February 24, 2005
No, Really, Just What Did He Say?
More On Saltzman's JTTF Comments
Two weeks ago, we passed along comments made by Commissioner Dan Saltzman to an NPR reporter regarding just who are the critics of Portland's participation in the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Last week, we showed the response from Saltzman's chief of staff, who wasn't in town when Saltzman made the remarks in question, who said they were taken out of context.
Today, The Portland Mercury takes it a step further.
When contacted by the Mercury to find out specifically who Saltzman was talking about and why these people should not have a voice, Saltzman, at first, retreated from the statement, saying it was taken as a mere sound bite from a much longer interview. But then he reiterated the claim verbatim and unapologetically to the Mercury.
Again, when asked to exactly identify this group of "police haters," Saltzman was unable to specify, finally explaining he was referring to the group of residents who pack city council chambers every year when council votes on the Task Force.
So, either NPR and the Mercury simply are on some sort of vendetta against Saltzman, or the commissioner really is making rather bizarre and overbroad mischaracterizations about JTTF critics.
One thing that would help is if we had access to the broader NPR interview from which the original quote was taken. But so far, we've only heard from the reporter in question in the context of him wanting to establish who we were before he helped us out. Since then, nothing.
Comments (2)
allehseya on 25 Feb 2005
"police haters,"
Police haters that voted Tom Potter into office?
What an odd lot we must be.
doretta on 25 Feb 2005
Apparently those of us who supported Tom but believe that Randy is asking important questions about the JTTF are just really perverse police haters.
Yeah, that must be it.