This woke and disturbed me this morning:
www.oregonlive.com/…
Choice of controversial ex-Sheriff David Clarke to speak at Oregon conference for school resource officers draws criticism
...David A. Clarke, who resigned as Milwaukee County sheriff in 2017, has supported defunding schools, railed against coronavirus safeguards such as mask mandates and amplified conspiracy theories about billionaire philanthropist George Soros having his “fingerprints all over” student activism for gun control by survivors of the shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He also has criticized school districts for having “no will” to “protect these kids.”
Clarke, who is Black, has consistently referred to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations for civil rights and against police bias and brutality as “Black Lies Matter.” He once said the movement would “join forces with ISIS.”
In recent weeks, he has defended the Proud Boys...
the list of his biases and insanities goes on for a while. Then details of conference:
...Clark is among several keynote speakers asked to address the annual conference of the nonprofit Oregon School Resource Officers Association scheduled July 24-27 at the Mt. Hood Oregon Resort in Welches. The association supports police agencies that assign officers to school districts.
He’s set to talk about leadership and policing, according to the association.
Kathy Selvaggio, a community activist from West Linn, asked her city’s police chief not to send its school resource officer to the conference in protest of Clarke’s appearance. Selvaggio has sought changes in the city’s police department after West Linn paid $600,000 in February 2020 to settle a wrongful arrest suit filed by Portland resident Michael Fesser, who is Black.
“This person hardly seems like a role model for school resource officers who are dealing on a day-to-day basis with young people,” Selvaggio wrote to the police chief.
A good long article — worth reading the whole thing.
I’ve been lukewarm to all the comments about Portland Police groups being so fascist/anti-left, but this feels like it was deliberately done as a sop to the right wing! I hope a lot of schools push back on this. All the hoo-ha about him being only one speaker doesn’t at all mitigate the harm in having him speak — and on leadership?!
NOTE: I wasn’t planning on a diary, so I’ll be in and out today. Thanks in advance for reading and commenting!