Sunday, August 24, 2008
City of Portland, city of corruption
I consider myself a writer. An unpublished one, but even so. I think in terms of story and plot and character. I try to structure my conversations into beginning, middle, end. I've attempted several novels. I dissect movies and TV shows with an eye towards the story being told.I've lived in Portland, OR all my life. OK, some of my earliest years were spent in various parts of Washington state, and I did have that 8 month term of duty in Austin, TX. But I was born here, and the bulk of my life has been spent here. Me and my group of friends, years ago, decided that the best answer to the question "what's your hometown?" is the town from which you graduated high school, and for me that would be Milwaukie, a suburb of Portland.
I love this city. I love its quirks, and its beauty. I love the parks, and hills, and coffee shops and strip clubs. I love Portland's public spaces, like Pioneer Square and the Rose Quarter. I am vastly entertained by the local underculture, an intoxicating mix of left-wing, Vegan, strippers and bouncers and musicians and improv and theater and writers. I celebrate the fact that President Bush I called us "Little Beirut". I love how it's basically a big small town.
And having worked for Multnomah County for the past 9 years, and having various friends and family members employed by local government, I've got a pretty good grasp of how corrupt local politics is. It's all about protecting business interests from any kind of social responsibility and increasing their profits. Maybe that's true of other towns, too, but I can see the mechanisms and lines of power very clearly here. Mayors, commissioners, District Attorneys, state representatives, Federal representatives, all seem to get elected with the help of developers and the business associations.
Likewise, as a writer, I have my influences. If I had to give an elevator pitch about my personal ambition, I would say the following: "I write about Portland in the same way Carl Hiaasen writes about South Florida". I can see the interaction between the high culture, the business and politics, with the low culture, the strip club owners and dive bar staff and musicians, and it fascinates me. When Phil Stanford pens another column about some retired beat cop trying to nail a known criminal and being stymied by the higher-ups, that's red meat to me.
When a friend and fellow county employee is fired in order to cover-up the mis-use of contract workers as a scheme to funnel money into un-elected county managers... that's both real-life and red meat for my writer's brain.
So I've been trying to come up with a fictional, but realistic, plotline that I could use to explain and expand on how corruption works in Portland. And in the last couple of years, I sketched out a bare skeleton of a plot.
Basically, I envisioned a couple of mid-level managers in the county tax assessor's office conspiring against a local, long-time fixture of a strip club. They would fudge the facts, and "find" a bunch of violations of the tax code, and pretend that back taxes were owed, and then use that leverage to force the strip-club owner to go bankrupt or sell the business to a local developer (who is working in cahoots with the county manager) at a loss. Then they'll build a condo tower with claims of it being for "low-income housing" but in reality, making massive profits from the sales of those apartments. They'd use the construction to funnel money back into their own pockets with the use of contractors and kickbacks.
In my version of the story, fictionalized, of course, the bad guys would over-reach and end up killing someone who found out about the scheme. Maybe one of the strippers at the club is also a law student who digs into the problems the club owner is having. Maybe a shop steward at the county finds out. In any case, in my fictionalized version of Portland, the scheme is uncovered and upended, and the city takes a few steps towards cleaning up the influence of business and the puppetry of its civic leaders. Y'know, until next time.
So imagine how chagrined I am to find out that something very much like that appears to be happening: Is Commissioner Randy Leonard abusing his power to drive out "undesirable" businesses?
Is my book idea too late? Or will it be even more timely? Decisions... decisions...
Comments:
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i think it is a great idea, but there would have to be either incredibly addictive character or a fantastic hook.
otherwise i think that there would be a lot of cottonmouth happening in readers.
no, i do not think it is too late.
otherwise i think that there would be a lot of cottonmouth happening in readers.
no, i do not think it is too late.
I'm not a writer, the state of Oregon is fortunate for that.
CORRUPTION; Its more than that, every thing about Portland and its government has become unruly impure and corrupted.
By all means we need to write a new legislation to have police officers policed. Entirely, every police officer should have to take a polygraph before ever being able to write any citations that are criminal -resisting arrest, attempted assault, robbery, possession,etc: any offence that would be considered your word against theirs- no proof just their word. (there is a law that they don't have to take a polygraph at this moment in time ORS.163.705 how messed up is that?)
We need to punish these unethical and fabricating police officers, because now I think most law personnel are corrupt, due to the experience I have just endured at the age of 40. I have never been in trouble or arrested before this incident.
Police who are found guilty of falsifying criminal citations need to spend time, and I mean a lot time in jail or prison. Police perjure and falsely arrest innocent citizens more frequently than any of us know.
The police are never found guilty of these crimes since no one ever investigates the facts that some citizens have been falsely arrested. The State could not care less about its citizens, they just want the money that is produced from the arrests and civilians put in their system.
You have to prove your innocents,and that take money, The police don't have to prove the guilt, you are guilty until you are found not guilty. The law is not on the civilians side any longer. The State Law is at present about revenue and any way they can get it. The Oregon Law is no longer about fairness or the truth.
If you do not respect the new physiopathic police officers that Oregon corrupted government has hired for its streets authority, and command them to what you are paying your taxes for as "do your job and go out and find some real criminals" they will write false criminal charges on you, now you become a criminal too in the eyes of the law. That is a fact.
I was charged with DUII-Reckless Driving-Resisting Arrest-Attempted Assault on a police officer- All where acquitted except the attempted assault on account of, he had a picture of a scratch on his leg, which he must of constructed himself. In no way shape or form did I attacked this man. I may have insulted him, but never did I put my hands or feet on him. I would never assault anyone especially a police officer. I still can't believe I was found guilty of an attempted assault, how do you attempt you either do it or don't, what kind of person do they think I am? Maybe if it was assault and not attempted assault the jury might of found me not guilty, because the law tricks people into thinking it's just a misdemeanor and its not as bad of an offense. I wanted to take a polygraph I was not granted my request. Therefore, I'm guilty of something I did not do or commit. This is ludicrous.
This kind of behavior from police will keep happening until someone places a stop to it. I have always thought our police officers were good, honorable and truthful, and not tainted, crooked or tell nothing but lies or prevaricates until it happened to me.
Now I'm in the system due to an immoral, corrupted, power ravenous, police officers who all had their lunch money taken from them when they were kids. The state wants all to be entered in their system except its own corrupted employed.
We are no longer a free nation as our fore fathers had battled so hard for. We are now policed-how sad. Our freedom diminishing little by little every day.
CORRUPTION; Its more than that, every thing about Portland and its government has become unruly impure and corrupted.
By all means we need to write a new legislation to have police officers policed. Entirely, every police officer should have to take a polygraph before ever being able to write any citations that are criminal -resisting arrest, attempted assault, robbery, possession,etc: any offence that would be considered your word against theirs- no proof just their word. (there is a law that they don't have to take a polygraph at this moment in time ORS.163.705 how messed up is that?)
We need to punish these unethical and fabricating police officers, because now I think most law personnel are corrupt, due to the experience I have just endured at the age of 40. I have never been in trouble or arrested before this incident.
Police who are found guilty of falsifying criminal citations need to spend time, and I mean a lot time in jail or prison. Police perjure and falsely arrest innocent citizens more frequently than any of us know.
The police are never found guilty of these crimes since no one ever investigates the facts that some citizens have been falsely arrested. The State could not care less about its citizens, they just want the money that is produced from the arrests and civilians put in their system.
You have to prove your innocents,and that take money, The police don't have to prove the guilt, you are guilty until you are found not guilty. The law is not on the civilians side any longer. The State Law is at present about revenue and any way they can get it. The Oregon Law is no longer about fairness or the truth.
If you do not respect the new physiopathic police officers that Oregon corrupted government has hired for its streets authority, and command them to what you are paying your taxes for as "do your job and go out and find some real criminals" they will write false criminal charges on you, now you become a criminal too in the eyes of the law. That is a fact.
I was charged with DUII-Reckless Driving-Resisting Arrest-Attempted Assault on a police officer- All where acquitted except the attempted assault on account of, he had a picture of a scratch on his leg, which he must of constructed himself. In no way shape or form did I attacked this man. I may have insulted him, but never did I put my hands or feet on him. I would never assault anyone especially a police officer. I still can't believe I was found guilty of an attempted assault, how do you attempt you either do it or don't, what kind of person do they think I am? Maybe if it was assault and not attempted assault the jury might of found me not guilty, because the law tricks people into thinking it's just a misdemeanor and its not as bad of an offense. I wanted to take a polygraph I was not granted my request. Therefore, I'm guilty of something I did not do or commit. This is ludicrous.
This kind of behavior from police will keep happening until someone places a stop to it. I have always thought our police officers were good, honorable and truthful, and not tainted, crooked or tell nothing but lies or prevaricates until it happened to me.
Now I'm in the system due to an immoral, corrupted, power ravenous, police officers who all had their lunch money taken from them when they were kids. The state wants all to be entered in their system except its own corrupted employed.
We are no longer a free nation as our fore fathers had battled so hard for. We are now policed-how sad. Our freedom diminishing little by little every day.
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