By  Kamryn Stringfield

The recent viral videos of Martin Siller, the now-resigned Eugene police officer, first released by local documentarian Tim Lewis and later in full by EPD, showcase more than an isolated incident of racism, misogyny and xenophobia by a lone officer. They highlighted a glaring cultural issue within EPD that, while not exclusive to Eugene by any means — police culture in the U.S. is historically and systematically tied to racism and patriarchy — is one that continues to go unaddressed when we talk about issues plaguing the city of Eugene. 

The “E” in EPD should actually stand for elephant in the room. Siller was with EPD for seven years, and with a Utah police department for 20 years before that. He was talking to a current Utah officer who must’ve been an old cop buddy of his when he made his racist remarks on Jan. 30. 

The people of Eugene are not stupid. We know that he did not go seven years in EPD without feeling safe to say these racist and misogynistic things — that Black people couldn’t swim, that domestic violence was a reason to hire a cop, or that he supported ICE.

Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner has been with the Eugene Police Department for eight years, starting in 2018 — only slightly longer than Siller. In that time, how many uses of force and killings have we seen by EPD officers, especially against our unhoused neighbors? How many sexual assaults both within the department and out in the community? 

In 2019, EPD officer Sam Tykol shot and killed Eliborio Rodriguez, and was never held criminally responsible — in fact he is still with EPD, and a jury found the city of Eugene not liable for Rodriguez’s death; a grave injustice to him, his family and to Eugene as a whole. That’s just one of many instances of officer-involved shootings over the last few years by EPD. 

Multiple officers have been found to have committed sexual or domestic assault of women who were coworkers, victims of a crime or their partner, including Wes Darling, Judson Watson and Joshua West.

So when Chief Skinner says “The actions of one officer do not represent the men and women of this department,” we have to remember that this is not one officer. Bad apples have been spoiling the bunch at EPD for years now, and evidently Skinner hasn’t done enough to address this. And bodies like the Police Commission, Civilian Review Board and independent police auditor have no power to make binding decisions on EPD to hold officers accountable. Recommendations simply land on Skinner’s desk for him to ignore or act on as he sees fit. Police accountability in Eugene is fundamentally broken.

Beyond this, during the time Skinner has been chief, EPD has continued to get more militarized equipment and technology while local services were cut or shuttered. Even when the EPD budget has seen cuts, it has been disproportionate to cuts in other areas. Last year, we lost CAHOOTs — a nationally recognized model for alternative response that, while not perfect, took a lot of calls out of EPD’s hands — freeing them up to address actual violent crime and public safety issues. 

Since that loss, we’ve been cast back into a nightmarish scenario where a city with only 170,000 people but with one of the worst homeless per capita crises in the country has no substantive alternative response service and has resorted back to police violence and coercion with threat of violence towards the most vulnerable community in our city — wasting untold amounts of money in patrols, sweeps, citations, etc. It’s utter nonsense that exacerbates the issue rather than solves it.

Put simply, we need a working-class-led government that puts the needs of the people before the police forces used to protect the business class. If we had the power, would we put millions into weapons and surveillance for the police, or would we fund new housing, hospitals, infrastructure, addiction recovery programs and services that meet the needs of our people? 

The people of Eugene will not stand for EPD’s violence any longer. Community members are standing up, speaking out and calling for Skinner’s resignation as just the beginning of a community uprising not just against police violence, but for our needs. We not only protect us, but we fight for us and we will win! Last year’s defeat of the Flock mass surveillance technology in Eugene set this precedent, and we intend to build on that victory with this struggle.

 Kamryn Stringfield is a lesbian transgender woman living in Eugene, an organizer with the Eugene branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and a frequent sight at all things political in the Eugene area.

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