By Jonathan Levinson
...The DA’s office, (click here) however, does not have unlimited resources. Besides the tsunami of arrests from 74 nights of continuous protests against systemic racism and police violence, July marked the deadliest month in Portland in 30 years and saw a dramatic increase in shootings in the city.
Since he can’t initiate an expansive restorative justice program, Schmidt introduced a new policy Tuesday that will result in dropping a significant portion of the more than 500 protester cases brought over the course of the demonstrations.
“In a democracy where speech is so important, being the system that’s being criticized and then using that system to shut down speech,” Schmidt said, “I think we have to hold ourselves to an even higher level of tolerance for that speech to take place.”
Barring unusual circumstances, prosecutors under Schmidt’s new policy won’t press charges for city ordinance violations that do not involve deliberate property damage, theft, or the use or threat of force against another person. That would include charges such as interference with a police officer or disorderly conduct.
“The presumption on a lot of these cases that are listed out there is that we won’t prosecute,” Schmidt said. “But if there are egregious circumstances or something about the case that stands out, we can always choose to prosecute.”...
