It's not quite as bad as tobacco industry lobbyists pushing legislation to get their product to be declared a vegetable for the purposes of school lunches, but it's certainly smacks of using power to get things fixed.

The story starts this summer when Kristina Narayan, the Legislative Director for the Office of House Speaker Tina Kotek was arrested for interfering with a peace officer during the Portland riots. Like many other leftist rioters this summer, she was booked, released and never charged by Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, who has a reputation for "catch-and-release" for leftist protestors.

Few details are known about the arrest of Narayan, other than it is known that she was arrested for "interfering with a peace officer" that night.

Now comes HB 3164 which is a redefinition of of the crime of interfering with a peace officer, which begs the question, "What problem is being fixed?" Is there a problem with the law, or is there a problem with the behavior of the Legislative Director for the House Speaker?

HB 3164 purports to be at the request of American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon -- it's a common practice to identify the party requesting the bill, if it's not the sponsor -- but one can't help but wonder why they would request it from the Speaker, herself.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-02-27 09:02:16

Last Update: 2021-02-25 17:38:24