Letters

Thoughts on ‘state of police’ or ‘police state’

By Jerry Schneider

, Jul 29, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

I’m outraged that a Multnomah County grand jury has declined to indict Gresham police officer Joshua Linstrom in the death of Marino Sanchez-Sanchez of Portland.

Officer Linstrom drove through a stop sign at a high rate of speed and “T-boned” a van that Mr. Sanchez was riding in as a passenger.

Linstrom’s lawyer said a news report stated that a tree branch covered the stop sign. It seems very odd to me that other drivers in the past have stopped at this intersection, obeying the sign.

It’s my opinion that the police themselves intimidate most grand jurors, which are made up of ordinary civilians. Imagine for a minute sitting on a grand jury and then voting against the police. I truly believe most people fear the consequences and will always vote in their favor.

Now let’s look at the number of police shootings within Oregon in the past 10 years. Has any media ever done an investigative report on the number of civilians shot by police, and then followed up the number of police officers who were found guilty of some type of homicide? From my memory no officer has ever been found guilty.

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