Jane shares her story about our local police

Presenter: A seven-year veteran of the Eugene Police Department shared his opinions about those he was sworn to serve and protect, the human beings of Eugene. Now local activists want to hear your opinions. At a press conference May 15 in the Whiteaker neighborhood, they encouraged people to share their stories about EPD. With her story, here’s Jane.

Jane: As a granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and victim of domestic abuse, the racist, misogynist, and violent remarks made by Officer Martin Siller are devastating.

And Chief Skinner’s poor response to the incident is infuriating. In response to the video, Chief Skinner stated, ‘All we can do at this point is own our role in this, and that’s what we’re doing. You don’t want the entirety of the reputation of the Eugene Police Department to be shaped by one officer’s actions.’

Now, there are two fundamental problems with that. One, issuing a statement and releasing the footage to beat these folks to the punch is damage control, not owning it.

And then two, no one believes the behavior of one person shapes the reputation of an entire group. But we do all know that police culture as a whole attracts those types of people and ultimately enhances the bigotry of the individuals within it.

While Siller’s remarks devastated me, they did not surprise me. According to the National Center for Women and Policing, at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic abuse. According to Mapping Police Violence Inc., Black people are three times as likely than white people to be killed by police.

And according to the UCLA School of Law, LGBTQ people are more likely than non-LGBTQ people to report being stopped by police, searched by police, arrested, and falsely accused of an offense. They also report substantial rates of verbal harassment, physical harassment. sexual harassment, and assault perpetrated at the hands of law enforcement.

The data tells us that police pose an incredible threat to anyone who isn’t a straight, white, cisgender, heterosexual male. Historically, we know that policing originated in the 1700s not to fight crime, but as a formal slave patrol. After the Civil War, these patrollers became the first sheriffs and deputies who enforced the Jim Crow laws until the late 1960s.

And centuries later, the violence against people of color has only intensified. The number of people killed by police has increased since the murder of George Floyd, with most killings beginning with something as simple as a traffic stop or a mental health check that is then escalated by the police, as we tragically saw with Eliborio Rodrigues.

Even worse, 98% of police killings have not resulted in officers being charged with any crime. What Siller said in this video is exactly what we see playing out in our communities every day—hatred and violence towards women and people of color perpetrated by law enforcement and zero accountability. It doesn’t take the bodycam footage of one officer to know that we have a bigoted police force.

I don’t have a perfect solution that will dismantle centuries of systemic violence overnight. But at the very least, I believe we must defund EPD and use those funds to fully reinstate CAHOOTS so that armed, violent, and racist officers are no longer the ones responding to people in crisis.

This isn’t a cure-all, but it is a necessary start to addressing the lethal risks of policing. And frankly it is the absolute least that we can do it’s time we recognize that the police force is not here to protect and serve us, but rather to uphold the agenda of the fascist regime and oppress our community into submission.

And yet, even as these institutions weaponize their power against us, we will stand strong together as a community in the face of tyranny.

Presenter: You can share your stories about EPD via text, audio, or video, emailed to news@kepw.org.