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QuickTake:
The officer who resigned after the public release of body-camera video capturing racist comments about Black people on the night of a declared riot likely did not know he was being recorded, Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said. The department reviewed additional body-camera video of other officers and found some conversations between officers that Skinner said did not meet professional standards.
An initial review of about 270 police body-worn camera videos from the night of the Jan. 30 declared riot at the Eugene Federal Building found “a few videos that are concerning,” Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said Thursday, May 14.
“There are going to be a couple of allegations coming out of that, because it is dialogue that is outside of our expectations of professionalism,” Skinner said. “But what I can tell you is that they’re not biased or racially motivated at all. What I could categorize it as is some attempts at some fairly dark humor and trying to be fun, and it just wasn’t funny.”
Skinner spoke at a meeting of the Eugene Police Commission about the review, six days after public release of video containing what Skinner said last Saturday was “racist and deeply offensive language.”
The video’s release by local documentarian Tim Lewis led to the Saturday resignation of the officer, Martin Siller, whom police identified by name Monday. He worked for about seven years as a Eugene police officer, after working about two decades as a police officer in Utah.
Members of the volunteer Police Commission began the meeting by sharing their response to the video.
Kierstin Dunavant, a commissioner, called Siller’s remarks “deeply disappointing and extremely harmful.”
“I just hope there’s a large focus tonight on how EPD plans to address those concerns that the incident kind of reflects a deeper issue, rather than an isolated event,” Dunavant said. Other commissioners also denounced the video.
Skinner, who earlier heard public comment from eight citizens highly critical of his leadership, told the citizen advisory board the department could not refuse Siller’s resignation.
“I need people to understand that this was not a matter of allowing him to resign,” Skinner said. “Somebody walks in and puts their gun and their badge … on the desk and walks out the door, there’s no mechanism by which we chase after somebody and tell them they can’t resign.”
Skinner said the department is “better today than we were on Saturday,” adding that “we try to make sure that we, in every incident, we’re a better organization the day after that person leaves.”
Skinner said Siller’s video “stands alone as its own gross misrepresentation of EPD.” He later told commissioners the video was “an inadvertent or unaware recording.”
About the body-camera review from Jan. 30, when Eugene police formed a line between protest activity and doors and damaged windows at the Eugene Federal Building, Skinner said, “We have a ton of other video that depicts our officers being assaulted and insulted that nobody should ever have to hear, and [they] kept their composure,” Skinner said.
Few details will be released about allegations of unprofessionalism related to the most recent video review, Skinner said, noting that the officers remain employees and deserve due process.
Speaking after the meeting, Skinner said the concerning videos captured conversations “internal to the department, a couple of staff members sitting around the table.”
The staff members remain on their normal duties, Skinner said. He said he has no plans to release the videos.
“I don’t see these as being of significant community concern or interest, because they were not racial or bias-motivated at all,” Skinner told Lookout, adding, “I am planning on holding the individuals accountable.”
Skinner told Lookout he’s having talks with officers about the video involving Siller.
“I’ve met with about half the department already, and so I’m getting in front of everybody and talking about this. Because, as you can imagine, our people are deeply, deeply offended, and hurt,” Skinner said.
Citizen press conference
Lewis, the Eugene documentarian, held a news conference with others Friday to discuss their concerns with Skinner and the Eugene Police Department.
“This is the chance we have as a community to come together and have a conversation,” said Blair Hickok, a longtime Eugene resident. “Let’s change the narrative. How fair is it that Skinner gets to take hold of that narrative?”
Hickok and others at the event in Scobert Gardens Park called for a change in leadership at Eugene police. They also called for a stronger police auditor. The auditor reports to the Eugene City Council and is not a part of the police department and does not have the power to impose discipline on officers.
Those at the event also expressed concerns about the response to the video, which captured a wide-ranging phone conversation between Siller and a police officer in Utah.
In the video, the names of several individuals can be heard, who seem to be described as police officers. Some of the conversation appears to reference domestic violence involving the people named.
“When Chief Skinner released his comments about the video, he couldn’t speak to the domestic violence in the casual conversation about assault and victimizing their fellow officers’ spouses, and daughters,” said Kevin Cronin, a citizen who spoke at the event. “He couldn’t name it. If you can’t name it, how can you address it meaningfully in the department?”
Lewis explained at the Friday event how he obtained the video as part of the discovery process in his pending criminal case, which involved actions taken by Lewis on the night of the Jan. 30 protest.
Lewis, 69, said he’s lived in Eugene since he was 7 years old. He has been charged in connection with the placement of city signs that were alleged to be stolen, placing the signs so as to divert traffic on the night of Jan. 30.
Eugene Municipal Court records show he has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor theft charge. He said he expects the case to go to trial. Another speaker, Jetty Etty, told of how she called Lewis Jan. 30 about federal officers deploying tear gas to disperse protesters, pushing them into the street and possibly into traffic.
“They push people from the courtyard from the federal building into Seventh Street, and they don’t redirect traffic,” Etty said, explaining her concerns. She said she first tried to flag down Eugene police at the scene without success, then called the Eugene police nonemergency line and was told no resources were available.
Etty said she did not want to take any traffic cones obviously in use, and called Lewis who, with another person, brought “some stuff” to divert traffic.
Lewis said his attorney and a staff person for the attorney alerted him to the content of the video he ultimately released on his YouTube channel.
“I knew a person in my position had to do something with it,” Lewis said, adding that he “struggled with it for a week.”
“I think it was important for me to let the community know, start the dialogue,” Lewis said.
Asked about other videos, Lewis said, “There’s so much footage that it’s been difficult for my attorney in his office to go through it all, but they’re continuing to do that.”
He said he wasn’t aware of anything else noteworthy in the videos made available to his attorney, but would make anything public should he become aware of it.