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During public comment at the tense meeting, roughly two dozen residents expressed dismay over the words of Martin Siller captured on body-cam footage. Many at the meeting argued that his comments were evidence of a pervasive culture problem in the department.
In a stormy Monday meeting, Eugene elected officials and community leaders decried the racist remarks of a Eugene Police Department officer who resigned Saturday, May 9, after they became public.
Mayor Kaarin Knudson, councilors Greg Evans, Matt Keating and Mike Clark, and the leaders of the local NAACP chapter and the city’s Police Commission condemned the rhetoric of an Eugene police officer whose comments were captured in body-cam footage and publicized by a local documentarian.
The meeting came hours after Police Chief Chris Skinner and Police Auditor Craig Renetzky shared more details about the incident involving Martin Siller, the former officer of seven years.
Roughly two dozen residents expressed anger over Siller’s remarks during public comment at the City Council meeting, many arguing that the comments were evidence of a pervasive problematic culture within the department.
Eugene Police Department has a “cultural problem” that has persisted for years, Evans said, calling for heightened department anti-bias training and greater scrutiny in the hiring process. The three-term councilor said community members have shared with him several examples of “inappropriate or just downright unacceptable” interactions with Eugene police since Saturday.
“A lot of this stuff was based on race and ethnicity, and I know that some of my colleagues and other folks in the community may have some difficulty around articulating this, but trust me, I have no problem articulating this,” Evans said.
Evans, who is Black, went on to recount his own early experience of being stopped by police on his third day in Eugene and questioned about a crime despite not matching the suspect’s description beyond his race. The city needs its police, he continued, but the department’s culture needs “significant change.”
“This is not an indictment of the Eugene Police Department per se,” he said. “It’s an indictment for our entire community that we have allowed this to go on knowing what we know about the history of people who have engaged in inappropriate activity and illegal activity under the color of law.”
Both Skinner and Renetzky attended Monday’s meeting, but only Renetzky spoke before the council about the incident, largely repeating the details he shared earlier.
“We will examine the EPD as a whole to identify any steps or changes that can be taken to ensure the members of the community are served by officers that have the type of ethics, morals and character that the citizens of Eugene deserve,” Renetzky said.
Questions about culture
Skinner sat in the back of the room. Some members of the public urged the council to fire him, arguing that Siller’s remarks are evidence that his leadership has enabled bad behavior within the force. Some addressed him directly in their testimony and as they walked past him to exit the council chambers.
“It isn’t a bad apple problem,” resident Latiffe Amado said during public comment. “This is really an infestation of rotten culture protected by a system of impunity.”
Later, Eugene-Springfield NAACP President Demond Hawkins expressed to councilors his disappointment at the former officer’s racist comments, but said he wasn’t surprised, as it aligns with some of his experiences growing up.
Given his seven-year tenure, “There had to be people that knew what [Siller] was doing,” Hawkins said. The former officer’s remarks involving domestic violence and the use of tear gas toward protesters at the Eugene Federal Building also warrant more attention, Hawkins said.
“What we want right now is really accountability from his colleagues,” Hawkins said.
Emeilia Foulkes, the chair of the Police Commission, a citizen advisory body, also spoke before the council, attesting to the character of EPD employees she has gotten to know through her role.
“I’m hoping that we can build trust moving forward, and let people know that there are really good humans in EPD that are truly there to serve every day,” Foulkes said.
Tim Lewis, the documentarian who published the body-cam footage, and who testified while wearing a fur-lined bathrobe, talked about his decision to release a shorter, edited version of the video instead of the full recording, which he said was 23 minutes. Police released that video on Monday.
“It took me about a week and a half to two weeks to figure that out,” he said. “I struggled with it. I talked with people, talked with friends, talked to my attorneys, because, frankly, I sort of felt for this officer because he was being thrown under the bus, because it’s a culture. It’s just a small taste of police culture, and that’s not unusual.”
Lewis said he, along with fellow documentarian Jetty Etty, will hold a press conference on Friday where community members can share their experiences with Eugene police. The location is still being determined, he said.
One speaker, Ward 7 resident Kevin Cronin, listed several incidents involving Eugene police since Skinner took the department’s helm in 2018 as examples of misconduct in the department.
The examples included an officer’s fatal shooting of an unarmed man in 2019 (a jury favored the city of Eugene in a November civil trial); and the resignations of two officers in 2021 amid rape accusations.
“It’s clear that after eight years at the helm, Skinner has failed to change the culture at EPD,” Cronin told the council. “Your only leverage over the police is to fire the chief. It’s time to pull that lever.”
Skinner told Lookout Eugene-Springfield after the meeting that he understands the community’s anger, and he values their right to speak to him and their elected officials. He said the department will “work and see what we need to do to better understand” if the incident is isolated, and if it’s not, what the department is missing regarding training and culture.
“My participation might have actually agitated things, but it was important for me to be here knowing that this was going to be the topic of the conversation because, you know, they needed to know that I was going to hear what they had to say,” he said.
