My father spent my childhood in a constant state of impatience.
On family outings, his measured requests to “get this show on the road” would inevitably come to a head. In those cases, he’d point at me or my easily-sidetracked younger brother and shout “PULL OUT THE FINGER!”
You can imagine the orifice from which the implied digit was meant to be withdrawn.
Reading the latest updates on the tragic, confounding death of Portland hiker Aron Christensen — and the myriad issues with how our elected officials have handed the case — it’s hard not to shout the old man’s four-word catchphrase.
Someone, at some point, needs to step up and do something.
The Board of County Commissioners meeting last week was the latest instance of the people we’ve entrusted to take action on our behalf shrugging off any semblance of responsibility.
Commissioner Lindsey Pollock floated the idea of a “citizens commission” to oversee the Sheriff’s Office. It’s a worthwhile idea (discussed on this Opinion page recently by Packwood’s Bill Serrahn) to address the public’s current lack of confidence in Sheriff Rob Snaza and his office.
The other two commissioners — Scott Brummer and Sean Swope — rolled their eyes. Brummer and Snaza endorsed each other in the 2022 election, of course, and Swope has hitched his political wagon to Snaza from Day 1.
Brummer’s opinion: The Sheriff’s an elected official, and if you don’t like what he’s doing, call the Department of Justice or the Attorney General. A true masterclass in apathy from someone eying a five-figure raise after four months on the job! This is particularly troubling given the number of unsolved (or, in this case, solved but unprosecuted) murders popping up in East Lewis County, which Brummer represents.
Swope’s opinion: The county will not consider defunding the police and he supports the sheriff specifically and doesn’t want to attack good people over it. The “it” in this case is a dead body with a bullet in it, and the confessed shooter walking around as free as bare feet on a summer day.
Those two, in particular, should step outside the Good Ol’ Boys clubhouse and get a little fresh air. The Snaza political wagon is more sinking ship than freight train these days, and no one wants a lifejacket.
Last week, Snaza and three of his command staff met with two of this newspaper’s reporters for an in-depth interview about the case. The takeaways were that, despite a few bumps in the road early on (like missing the bullet holes in both Christensen and his dog, Buzzo, upon the initial recovery of the bodies), Snaza thinks they did a great job.
He denied any connection between his staff and the suspects, Ethan Asbach and his girlfriend — except for the connection he admitted between Asbach and one of his captains. He thinks his staff telling Christensen’s family not to go to the media was standard operating procedure, though there’s been no indication the sheriff’s office would have so much as acknowledged the case without that needling. He claimed changes are being made internally in response to the mishandling of the initial crime scene, though those claims are dubious given his refusal to elaborate.
Snaza, in the past year or so, has proven himself to be a constitutional sheriff who doesn’t know the Constitution, a law enforcement officer more focused on politics than law, and a man of the people with no idea what the people currently think.
For months, answers have been few and far between with officials stammering about patience and understanding as they work the case. Now, eight months after the fact, Lewis County prosecutor Jonathan Meyer has told Christensen’s family that his office isn’t filing felony charges. Of all the politicians fielding angry questions in this case, at least Meyer’s been self-aware enough to give a realistic answer — the investigation was mishandled — even if his answers lack specifics.
People are rightfully pissed off and tired of being ignored. A bullet killed a man in Lewis County. A shooter, who has at least a fringe connection to someone in the sheriff’s office, confessed to pulling the trigger, and nothing’s been done about it.
Actions — or, in this case, lack of action — have consequences. All of the elected officials passing the buck in this case can rest assured the voters will remember their inaction when elections roll around. Even the most loyal supporters of Snaza are now forced to question whether justice would be served if it was their loved one killed.
It’s time for them to pull out the finger, or spend the rest of their term hoping voters forget they were too ambivalent to do anything when they had the chance.
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Aaron VanTuyl is an occasional Chronicle columnist. He does not wish to be contacted by anyone about anything. He is a co-host on The Chronicle’s weekly News Dump podcast, which can be found at chronline.com/podcasts.
