Mike Schmidt is quite possibly the next Chesa Boudin
Mike Schmidt is the current Portland DA. He, much like San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, was elected on a platform of justice reform policies to reduce incarceration, bail, and alternatives to prosecution and sentencing. However, he was heavily criticized for mismanagement of the office, dramatic increases in crime, and insensitivity to victims (especially sexual assault victims his office dismissed). Ultimately voters chose to remove him from office by a recall.
So how has Schmidt done? Not so well. In fact, almost identically as bad.
First off, his office has been decimated with 13 lawyers leaving during the first nine months of 2022 when he took over. Most damning are seven of whom were women who wrote extremely pointed letters:
- Like this one from former lawyer Vanessa Palacio who quit.
- Amber Kinney, who as a veteran child abuse prosecutor handles some of the most serious and complex cases in the state’s largest district attorney’s office, outlined the reasons for her resignation in a blistering seven-page letter
Just like other cities that banked heavily on reform candidates, Portland has experienced dramatic upticks in crime. Portland is no different; but is dramatically worse than national averages. Almost all crimes have doubled in just 2 years. Particularly bad is the fact murders, disproportionately of people of color, have doubled until Portland’s per-capita murder rate is higher than Boston or San Francisco. The increased deaths of minorities in 2020 and 2021 now outstrips those killed by police in total over the last decade each year with 2022 shaping up to be even worse.
Reform apologists try to explain this as simply the result of the pandemic, but most other countries have seen a decrease in crime during covid. The answer is not simple and there are probably multiple factors. Still, one has to wonder when your city increases at double the rate of the national averages.
That might be excusable except he has had almost no success on any of his reform efforts. Combine that with such disasters from his leadership like this, and there is solid reason for Schmidt to be concerned:
- In the last few months of 2022, 220 felonies and 75 misdemeanor cases were simply dropped because the DA failed to assign people to the cases. Cases included child abuse, DUII drivers, and a host of property crimes. Schmidt’s office dropping cases due to mismanagement has become a regular, monthly occurrence; while neighboring counties with nearly the same loads do fine.
- Schmidt’s work with the Portland Freedom Fund paid for the release of a convicted domestic abuser for evading a domestic violence order. The man immediately killed his partner who was a mother of 6.
- This tragedy is on par for the Portland Freedom Fund – 39 of the 67 people freed by them have violated their release agreements or simply never returned to court. Many of them were charged with serious felony crimes like attempted murder, assault and strangulation.
- 70% of protest arrests, (over 500) of protest related criminal cases, were simply dropped; while claiming “I want to make it very clear though, this is not a free pass’’. Crime rates promptly doubled.
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