To my knowledge, everyone involved is and was white, shooter and dead man.
But, photos I've seen indicate that the shooter was a clean cut fellow from the local area, while the victim was a bearded fellow from Portland. I would not be surprised at all if that didn't play into this.
Also, I will say that I have no knowledge of any of the people involved, nor the families. So can't know the truth of the assertions, but other people have published about connections between the shooter and leadership at the Sheriff's office.
That is a surprising question. The color of the perpetrator is of no concern to logical argument, nor is the method execution. It is apparent, someone knows someone. I have no doubt such privilege is based on wealth as it always is in the end.
A truly sad story that I find difficult to understand. As someone who enforced the law for more than 30 years, and arrested a lot of “good kids” that had never been arrested before, the evidence of malice and evil in this incident certainly cries for justice. The cruelty of leaving the man to suffer and die coupled with the killing of his dog clearly shows these were not good kids. I find it so difficult to understand how a law enforcement official could make such an irresponsible statement. Justice can, at times, be an extremely long and slow march. There is no statute of limitations in Washington State for homicide and the elections of a new Prosecutor and/or Sheriff can be a remedy. Did the crime occur in the jurisdiction of the US Forest Service and could it be prosecuted in federal court? Like you MW, I’ve owned guns since I was a teenager. For nearly half my life guns were a tool of my profession, treated with care and respect. I support the second amendment but I also believe that, People that shouldn’t own guns, shouldn’t own guns. We all know someone like this. I hope justice is found, not only for this man, but also for a society that demands it.
One thing this case has done, as it has played out over the past year, is proven to me just how important it is to have a local newspaper, with local reporters on the ground. It has been covered, just a little bit, by large Oregon media, but without much in the way of detail.
If we did not have local newspaper reporters here in our small city, none of this would have really come out. As it is, there has been story after story detailing exactly what happened, and doing so in detail.
A few years ago, it looked as if we could lose our little newspaper, but it was saved when a new owner stepped in. Without it, questionable local happenings could go on forever, and no one would ever know.
I am unsure if where the man was found was on federal land or not. I know that much of that area is, but presume that the DNR and private forest products companies own large chunks of it as well.
What is especially surprising to me is that much of this was known prior to the last Sheriff's election. And what seemed like a good candidate (a high ranking officer from a local police department) stood against the Sheriff. The Sheriff did run a particularly nasty campaign (as I've been heavily involved in campaigns my entire adult life, it has to be really nasty to get my attention) and was re-elected. That was extremely disappointing to me.
There is also the civil court route, it worked for the families of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. At least some small justice could be served that route.
The family has just recently filed a civil suit against the County.
The civil suit is particularly interesting, because it focuses on the dog.
The story as I understand it:
The shooter's explanation is that he shot at the dog thinking it was a bear (the dog was only 4 months old, so a far cry from a bear) and accidentally shot the man instead.
So, the dead dog is carried off the mountain, and taken for an autopsy. The autopsy shows that the dog was stabbed to death, no gunshot wound in the dog's body.
But the story the Sheriff's office seemingly wants to portray is that the dog was shot and the bullet exited the dog, and then hit the man. Trouble with that of course is that there is no gunshot wound in the dog.
So the Sheriff's office takes the dog from Doc. #1, and gives it to Doc. #2 for a second autopsy.
At this second autopsy, there is a bullet wound, entry and exit.
But then time passes, and these two Docs. talk to each other, and realize that the dog's body was different between the time Doc. 1 examined it and Doc. 2 examined it. So Doc. 1 gets the body back, sends samples from the now there gunshot wound to a lab, and the lab determines that the gunshot came after the dog was already dead.
Chain of evidence shows that the Sheriff's office had continual custody of the dog between autopsy #1 and #2.
So, if I understand what I've read in the paper, an autopsy was performed, it didn't support the preferred narrative, so the Sheriff's office took the dog's body, shot it, and then had a second autopsy performed.
And all of this only came out because local news stories highlighted the different findings from the two Docs, they saw those stories, and made contact with each other.
That's how I understand it from my reading anyway.
So, the family is suing the County for knowingly tampering with evidence.
To my knowledge, the family has not yet filed suit against the shooter, but I presume that will happen at some point.
Other people have published connections between the shooter, his family, and members of the Sheriff's office command staff. I don't have personal knowledge of any of that, nor has it been published in the newspaper (only online) so I've refrained from writing about that. All the story as I've written it is based on what has been printed in our Local paper and/or by large media outlets in Oregon.
I don't know if the State has the authority to take the investigation over. I'm not sure how any of that actually works.
I do not even know what to say. It seems that more than ever, justice is partisan, justice favors the influential, justice favors the politically connected, etc.
The real travesty beyond the death of the victim and his dog, is the obvious malfeasance present. It is exhausting to see these levels of corruption play out day in and day out, at all levels.
There is obviously an American caste system or levels of distinction. If you are at a certain social or hereditary level, the law applies and doesn't for those deemed to be at the other levels.
Well, in this case, the people had every chance to rectify this issue by voting out the Sheriff and they did nothing. The citizens of that town that voted to keep him deserve this shit show. The fact that the Sheriff hasn't been even charged with a crime for tampering with evidence show the multiple layers of corruption there. Has the family contacted our State Attorney General, sideshow bob, ace ambulance chaser?
The family has contacted the State, in a fairly noisy way as well, but I don't know if there has been any result from that. For that matter, I don't know if there can be result from that, as I don't know how such things work as a practical matter. I'm sure that there is a system for handling such things, but don't know the specific system in question.
Your fundamental point is spot on. The people of Lewis County re-elected the Sheriff, despite much of this being known. That it will cost the taxpayers of Lewis County $$ seems like a fitting bit of justice. Alas though, I believe that most counties and cities are 'insured' against such things through a risk pool made up of large numbers of jurisdictions. It is likely that any payout granted by a civil court would end up being paid by taxpayers throughout the state.
In far too many places, we have lost local news, and a lot of the bad that we see happening is a part of that I think.
In this specific case, I know the details, because my little town still has a newspaper, with local reporters, and they have been publishing about it, in great detail, for a year now.
But…
I wonder how many people in my little city actually know about this, because I know that not very many read that paper anymore. It used to be a daily, showing up on everyone’s doorstep each morning.
Now it publishes a couple of times a week, and can be purchased at a few places in town.
But the folks who don’t read it, likely have no idea that this has happened. And, we must be frank, it is likely the the vast majority of people who live here don’t read it.
Twenty years ago it was different, twenty years ago almost everyone read it.
But things must be immeasurably worse in those places that no longer have a local press of any sort.
All those small cities that are no longer served by a newspaper or its modern equivalent.
If there is no reporter watching the actions of local government, then no one will ever be around to let people know of bad things when they happen.
And happen they will, it is simply human nature.
But when they are found out, the electorate can make fixes. Without local press however, they won’t be found out at all.
The loss of the hometown newspaper, or its modern equivalent will prove to be a great disaster in time.
A little extra information: Thurston Co. Sheriff's Dept conducted an investigation of Lewis Co Sheriff's actions.....cleared. Funny how the fact that the Thurston Co Sheriff is the brother of the Lewis Co Sheriff........and he is returning the favor. Previous to this the Snaza brothers have cleared each other's departments of wrongdoing.
Does this strike anyone as more than just a bit of a conflict of interest? I feel you can draw a straight line from incidents like this over the years and the attitude towards much of LE these days. How many people must die at the hands of those sworn to serve and protect before we can clean out the thugs and bullies that find a gun and a badge alluring for the cover it gives them? Takes an awfully brave LEO to go against the code of omerta and speak the truth.
But a few months back the voters of Thurston County were smart enough to remove their half of the Brothers. Here in Lewis County we were not smart enough to do the same.
I started my law enforcement carrer as a deputy sheriff in Northeastern Washington. I learned very quickly that when the Sheriff is elected from the community, a small close nit community, that there are many movers and shakers, people of great influence, who have a lot to say about how justice is dispensed. I learned that no matter what side of the court room the attorneys sat, they all sat at the same bar afterwards for cocktails. I learned that Lady Justice was able to peak out from under her blindfold and could then be influenced by the power brokers. I learned that judges could hear "testimony" in their chambers, which often influenced them on the bench. I became a cynic regarding government, and will admit, that at times it was easier to ride the currents of the local political atmosphere than push against it. I transferred to the Seattle Police. Nothing changed. I then had to only deal with what was in front of me to assist that person requesting my help.
Thank you for sharing this perspective. I think that what you describe is how things rather are here. An insular community in which those who have always been here resist change.
We saw this in the recent election for Sheriff. The fellow who opposed the current Sheriff was certainly qualified, given his long experience in City policing (I can't of course know if he would have proven to be better or not) but the campaign didn't seem to ever even focus on his ideas for the Department, rather the supporters of the current guy seemed to actually be offended that the new guy had the gall to run for the office. Like it was some kind of horrible betrayal that the current Sheriff wasn't allowed to run unopposed.
It became so bad that the challenger wasn't even allowed to speak at a political event or two, and those who thought he should be able to fully participate were removed from their committee positions. Given current technology, all of this was of course posted on Youtube, where of course in the past it would have gone virtually unnoticed.
As someone who has worked on political campaigns (in much less rural and insular places) for decades, it was amazing for me to watch.
But, it will improve in time here. For generations there wasn't really any reason for people to move here, so that is why it remained the same for so long. Indeed it has long been one of those communities in which the best and brightest young people leave for better opportunities elsewhere. But, as housing availability and costs increase at a great rate in more urban surrounding areas, new folks are slowly moving here, and none of those will know, or care about the proverbial 'old boy network.'
It is shocking that not a single law enforcement officer would do their duty and arrest the subject. It is not a surprise that this is happening in a society that now invents charges and or over charges persons not in favor and allows the connected to walk on an astronomical scale. The fact that the man was shot is not relevant, the man was murdered. Method matters not. The man and his accomplish can buy knives and tons of automobile too. I am dismayed that when considering the event the tool used and as one Brother suggested race should have some bearing one the case. It demonstrates to me a certain amount of illogical thinking. I do hope the murderer is brought to justice. My duty as Freemason is stick to the truth and use logic in all cases.
You didn't say so, but the shooter was White. Right?
Or related to a politician or law enforcement or someone with a lot of money ... there are many colors to privilege, sadly.
To my knowledge, everyone involved is and was white, shooter and dead man.
But, photos I've seen indicate that the shooter was a clean cut fellow from the local area, while the victim was a bearded fellow from Portland. I would not be surprised at all if that didn't play into this.
Also, I will say that I have no knowledge of any of the people involved, nor the families. So can't know the truth of the assertions, but other people have published about connections between the shooter and leadership at the Sheriff's office.
That is a surprising question. The color of the perpetrator is of no concern to logical argument, nor is the method execution. It is apparent, someone knows someone. I have no doubt such privilege is based on wealth as it always is in the end.
A truly sad story that I find difficult to understand. As someone who enforced the law for more than 30 years, and arrested a lot of “good kids” that had never been arrested before, the evidence of malice and evil in this incident certainly cries for justice. The cruelty of leaving the man to suffer and die coupled with the killing of his dog clearly shows these were not good kids. I find it so difficult to understand how a law enforcement official could make such an irresponsible statement. Justice can, at times, be an extremely long and slow march. There is no statute of limitations in Washington State for homicide and the elections of a new Prosecutor and/or Sheriff can be a remedy. Did the crime occur in the jurisdiction of the US Forest Service and could it be prosecuted in federal court? Like you MW, I’ve owned guns since I was a teenager. For nearly half my life guns were a tool of my profession, treated with care and respect. I support the second amendment but I also believe that, People that shouldn’t own guns, shouldn’t own guns. We all know someone like this. I hope justice is found, not only for this man, but also for a society that demands it.
One thing this case has done, as it has played out over the past year, is proven to me just how important it is to have a local newspaper, with local reporters on the ground. It has been covered, just a little bit, by large Oregon media, but without much in the way of detail.
If we did not have local newspaper reporters here in our small city, none of this would have really come out. As it is, there has been story after story detailing exactly what happened, and doing so in detail.
A few years ago, it looked as if we could lose our little newspaper, but it was saved when a new owner stepped in. Without it, questionable local happenings could go on forever, and no one would ever know.
I am unsure if where the man was found was on federal land or not. I know that much of that area is, but presume that the DNR and private forest products companies own large chunks of it as well.
What is especially surprising to me is that much of this was known prior to the last Sheriff's election. And what seemed like a good candidate (a high ranking officer from a local police department) stood against the Sheriff. The Sheriff did run a particularly nasty campaign (as I've been heavily involved in campaigns my entire adult life, it has to be really nasty to get my attention) and was re-elected. That was extremely disappointing to me.
There is also the civil court route, it worked for the families of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. At least some small justice could be served that route.
The family has just recently filed a civil suit against the County.
The civil suit is particularly interesting, because it focuses on the dog.
The story as I understand it:
The shooter's explanation is that he shot at the dog thinking it was a bear (the dog was only 4 months old, so a far cry from a bear) and accidentally shot the man instead.
So, the dead dog is carried off the mountain, and taken for an autopsy. The autopsy shows that the dog was stabbed to death, no gunshot wound in the dog's body.
But the story the Sheriff's office seemingly wants to portray is that the dog was shot and the bullet exited the dog, and then hit the man. Trouble with that of course is that there is no gunshot wound in the dog.
So the Sheriff's office takes the dog from Doc. #1, and gives it to Doc. #2 for a second autopsy.
At this second autopsy, there is a bullet wound, entry and exit.
But then time passes, and these two Docs. talk to each other, and realize that the dog's body was different between the time Doc. 1 examined it and Doc. 2 examined it. So Doc. 1 gets the body back, sends samples from the now there gunshot wound to a lab, and the lab determines that the gunshot came after the dog was already dead.
Chain of evidence shows that the Sheriff's office had continual custody of the dog between autopsy #1 and #2.
So, if I understand what I've read in the paper, an autopsy was performed, it didn't support the preferred narrative, so the Sheriff's office took the dog's body, shot it, and then had a second autopsy performed.
And all of this only came out because local news stories highlighted the different findings from the two Docs, they saw those stories, and made contact with each other.
That's how I understand it from my reading anyway.
So, the family is suing the County for knowingly tampering with evidence.
To my knowledge, the family has not yet filed suit against the shooter, but I presume that will happen at some point.
They're not good kids - they're murderers. The Sheriff is clearly a friend of the parent.
State needs to take over. And prosecute the Sheriff as well.
Agreed. The shooter is plainly evil.
Other people have published connections between the shooter, his family, and members of the Sheriff's office command staff. I don't have personal knowledge of any of that, nor has it been published in the newspaper (only online) so I've refrained from writing about that. All the story as I've written it is based on what has been printed in our Local paper and/or by large media outlets in Oregon.
I don't know if the State has the authority to take the investigation over. I'm not sure how any of that actually works.
The latest news story about this case includes links to a great deal of the media coverage and can be read here:
https://www.chronline.com/stories/family-of-aron-christensen-files-20-milion-legal-claim-against-lewis-county,319431
I do not even know what to say. It seems that more than ever, justice is partisan, justice favors the influential, justice favors the politically connected, etc.
The real travesty beyond the death of the victim and his dog, is the obvious malfeasance present. It is exhausting to see these levels of corruption play out day in and day out, at all levels.
There is obviously an American caste system or levels of distinction. If you are at a certain social or hereditary level, the law applies and doesn't for those deemed to be at the other levels.
Well, in this case, the people had every chance to rectify this issue by voting out the Sheriff and they did nothing. The citizens of that town that voted to keep him deserve this shit show. The fact that the Sheriff hasn't been even charged with a crime for tampering with evidence show the multiple layers of corruption there. Has the family contacted our State Attorney General, sideshow bob, ace ambulance chaser?
The family has contacted the State, in a fairly noisy way as well, but I don't know if there has been any result from that. For that matter, I don't know if there can be result from that, as I don't know how such things work as a practical matter. I'm sure that there is a system for handling such things, but don't know the specific system in question.
Your fundamental point is spot on. The people of Lewis County re-elected the Sheriff, despite much of this being known. That it will cost the taxpayers of Lewis County $$ seems like a fitting bit of justice. Alas though, I believe that most counties and cities are 'insured' against such things through a risk pool made up of large numbers of jurisdictions. It is likely that any payout granted by a civil court would end up being paid by taxpayers throughout the state.
In far too many places, we have lost local news, and a lot of the bad that we see happening is a part of that I think.
In this specific case, I know the details, because my little town still has a newspaper, with local reporters, and they have been publishing about it, in great detail, for a year now.
But…
I wonder how many people in my little city actually know about this, because I know that not very many read that paper anymore. It used to be a daily, showing up on everyone’s doorstep each morning.
Now it publishes a couple of times a week, and can be purchased at a few places in town.
But the folks who don’t read it, likely have no idea that this has happened. And, we must be frank, it is likely the the vast majority of people who live here don’t read it.
Twenty years ago it was different, twenty years ago almost everyone read it.
But things must be immeasurably worse in those places that no longer have a local press of any sort.
All those small cities that are no longer served by a newspaper or its modern equivalent.
If there is no reporter watching the actions of local government, then no one will ever be around to let people know of bad things when they happen.
And happen they will, it is simply human nature.
But when they are found out, the electorate can make fixes. Without local press however, they won’t be found out at all.
The loss of the hometown newspaper, or its modern equivalent will prove to be a great disaster in time.
A little extra information: Thurston Co. Sheriff's Dept conducted an investigation of Lewis Co Sheriff's actions.....cleared. Funny how the fact that the Thurston Co Sheriff is the brother of the Lewis Co Sheriff........and he is returning the favor. Previous to this the Snaza brothers have cleared each other's departments of wrongdoing.
Does this strike anyone as more than just a bit of a conflict of interest? I feel you can draw a straight line from incidents like this over the years and the attitude towards much of LE these days. How many people must die at the hands of those sworn to serve and protect before we can clean out the thugs and bullies that find a gun and a badge alluring for the cover it gives them? Takes an awfully brave LEO to go against the code of omerta and speak the truth.
But a few months back the voters of Thurston County were smart enough to remove their half of the Brothers. Here in Lewis County we were not smart enough to do the same.
I started my law enforcement carrer as a deputy sheriff in Northeastern Washington. I learned very quickly that when the Sheriff is elected from the community, a small close nit community, that there are many movers and shakers, people of great influence, who have a lot to say about how justice is dispensed. I learned that no matter what side of the court room the attorneys sat, they all sat at the same bar afterwards for cocktails. I learned that Lady Justice was able to peak out from under her blindfold and could then be influenced by the power brokers. I learned that judges could hear "testimony" in their chambers, which often influenced them on the bench. I became a cynic regarding government, and will admit, that at times it was easier to ride the currents of the local political atmosphere than push against it. I transferred to the Seattle Police. Nothing changed. I then had to only deal with what was in front of me to assist that person requesting my help.
Thank you for sharing this perspective. I think that what you describe is how things rather are here. An insular community in which those who have always been here resist change.
We saw this in the recent election for Sheriff. The fellow who opposed the current Sheriff was certainly qualified, given his long experience in City policing (I can't of course know if he would have proven to be better or not) but the campaign didn't seem to ever even focus on his ideas for the Department, rather the supporters of the current guy seemed to actually be offended that the new guy had the gall to run for the office. Like it was some kind of horrible betrayal that the current Sheriff wasn't allowed to run unopposed.
It became so bad that the challenger wasn't even allowed to speak at a political event or two, and those who thought he should be able to fully participate were removed from their committee positions. Given current technology, all of this was of course posted on Youtube, where of course in the past it would have gone virtually unnoticed.
As someone who has worked on political campaigns (in much less rural and insular places) for decades, it was amazing for me to watch.
But, it will improve in time here. For generations there wasn't really any reason for people to move here, so that is why it remained the same for so long. Indeed it has long been one of those communities in which the best and brightest young people leave for better opportunities elsewhere. But, as housing availability and costs increase at a great rate in more urban surrounding areas, new folks are slowly moving here, and none of those will know, or care about the proverbial 'old boy network.'
What a terrible tragedy, and compounded by a miscarriage of justice....
It is shocking that not a single law enforcement officer would do their duty and arrest the subject. It is not a surprise that this is happening in a society that now invents charges and or over charges persons not in favor and allows the connected to walk on an astronomical scale. The fact that the man was shot is not relevant, the man was murdered. Method matters not. The man and his accomplish can buy knives and tons of automobile too. I am dismayed that when considering the event the tool used and as one Brother suggested race should have some bearing one the case. It demonstrates to me a certain amount of illogical thinking. I do hope the murderer is brought to justice. My duty as Freemason is stick to the truth and use logic in all cases.