By Sara Lopez

Like some I was recently shocked as I listened to the recording of the Eugene Police Department (EPD) officer using racist tropes when speaking of African Americans. Shocked, but I was not surprised as this is Eugene, Oregon after all. Considering some Eugene police officers I have met, the racist tirade was fitting. Their racist rhetoric really lacked originality. It was derivative, uninspired, unoriginal and ignorant.

Ultimately that is what racism is — ignorance, taught ignorance from one culture to another — whether it’s taught at home, school, the pulpit or work. Seeing as the other officer involved was quick to join in and not quick to put a stop to it, it could be a taught work culture. I get it, I’ve seen it before — I was in the military. There was blatant racism and sexism there too. It was tired and lazy and unintelligent there as well — just repeated phrases learned in the South where I was stationed at the time. 

Police Chief Chris Skinner gave the same lip service he’s been trained to give — he can probably say it in his sleep. There were empty promises of reviewing “policies, training, supervision, and culture to ensure this kind of conduct is never tolerated inside the department.”

That sounds great but what is the process when it does happen within the department?

Skinner also said, “the actions of one officer do not represent the men and women of this department who serve honorably every day, but we also cannot dismiss the seriousness of what happened, when an officer speaks with hate or prejudice, it damages the trust this department works hard to build with the community we serve.”

That all sounds great if you only read that and ignore everything else EPD has been doing, especially in regards to working in partnership with ICE. EPD can say over and over again that they are not working with ICE but words aligning with actions — the Eugene Police Department does not really have the community’s trust. The hate and prejudice that was verbalized by that one officer and laughed at by the other officer is only one part of a larger problem. 

This just further erodes what little trust the community had in the Eugene Police Department. We need more than an officer that was allowed to quietly resign. We need accountability. We only know that there is not an EPD officer somewhere in Eugene that thinks it is OK to laugh at tired and untrue racist jokes at the expense of Black people. Where is the actual accountability of that officer?

“To the residents of Eugene: We hear your outrage. We hear your disappointment. And we accept the responsibility to do better.”

You may hear our outrage, but do you really care? Does it really affect you? Have any of your family members been affected by hate speech? Have any of your loved ones been separated by a recently changed law? In accepting the responsibility to do better, what does that even mean? 

In reality? To me, it would be to stop assisting ICE, who work without due process. Whose racist rules only apply to certain immigrants  — the brown ones from majority Latin American countries. Police Chief Skinner: Start by cleaning house.

Sara Victoria Lopez is longtime Eugenean, a student at Portland State University’s School of Social Work and a U.S. Navy Veteran.