Hi, my name is Andrew. I’d like you to think if there was, like, a babysitting agency of, you know, like 200 employees and they had committed as many rapes and murders as EPD has under Police Chief Skinner. 

Would you hire that babysitting agency to babysit your kids? If you know a different city department—you know, the sanitation department—had raped and killed as many people, would you keep the sanitation department head or get rid of them? 

I mean, apart from the many stories that you know Mr. Cronin and others have shared about EPD, a lot of it goes back to the violation of trust that came with the Flock incident. I know hours after the Council made it clear that they wanted the Flock cameras shut down, Chief Skinner came out with a statement that they had just miraculously found a couple of burglars up on Skyline Boulevard, and it was only because of Flock. 

Well, the closest Flock camera to that place on top of Skyline Boulevard is more than a mile away, and there are at least 25 different ways without going by a Flock camera to get up onto Skyline Boulevard, there’s no direct access point from that Flock camera. The next one is a mile and a quarter away, and the next one is more than a mile and a half away. 

So from the deceptive nature with which Flock was brought into the city without government oversight by its elected democratic leaders, and just based off of his statements that I heard word-for-word in other police jurisdictions across the country and online videos where police chiefs would say almost verbatim, exactly: ‘Oh, Flock did exactly this and that and the other thing.’ These are just press releases that Flock gives out to every contract holder that they have. 

And the undemocratic nature of letting that go forward, put together with some of the other statements that were very misleading that Police Chief Skinner made to the Council, such as that, you know, ‘It doesn’t have AI, can’t be done with live video.’ Flock says in their own contract, if you just pay us a little extra money, which apparently you can get with grants, they can turn video on at will, they can turn AI modeling on at will. 

Ember: Good evening, Council. My name is Ember and I am a seminarian and trauma chaplain. 

I want to begin by acknowledging that I appreciated my councilwoman’s response to me regarding the Pearl Pedestrian Promenade project proposal, and I do still believe the promenade is a good and doable idea.

But more importantly, I believe it was an idea. It was an opportunity for this council to demonstrate imagination, courage, and some actual capacity to govern, and there have been many such opportunities.

I also think that in the face of how trust in our institutions is being eroded, the loss of sidewalk space on Pearl is kind of the least of our problems. I did not get back to you, Councilwoman, because my time and attention has been consumed by the kind of anti-fascist community work that residents should be able to expect from city leadership.

If you want to speak with me about that project or really anything else, I am easier to find than I should be. You can come talk to me anytime. 

And I am not here to detail the saga of the fence, or spell out EPD’s ongoing and blatant collaboration with DHS and ICE using taxpayer resources, despite our inability to fund basic programs, or to remind you that we are still waiting for an update about our Flock data. 

Your inaction is not neutral, particularly in light of the humanitarian crisis you declared. The saying is ‘One bad apple spoils the bunch’ and you and Police Chief Skinner are currently at the bottom of that barrel. 

I will be blunt that I don’t think it helps our movement tactically to center removing city leadership, because in many ways that only gives the federal government more room to maneuver. But if we continue to perform concern while refusing to govern, then you are making that conversation inevitable. 

Your meetings, statements, and declarations are not substitutes for governance and they are becoming evidence of its absence. 

City: Our next speaker (is) Naphtali Renshaw. 

Naphtali Renshaw: I am a local clergy member and a nonprofit leader, and it strikes me that as I was sitting here listening to the comments of my neighbors, that Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made the statement once that riot is the language of the unheard. 

Tonight, I’ll amend this to define riot as what you might call disorderly conduct. And I would encourage our leadership to listen to what is being said by disorderly conduct, especially in light of recent occurrences nationally in which the Voting Rights Bill has been gutted—a bill that was won by disorderly conduct.

Policing in the United States harkens back to the southern slave patrols of the 1700s. The very states who have eagerly jumped on the opportunity to disenfranchise the hard-earned voting rights of Black people across this nation live in the fertile crescent of policing in America. 

Law enforcement in America is rooted in racism. Fair to say that we have a long way to go. 

We’ve talked about training, but I would say based on EPD’s claims that we have one of the most progressive police forces in Oregon, that we’ve had a lot of training. Maybe it’s time to change the dynamic. 

There might be a few like me who don’t engage in the Pledge of Allegiance for religious reasons. However, as I sat here tonight during the Pledge of Allegiance, as in a time of highly militarized action is taking place—we saw men with guns carrying flags—I wondered if the others sitting next to me sat down because we don’t feel safe. And this is an expression of safety. 

And so I would encourage you to look back on that—the citizens that sat down in protest and realized they don’t feel safe. 

City: Our next speaker (is) Rebecca Scott. 

Rebecca Scott: Hello, my name is Rebecca. 

Addressing the body cam footage that was released: There’s not a lot for me to say that has not already been said. I appreciate Councilor Evans’ statement about how this is ‘a culture problem, not a person problem.’ 

This cannot be solved by letting one person resign just to shove him off to another somewhere else, so someone else can deal with them, so he can act like that somewhere else. And we–but we don’t gotta worry about it anymore. 

So I don’t know, maybe we could start off by to address this by preventing EPD from colluding with ICE officers who are currently terrorizing our Black and Brown communities. The amount of people who I’ve talked to in this community who’ve expressed how terrified they are all the time when they walk down the street, when they go to work, when they go to school everywhere, they are scared. 

I know people, someone whose mother was abducted by ICE, thrown to the ground because of the color of her skin. And you all sit here and continue to claim that you have no power to stop this. I’d just like to finish off by saying that for the sake of our country, for the sake of our city, for the sake of my friends, my family, my neighbors, grow a f—— spine.

Presenter: Public comments at the Eugene City Council Monday night say Chief Skinner must go. You’re listening to KEPW-WholeCommunity.News.