Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: I'm Alex Stone, former military service member and law enforcement officer, now CEO of Echelon Protected Services, one of the fastest growing private security firms on the west coast. And this is ride along, where our guest and I witness firsthand the issues affecting our community.
I believe our proven method of enacting meaningful change through compassion and understanding is the best way to make our streets a safer place and truly achieve security through the community.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: I'm Nathan Vasquez, and I'm a senior deputy district attorney in the Multnomah County DA's office. I'm running against my boss to be the elected DA for Multnomah county.
I'm here today to go on a ride along with Alex and his team to see what real life is like on the streets of Portland and how we can work together to make Portland healthy and safe for all.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Hey, I'm Alex Stone. Welcome back to the ride along podcast. Today's guest is a really an amazing individual. I've known him for several years. He's in studio today. He is the senior deputy district attorney of Multnomah County, Nathan Vasquez. Nathan, why don't you introduce yourself to the folks?
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, first, thank you for having me here. It's such a pleasure. Wonderful studio. And my name again is Nathan Vasquez. I've been a deputy district attorney for 24 years now. I'm on my 24th year. I'm happy to tell you more about my backstory and all that, but first, I just want to say thanks. It's an honor to be here.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for being here. Absolutely.
Let's dig into your past. How did you end up in Portland, Oregon?
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, it starts out I grew up in a small town in northern California. And as I tell folks, I got there because my family were all immigrants of one type or another. Some came to California through the Great Depression. But my paternal grandfather, as I called him, my papa will, he came from Mexico. His family got pushed out by the mexican revolution, and they ended up in San Francisco. And he ended up being a really immense figure in my life and kind of, I would say, pushed me forward to a lot of the things that I accomplished. And he put himself through medical school at UC Berkeley, really, by selling newspapers on the streets in San Francisco, and just was this immense figure where he was a community doctor, and he worked both in the hospitals, but he also maintained a home office that I came to learn a lot about. And as I grew up, because you go visit your grandparents on the weekends or holidays or summers, and I was always, as a young child, was like, who are these people coming in the side door? And, you know, it was just so amazing to watch. And I, as I got older, obviously, I learned well, he had an office there, and so he would see patients at 02:00 a.m. In the morning. And particularly the migrant community loved him because he spoke Spanish. And so he just served because he always was a doctor. Could never turn it off. I mean, this was just his life driven goal. And from that, and the whole point of saying that is that, you know, he, he was someone that pushed me forward because he paid for my college, and that was a huge benefit in my life. But he was very clear. He's like, look, I just, I don't want you to pay this back to me. I want you just to pay this forward to the community and to serve. And so it kind of instilled in me this idea that, you know, my life was going to be driven towards some form of public service. In fact, at UC Davis, I got my degree in political science with an emphasis on public service. And then to come back to your question, I came up here in 1998 to go to law school at Lewis and Clark.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Oh, wonderful. Yeah, yeah, I'm an alum of Lewis and Clark. So, yeah, great.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: It was a great opportunity. I really enjoyed going to law school there. And really, in 1998, when I got here, I loved the city. I was so surprised because, you know, I was a small town kid, and then UC Davis itself is kind of a small college town. And so I came up here, and for me, Portland was this, like, huge metropolis. And I know that really, it's not that big of a city compared to worldwide, but, you know, from that lens, you know, when I got here, what I. What I loved about it was it. It certainly was a big town feel, but the people were so nice and welcoming. You know, it was just like you could walk down the streets and people were happy to see you and they would talk to you and, and it just, it felt safe. And I really enjoyed kind of all the different aspects of Portland, the different neighborhoods. And I really love the fact that obviously, we're close to the coast, but not too far from the mountains. And, you know, really, it kind of hit all of the right parts for being in the Pacific Northwest.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: I really loved, yeah, Portland, an amazing city, really. It really is nestled perfectly in the middle of Multnomah county.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: And somehow Lewis and Clark kind of catapulted you into the DA's office. How did that happen?
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Well, I mean, as a law student, you know, you try out some different types of law, and I certainly, you know, I got internships throughout my time in law school because you're there for three years. And, you know, I tried some, some law firm type work, and it was, for me, it was just not my thing. I mean, it was like watching paint dry, and I would just, I would get there and I would be like.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Oh, read these contracts.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And it was like, I'd be like, I can't believe it's only 10:00 a.m. And then I'd be like, oh, it's not lunch yet. And then lunch would come, and I'd be like, I can't believe I have four more hours.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Well, definitely didn't feel like community work.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: No, no. It felt far away from where I really intended to go and wanted to be. And then my third year of law school, you know, I just kind of got this amazing opportunity to work for the district attorney. Who was Mike Schrunk at that time. Mister Schrunk had been the elected DA for about 30 years in Portland. And so I came in as an intern, and it was just a kind of, you know, transformative experience. I really loved it. I mean, it was one of those things where you just know you're home, you know, you found your calling. And that was in 2000. You know, I walked in as an intern, and I would get there at like, seven in the morning. I leave at 08:00 at night, and it feel like I just blinked my eyes and time flew by because, I mean, it just, you would go into court and you're running all day, but you really, you know, it felt so good because I was in there fighting for victims, fighting for the community, and it spoke to me. It was my passion of, like, you got to go in there and really speak from the heart and, you know, really, you know, get in there and fight for what you believe was right. And the motto of the office, which really is something that I think if you talk to anyone that worked for Mike Schrunk, has always stuck with us, is do the right thing for the right reasons, and we live by that. And it was something that, you know, it's kept me there the entire, my entire career. I've never left. So I've been there for 24. I'm working on my 24th year there.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: That's an amazing story. Just as you're telling the story, I can just visualize that you're living out your dream and your grandfather's vision for your life. Really? At the same time.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it, for me, it was absolutely that idea of, of serving the public. And, you know, it was so interesting as a young attorney to do this. I mean, you got to do it on the kind of the micro level of the individual victim for an assault case, and you would work so hard. And then as I progressed, you know, I started taking on more serious cases, and it really started to feel like I could have an impact on the wider community. And it really, for me, it's that day in, day out, and it's really, it goes from hundreds to thousands of cases where you, you get to serve not just that really that individual victim who deserves justice, but the community as a whole. And that, for me, kind of brought together that whole past with my grandfather, that kind of everyday service to the community.
[00:07:41] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: And so for 24 years, you have been faithfully serving all the residents of Multnomah county. And for people who are out there who don't live in the metro area, Portland, the city of Portland doesn't have a city court. It doesn't have the city of jail. It used to, I think maybe the late eighties.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: It's been a long time.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And so even this, even the violation level. So when a police officer goes and writes a ticket.
[00:08:07] Speaker C: Right.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: That's going through district court, which is kind of unique for a large city. And so you're handling everything from. Well, not you personally, but people who work for you now, violations, misdemeanors, and felonies. And so to explain that workload.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: And how that works in a large city like Portland.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, and that's, having done this for, like I said, you know, over two decades, it's really, I've got to see it all. So, I mean, I have done that where, you know, we've worked on violations. We used to have a violation court. We called it 124 court.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: Perfect.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And it was, and so, I mean, that was, you would go in and there would be really fast little trials, and you'd get them done, and then.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: From there, you know, you make your bones in there.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: Yes, well, that and misdemeanors. I mean, I spent, as a former.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: Cop, I've been in those courts a lot.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: Absolutely. I mean, and I, you know, I spent, like, you know, a good five years doing misdemeanors, which that was kind of the normal at the time. And that was, I mean, I was doing trial after trial, and I did, during that time period, I did over 100 jury trials just in misdemeanors and so it was a great opportunity, though. I mean, I really felt like, you know, I got to really work out what was my style, and how do I present to a jury, and am I comfortable in front of a jury? All of that, and you really. You really get to work on that. But at the same time, you know, I got to do just a whole host and variety, and that was just in that five year window. You know, I did domestic violence prosecution. I did a lot of DUI prosecution, a lot of. Just a lot of your neighborhood, everyday stuff. We had community courts back then. I worked a lot in those. And, you know, I worked out in Gresham. So I really kind of got to hit kind of the whole county and kind of get the experience of what it's like to really serve the entire county.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So you've been doing this for 24 years.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: You moved up in the late nineties, and you're working at the DA's office 24 years.
Something happens in your career, and now you decided that you're gonna run for the district attorney's office. You want to be the DA? Kind of. Tell me what happened. What was your transformative journey? What was that point in time where you decided, I need to be. I need a lead. It's time for me to lead.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I, you know, I had the opportunity in that 24 years to really, you know, try every type of case, to do some of really the most complex cases, you know, we have in our jurisdiction. And, I mean, even this past year, I did a triple homicide trial and then a double homicide trial and a major sexual assault case. And so I was doing these major cases, and particularly in the last ten years, and I'm very proud of my work, serving my victims, getting good results.
But we had a lot of changes happen in 2020, and there was a new DA that was elected. And I watched as our city continue to struggle immensely from 2020 until now. The changes are very evident, and it's been difficult to watch as someone who, you know, I believe to my core that my job is to serve the public and to really bring public safety. And I looked out my door, and I can tell you, I just. I was embarrassed by what I saw. And it was hard for me to say, hey, I'm a member of this public safety community, and am I satisfied with what's being given to the community? And the clear answer was no. So, you know, I had to look at myself and say, okay, I've got a lot of friends in the office that are leaving, that are going into civil practice because they're, you know, also feeling this. And, you know, a lot of this comes back to the elected Da. And his approach was just not in line with what I believe was in the best interest of the public. And so it was a decision to say, I don't want to leave. This is my career. And so I'm going to stay and I'm going to fight, you know, to become the elected DA, to take us in a different direction, because I really believe our best days are ahead of us, but we need new leadership.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: And what specifically would you do? What does that new direction look like?
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, there's a combination of kind of some traditional prosecution values, like valuing victims first. I a firm believer that we should always hold victims as that's our primary job, is to serve that victim, to serve public safety. And then, you know, so that's some of getting back to that core concept. And then, you know, another core concept that we've kind of gotten away from is that basic idea of accountability. You know, we've lost a lot of that in the last four years where, you know, sometimes when we all look out, I think we see and feel that it, there's a sense of it's no rules, Portland. And that comes a lot back to the policies that have been put in place by the currently elected DA. Now, what do I want to do differently? You know, there are some really advanced kind of approaches that we can take, and I talk a lot about this, and that's in the realm of strategic prosecution. And this is something that I started to develop under the previous elected DA, Rod Underhill. And then I've kind of brought it forward. But it's one that it has to become an office wide approach. It has to be something that is adopted throughout kind of the philosophy of prosecution. And the bottom line of that is that you use data you work with, and this is where you create partnerships both in the community but also within law enforcement is key. And then you have those partnerships, you use data, and then from that, you identify kind of your problem areas, and you figure out what's the best way to utilize prosecution resources. Certainly if you're working well with your, with your partners, they can also learn how to deploy resources in the best manner. And you take on things like what we call high volume system users. Those are individuals that are out that we see kind of in the system repeatedly. They're being arrested over and over or having contact with fired or medics over and over. And then what you do is you look for creative solutions for those individuals. As I tell my young folks, I'm like, it's never about, hey, you see someone's a problem, we should put them in prison. That's not it. I tell them, I want long term solutions. I want to say, how do we get them out of the criminal justice system? But it's always about, hey, let's have compassion, but let's also have accountability.
But from there, I mean, this one, this is one areas I get really excited and passionate about because there's so much opportunity here. You can do things like you can identify, like, hey, there's an area or neighborhood that's having a problem with burglaries. Why you should be able to see that in the data and start to address that. And then it can be things like gun violence. That's another one where you can start to look for those patterns and those opportunities to, to really influence and change. You work with community partners and that should be happening all the way from, you know, the US attorney's office down to community based organizations. I'm a big believer in working with, with businesses, with private security all the way across the board because I think the more you can bring people into this mission, the better you are off in addressing actual problems. And so for me, it's always about, let's use data to identify either problem individuals or problem areas or problem crimes and then, and look at how do we best deploy resources to really attack those.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: Well, you sound very polished.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: Well, it's, I'll say that it's something that I think a lot about.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I can tell you it's something.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: That I really am passionate about.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: I can tell you're passionate for the audience at home and the people watching who don't understand the criminal justice system. I want them to understand the importance or the link between prosecutorial discretion and having a vision for a prosecutor's office.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Because I think some people think, well, you know, if the cops arrest you and you go to, you go to jail, you're just going to get charged with a crime. And so explain that role and the authority that the DA has to kind of increase or decrease that discretion as they choose.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a really important topic, important point. And so the district attorney, you know, we function kind of as the center of the hub, is the way I like to say it.
[00:16:06] Speaker A: You're actually the highest ranking law enforcement official that's elected.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: That's elected in a localized area.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And I would.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: So you're higher than a police chief and even a sheriff. Really?
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And what I would say is it's really in, if you look across the state of Oregon, this particular position, the Multnomah County DA's office is really one of the top elected law enforcement positions throughout the state because we prosecute more cases than the US attorney's office. We prosecute more cases than the Oregon Department of Justice. So we're just so involved in so many different cases that, you know, this is a really important position. And what happens is once, you know, in the process of, you know, when someone gets arrested by police, that case then comes into the, to the district attorney's office. And at that, it's a huge decision point. It is. Either that case will go forward to the courts for formal prosecution or it can be declined. And the decline can happen for a variety of reasons. And that can be there wasn't enough evidence. It can be that maybe there was a self defense claim. There can be that type of stuff, but also in there, and this is what I think is always really important to me, is, you know, politics can come into this, and you have, and I think we've seen around the nation this rise of this kind of idea that, you know, the DA's office should really be taking on a political cause and really, you know, using discretion to not prosecute. So they call that declining it in the interest of justice. And, you know, this is an area that is really important to me.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: Is justice blind at that point?
[00:17:42] Speaker B: Well, and that's my point is that, you know, it should be, and I think that's what I think the public expects. And I'm a firm believer that really your prosecutor should be setting politics aside and should be looking at how does the law apply to the facts and how do you do that evenly? Because if you're picking one social cause or the other and you're pushing it, you're really in danger of really kind of playing favorites. Now, I am someone I'm a firm believer in. Yes, you absolutely have to guard against things like racial bias. We should always be looking at that. It's one of the reasons I'm a huge believer in strategic prosecution is because it allows us to actually look for those trends.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: You're using data.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: Not just even. You're going above and beyond behavior and you're going to actual data.
[00:18:34] Speaker B: Well, yeah. And you're looking for the quantifiable ways in which either, a, you're having a disproportionate impact upon a minority group or b, you're having, a, you know, you're seeing a disproportionate impact where they're, you know, overrepresented as victims. And that's also important. And that's something that should never be lost in the conversation. And so, you know, using strategic prosecution, we can get at that. But really what my concern is, I want to make sure that we are, again, applying the law in a fair and even handed manner.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: That's, that's, you want justice to be just.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Yes. You know, and it's interesting, you know, as I kind of delved into this world of, you know, campaigning, you know, there's a lot of talk. The multimac district attorney race is what they call a nonpartisan race.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: It is.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: But it's interesting. My, I won't talk too much about my opponent, but he constantly likes to try to talk about what political party he's in. And for me, I actually think, you know, I'm always happy to say I'm an independent. That's, you know, what they call, I guess, the little I, independent. And for me, I think that's the exact place you should want to be as a district attorney because you should be looking at, you know, I'm not driven, you know, by the, by the far right. I'm not driven by the far left. I'm not, you know, none of that. I'm here because I'm a prosecutor, and that's what, that's, I want to, I want to do the job.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: So let's, let me push back a little bit.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: So, Michelle Alexander, a great author, I've read some of her works, and she's really, I would say, on that left side of the spectrum when it comes to justice. And the idea is that we almost replace the criminal justice system with a new system that has a basis and something more in community, more restorative. I mean, number one, every, regardless of the type of government, every country in the world has law enforcement.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:20:25] Speaker C: Right.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: Can a system exist that provides justice for a community that isn't in some way similar to the current criminal justice system now?
[00:20:37] Speaker B: I mean, are these possibilities that are out there? Yes, they're possibilities. And is there a place for restorative justice in the criminal justice system? Yes, there is, but I don't see it as a, hey, we should replace what we're doing, you know, because the reality that I see, and I think that a lot of victims see and feel is that, you know, when there are some of these crimes, these are not an easy kind of solve where you can just kind of put on you know, your best hopes and intentions, that it's all going to get better. It takes some real work, and that's where, you know, you can have certainly, like I said, opportunities for restorative justice. But in the end, when you have serious crimes, you need a serious approach for victims and for the community.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: So a lot of people in the community would say, you know, me being prior law enforcement, I came to the realization one day that everything I do is essentially a civil rights violation.
Right. And this isn't. This is intentional. We, you and I, we derive our authority from the executive powers portion of the constitution flows directly from the president, directly down to everyone in law enforcement. And our goal is, is to protect society by removing people who commit crimes against individuals, to put them somewhere so they can get. They can be restored to a better self, but also away from other people so that they can't hurt people. But to do that, we have to conduct stops. We have to detain people, we have to make arrests, and then we have to put them in long term detentions. All of these are civil rights violations, legal, ethically, and morally done. We hope every time it should be always. Do you foresee a time and place where that system doesn't work the way it does?
[00:22:24] Speaker B: I mean, I would. I would love to see that. Right. I would love to see where we didn't have to, you know, come in and, you know, place someone into physical restraints. I do. I would love that. But right now, where we currently are, I'm not seeing that as, hey, we're going to full scale replace that. Can we push for opportunities for that? Yes, we can.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: It feels like to me, and this is just me coming from a former police officer in Oregon, that the person who's the current DA, which is currently your boss. So I want to be touchy with this.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Oh, it's fine. I'm not touchy with it.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: In this current situation, we've seen misdemeanor prosecutions dwindle, dwindle to low numbers, hundreds. We've seen, uh, overall caseload management by individual adas or assistant district attorneys shrink from the levels where you. When you started your office. You're probably doing 100, 2150 cases at a time now, I think the average is around 80 or 90.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: It's a lot less, for sure.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: And they're mostly felonies, which are more difficult to prosecute.
But I think a lot of people that live in Multnomah county are feeling that nothing's really going on at the DA's office, and that has caused I think a lot, like you said, a lot of people have just left.
What are you going to do to replace the team mindset and to really gather people in and recruit the young, sharp minds at law school to rebuild the DA's office?
[00:23:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, the way I describe this is that we did lose a tremendous amount of experience in the DA's office. We lost somewhere around 50% of the attorneys.
That's a lot.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: I don't even know any other city that's experienced that.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: It's a situation where we've hired behind that. But there's a lot of young attorneys.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: They don't know what they're doing. I mean, they're trying.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: They're trying. And it is, this is what I always say about the young attorneys.
I work with them and I get in there and I do everything I can to train them, to get them up to speed as quick as I can.
We all know you can't replace ten to 15 years of experience in a month. And so you really have to invest in that group of young attorneys and you have to create, really, an office culture that people, a, want to stay in and, b, want to come to. And that's a situation where, you know, when you look out, unfortunately, in the past, again, four years, we've seen multiple claims of gender discrimination by the elected DA. And so that's, you know, for, so I think for the young attorneys that are looking at, do I want to go to this office or do I want to go out to Clackamas or Washington county? These are, that's a real consideration.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: Or even a different state.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: Different state, for sure. And so it's building that back up, but it's also really valuing the young attorneys to say, hey, here's a training program we're going to help put you through so that you can feel confident in what you're doing. Because I've seen some young attorneys have struggled with this, where they come into the office and it's like all of a sudden, instead of kind of having that lead up time where they're doing a bunch of small misdemeanor cases, they're like, oh, and now you're going to take on a serious felony and it's, it can be overwhelming.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: And so, I mean, you really have to work on training.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: I'm extremely glad to hear that you're going to be building up that team process, that training environment. I think that's crucial. I want to kind of change gears a little bit. So as we've seen in the DA's office, those. Those dwindling numbers. Right? Crime is going up.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: We're on track to have the highest homicide rate for any year in Portland.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: It's been a rough year.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: It's been a rough year. And so those numbers are also reflective within law enforcement itself. So if you look at a city like Milwaukee, they have two to three times more cops on the street, same size as Portland, a lot less people out there providing safety. And so the situation with law enforcement dwindling really caused our paths to cross. And so, you know, there have been many times when people that work for me at, you know, echelon, we've been able to identify a murder suspect or we've been the first on the scene to murderers. And so this is something that it feels like more and more security.
Not that we want to fill in the gaps, because we really want to just protect people's civil rights and civil liberties. We're there to protect. We don't have the authority to. We don't have a constitutional authority, and so we don't want to make those decisions, but we feel like we kind of have to in the moment. And so I know that in New York after 911, there was a intentional movement to bring security into underneath the umbrella of enforcement so that they could have better eyes on the street, a little bit better understanding of what's going on. Right. And so what is your plan moving forward with incorporating security companies and prosecutions? And is that even a thing? Can we. Is it possible to get there?
[00:27:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think we all need to embrace a certain reality, which is that Portland doesn't have enough police officers right now. We would like there to be. You know, I think we're currently funded to have 880. There are currently 800 officers. I think the studies have shown that we need closer to 1300 or more. And so, obviously, we are in these situations where routinely we see just what we call the minimum staffings by police officers where they're not meeting those. And I know that for the community, what they're left with is, okay, but so what do I do and how do I stay safe? And, you know, the, the just the natural reality has been that, well, security companies have grown, and we've seen that. And I've seen that very particularly with your organization as well. And so what that means now is your security officers are out there on a daily basis, and, I know, very engaged with the community, and they're seeing these things firsthand. And so you are absolutely becoming witnesses. And I think when we talk about that from a prosecutor standpoint, what I want is always to have a really cohesive kind of flow with a team where it's like, hey, if an individual's out on the street and they're seeing these things, we want them a, to be well trained. We want them to have writing good reports, we want to have a good coordinated effort with law enforcement and then all the way up to prosecution. Because if your security officers are seeing, which they are every day, seeing kind of criminal acts occur and there's some really violent, like you said, there's homicides, there's stabbings, there's shootings, there's all these different things sometimes, sadly, I know that your security officers are victims of that. But in all of that, what I want is that integration between the district attorney's office, the law enforcement, everyday police officer, and then the security officer so that we can work hand in hand to kind of really take on some of these really challenging issues that we're facing. And from my perspective, that was why I helped create this program called the MAPS program. And this is an evolution of the old neighborhood program that we had where we would put attorneys out in the community to work with police to deal with community problems. The maps program takes that one step further, and it tries to actually kind of build that overall cohesive team with community based organizations, security organizations, with law enforcement, with businesses across the board to give access to the justice system. Because, you know, under that vision, the justice system isn't just for a select few. It needs to be for everyone. And that's what the program's designed to do.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: I love that all victims, all victims, not just the ones that are lucky enough to have a police officer three minutes, you know, hopefully three minutes away.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's. It is a situation where, you know, you know, a vic from a victim's. I always try to look at it from a victim standpoint. They're not going to be concerned about, you know, hey, yes, they would love a police officer to be there immediately to help stop whatever crime is occurring. But if that happens to be a security officer that's there, they're going to want that security officer there to testify at the trial and say, hey, this is what I saw. This is what happened. Or, you know, if they have video footage or whatever it is. And so from that perspective, if my goal as a prosecutor is to give that victim justice, it is absolutely. I want to be bringing forward all the facts and information I can so that the judge or the jury can make an accurate decision do you think.
[00:30:54] Speaker A: There'S room in the budget at the DA's office to have DA investigators? Because if Portland can't bring up enough police officers, maybe the DA can have DA investigators that can step in and provide that professional law enforcement investigation alongside private security. Because I know that we've made a lot of phone calls. I've been assaulted, actually was assaulted multiple times, punched in the face. And, you know, y'all have declined to prosecute, and I know a lot of my guards have been assaulted, and it's been declined. And a lot of people will say, well, the DA just hates security companies, and I don't think that's the case. It's just very hard to know what really is going on without a proper investigation by someone trained in law enforcement.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I do see this as a huge opportunity within the district attorney's office where, you know, what we're talking about is that in some states, actually the district attorney's office, the investigators, actually play a much larger role in investigating crimes. And that, and in particular, what I see with the district attorney's office here is that investigators can come in and do a lot of that kind of follow up work that, you know, with our current, you know, Portland police officers. They just don't have that time.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: They don't have the. There's no way.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Yeah. So. And that comes down to, hey, I need you to go locate this witness and interview this witness. I need you to go, you know, grab that video footage. You know, it's all of those kind of basic things that are really vital and important to prosecution. And that's where, you know, we can certainly expand. And something that I'm going to push on is to expand the, the investigative component of the district attorney's office because I want to see that. For me, my ultimate goal is always, how do I bring justice to the victims? How do I bring justice to the community? And if that is a way to build out team, because I would love to snap my fingers and say there's a magic way to bring in more Portland police officers to fill the gap. But, you know, from what we hear and what we see, that is going to be several years down the road.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: Oh, it's a ten to 15 year process.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And so if that's not our reality right now, I'm still going to be very concerned about the victims, you know, next month, six months from now, a year from now. As much as, of course, I don't want anyone to. To be a victim of a crime. If they are, I wanna make sure we have a justice system that can serve them. And that's been my kind of focus. And it's what drives me to this idea of running to be the elected DA is because I don't believe with the kind of levels of crime we're seeing, but the lack of prosecutions that we're meeting, the needs of victims in the community.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: Yeah, very serious. So I wanna, again, kinda shift gears.
Something that's on the hearts of mine. Heart and. Hearts and minds of a lot of people in Portland and Oregonian is measure 110. There's been a recent repeal and redo of 110 that's going to allow criminal prosecution or the arrest of individuals in possession of narcotics, scheduled narcotics, and I believe it's going to be an unclassified misdemeanor. And each individual jurisdiction will be able to determine upon each case what that classification will look like. And so what are your thoughts on that? I mean, again, this just happened. Yeah, I'm really pushing you hard, but this just kind of happened.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: It's okay. It's something that I've certainly been putting a lot of thought into, a lot of effort into. I went down and testified at the legislature in support of this move. You know, the situation, just so you know, to give the full backdrop, is that in 2020, there was a ballot measure put forward, valid measure 110. It decriminalized all of the really hard drugs like fentanyl and heroin and cocaine and methamphetamine. And so what happened is that, you know, it did this without really a structure plan built out. And so it just, the purpose was.
[00:34:41] Speaker A: To funnel monies towards, you know, detox.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:46] Speaker A: And things that are more restorative to help individuals get off the street. Right.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: It was. And it didn't really happen. It didn't happen. And it left a lot of these weird loopholes and gaps. Like, it's illegal to drink in public, to walk down the street with a beer in your hand, but you can walk down the street and smoke fentanyl. And what happened is, I think, for most of the community, and it really was throughout Oregon, but particularly in kind of Portland and really all different areas of Multnomah county, was that we were seeing this just rampant open air drug dealing and drug use. We were seeing shootings and stabbings that were also attenuated to that as well. And it just got to this place where I think, you know, it was sold to us by this out of state, kind of private or out of state special interest group. You know, it was sold in one way they dumped a ton of money, and they created this, you know, hey, Oregon, you're going to be the experiment. And, you know, as we saw here recently, you know, most of the community was like, we don't like this experiment. It's not working for us. It's not. And sadly, it really wasn't working for the everyday person, you know, suffering from, you know, substance abuse disorders. They were. They're dying. And, I mean, I know you and your folks see that certainly far more than I do. But, you know, the numbers were staggering. I mean, it was. And just from a pure, kind of just, you know, individual human perspective, I was like, this can't be the right answer. Like, letting people overdose and die on the streets. This. This can't be it. You know? And it felt like, in speaking with firefighters and speaking with security officers, everyday people, they're like, we're out there giving Narcan to people, you know, regularly and sometimes multiple times in a day. And it's. And we've created the situation where it's like we're. We're not really doing anything to get them out of this situation, but we're just keeping them alive. And it's this weird zone that we're keeping people in. And sadly, many, many people were dying. So.
So we've gotten to this place now, which is your question of. Okay, we've amended it, and it creates this unclassified misdemeanor, and it creates all these. What they call Oprah. Yeah, I'll say. Deflections, deflections, diversions, lots of things.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: So diversions occur after or after prosecution or after the determination of prosecution should occur. Deflections can occur prior to that decision making process.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: We're going to need a whole flow chart to go through.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: We need Kevin Mannix in here. We need people that wrote the bill.
[00:37:06] Speaker B: But, I mean, it's. It goes.
It goes where? It's like, you start off, you have, for initial contact, you can do a deflection. So that means it's not golden handcuff program. Yeah, it's not quite. It's not quite the. What we did before, which was give them a $100 ticket and give them a line to call. The deflection program is supposed to be more of immediate. Connect to a treatment provider saying, hey.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: There'S a possibility I could arrest you, but we have this golden handcuff program.
[00:37:35] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:37:36] Speaker A: And that's gonna allow me, a police officer, to get you in touch with a detox facility. If you check in today, this all goes away. It doesn't even go to the DA's office. We can deflect that.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And so it is very much, it is this hope that we can get people into treatment right away. So, you know, and I think, so.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: We'Re not trying to punish drug addicts. No, that's not the intent of this, correct?
[00:38:00] Speaker B: Yes. So the overall intent is. Is very much how do we create pathways to treatment to people that are, you know, either using these illicit substances or maybe even kind of have a substance abuse disorder? Now, what happens is you're going to have certain people that either they'll give deflection to and then they'll come right back out, or they will maybe do that multiple times, and then you're going to have. Some people are going to say, nope, I don't want that. And so they're going to end up going, what we're going to call into the court system now, then it will be more. You'll have more of an opportunity for diversion. So now even the district attorney's office, we get this, we issue the case, it goes forward, and then they raise their hand, say, okay, now I'm ready for treatment. We're going to put them into a diversion program.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: Now, this makes sense, right? People. You know, I used to have the highest number of duis at my PD, and we give diversions up to three for people within a ten year period. I think that's still the law.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: You get one in every ten years.
[00:38:58] Speaker A: One in every ten.
[00:38:58] Speaker B: One every ten, yeah. And so with the first arrest, they go into the diversion program, they complete it. That case is dismissed. It still shows on the record there was a diversion, but it's not a conviction. If they get another DUI within ten years or a certain amount of period of time, then that can go into the courts. So this system that's set up, I'm gonna say, has a lot more, what we call off ramps on the.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: Really? Okay. More than that?
[00:39:23] Speaker B: Oh, yes, yes. Because before you even get to the court system, you have these deflections. Now it's up to each individual county, each individual jurisdiction, to how they develop and create that. And that will be some of the process that's gonna be worked out. So, I mean, throughout it, the goal is to push people to treatment. Now, in the, we're gonna call most extreme world, the most that someone could get would be six months jail time. And I'll tell you right now, even when we had felonies. And so that'd be a class b, basically.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: Yes, essentially class b. Misdemeanor. Yeah, not really class a because they're not getting a full year, but it's still unclassified.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: They call it unclassified, but it is essentially a class b. Yeah. And so what happens is, you know, let's say someone is not working out in deflection, not working out in the diversion, and they just are, you know, wildly struggling. You're going to have certain people that, you know, are going to, you know, they're going to bring back in because they're going to be having such huge issues. You know, these are probably the folks that are, you know, out in the street, you know, you know, really intoxicated and a danger to themselves in the community. And so, okay, they're going to go in. They may be given, you know, short jail sentences, not the six months it will be, you know, anywhere from two days to five. You know, let them.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: Allow them to sober up and get them back into detail.
[00:40:43] Speaker B: Yes. And through that, that's more restorative.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: That's a great idea.
[00:40:47] Speaker B: And, well, my whole approach and push there is that if we get to that kind of far point we should be having because we actually have a lot of jail bed capacity in Multnomah county.
[00:40:59] Speaker A: We have a whole wing that's not being funded multiple.
[00:41:01] Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, 200 beds, maybe it's more than that. I'll break down the numbers happily. But what we should be doing is creating what we call treatment dorms and treatment readiness dorms.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: And to tire a wing. We could do this for a whole wing right now.
[00:41:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Because in Multnomah county, between our two jails, we have a capacity to go up to about 1600 jail beds.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: How many of those are federal holds?
[00:41:24] Speaker B: It depends.
The federal holds can be as many as 100, but they really are not a significant portion of what we use.
Here's what happens, though. Our county commissioners currently only fund about 1100 jail beds. Now we're only using currently jail, you know, actual population is around 800. Most of the, not most, but a significant portion of those are like people serving, you know, waiting for their murder trial or, you know, other very serious crimes. What happens, though, is you still have this massive amount of capacity if the county commissioners fund it, where you can create treatment readiness dorms so that, you know, when you're having those individuals that are, you know, really struggling, you can get them in, they can sober up, and then really say, hey, here's how we get you ready to go transition into outpatient treatment. And so the idea is always pushing towards how do we get that person stable and into treatment. And I can tell you, before all this was enacted, I was pushing hard on a six point plan that it's on my website. People can go see, that is very much how do we create a support network around these individuals? Because, as I'm sure you are, far more the expert to me than this is that most of those folks we see out on the street that are struggling with this addiction issue, they've lost their support network. And they're just so, you know, they're so kind of out there that really, the streets become their only support.
[00:42:50] Speaker A: They have no sense of worth, and they've lost their sense of worth, and they've lost their sense of agency.
[00:42:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:57] Speaker A: And drugs will do that, and mental illness does that as well.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: And so that's my whole kind of approach is to how do we build a positive, pro social support network around those individuals? How do we push them forward to get them into the treatment process? And then, as doing this job for over two decades, what I know is that people that are struggling, they'll take two or three steps forward, two steps back, three steps forward, one back. And so you have to continually be there to help them as they obtain these tools, as they obtain the positive support network to help continue to move them on the path to where they get to sobriety, they get to stable housing, they get to a place where they can start really kind of having that agency to really, hey, I want to now just not only have I gotten sober, but I want to go here to get job skills, and I really want to work on, how do I get my life being back to that kind of pro social, positive life that I think that's where everyone wants individuals who are struggling to get to.
[00:43:58] Speaker A: Nathan Vasquez, a man with compassion, a dream living his grandfather's vision, running for Da in Multnomah county.
[00:44:09] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:44:10] Speaker A: How can people contribute to your campaign? Learn more about your campaign.
And how can they find you? What's the easiest way for them to find.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: I've tried to make it really easy. It's just. It's just my name. Nathanvaskis.com. It's my website. I was very fortunate.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: I was going to say, I know.
[00:44:27] Speaker B: I had, like, a more difficult one. It was, I think, votefor f o r vasquez.com, which you can still use that one. But it was very much. Someone came forward and said, hey, this. This is still. This domain is still out there. And they gave it to me, and I was like, great. So. And I, you know, it's just nathanvaskus.com has all my, like, everything from my six point plan to what kind of, my overall kind of philosophies are on doing criminal prosecution to, you know, how people can donate, people can learn more about kind of my background, all that good stuff.
[00:44:58] Speaker A: That's great. I'm going to urge everyone to go out there and check out nathebasquez.com dot. We're going to transition now. We're going to hit the streets and we're going to engage. We're going to meet up with America's security guard, Michael Bach. Love that guy.
And we're going to engage the community. We're going to go out and reach people out. We're going to see if we can get people that are on the street, currently drug addicted, talk to you and get their opinion, because they matter, too.
This is the approach that we take. It's more of a holistic approach as a company. And we're excited to have the future DA of Multnomah county out with us today. You ready for a ride along?
[00:45:35] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: All right, let's go.
Okay, so we were patrolling, listening to Nathan, you know, talk about being a DA. There's a gentleman, looks like he might be possibly mental health.
[00:45:56] Speaker C: You want a cigarette?
[00:45:57] Speaker A: Possibly drug psychosis, odd behavior.
[00:46:00] Speaker C: I can get you a cigarette.
[00:46:01] Speaker A: Properties strewn about. Right. Hanging on a client's eye. So then. So box, making contact?
[00:46:07] Speaker C: Well, I don't know.
I'm doing good. My name is Michael.
[00:46:11] Speaker A: It's not too cold outside. I mean, maybe 60 degrees.
[00:46:14] Speaker C: Sorry to hear that.
[00:46:16] Speaker A: Concerned about that? Yeah, very relaxed. His hands are up, he's engaging. They're not bald.
[00:46:23] Speaker C: He's not posturing.
[00:46:25] Speaker A: They're communicating.
[00:46:25] Speaker C: Cool, man. Do you need anything? You need some water? Something? I work security for the property.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: Oh, beautiful.
[00:46:30] Speaker C: Yeah, it looks like you were hanging some stuff on there.
[00:46:32] Speaker A: Yeah, just drying my stuff. I mean, that's a vito rufio that took $4,000 and I got a dollar.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: I noticed when we drove by that individual, he was pacing out in the street, seemed very agitated.
[00:46:48] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: Michael seems to got him to calm down.
[00:46:55] Speaker C: You need a bottle of water or anything?
Okay, if you can do me a favor, I'll get you some water and a couple more cigarettes if you like. If you can pull the stuff down off of there for me. That'd be rad. Okay. What's your name again, brother?
[00:47:05] Speaker A: Jeffrey. Ray Kellogg.
[00:47:06] Speaker C: Jeffrey.
[00:47:06] Speaker B: Mister.
[00:47:06] Speaker C: Kellogg. Mister Keller.
Very good. All right. I'll go get a couple bottles of water for you. Okay, bud?
Me no I'm not from Texas.
How did I get so big?
Oh, he's good. He's moving along okay. Yeah, he's kind of a friendly fella.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: We got a guy moaning over here. We're at behind us.
Oh, yeah, in a tent?
[00:47:32] Speaker C: Yeah. Let me get you a couple more.
[00:47:34] Speaker A: You know, when you're on the street.
[00:47:36] Speaker C: Cool. And then you'll pack up and go.
[00:47:38] Speaker A: And you're trying to present.
These are things that you would do to market.
[00:47:42] Speaker C: I appreciate you, man. Even in prison, hang your shirt up.
[00:47:45] Speaker B: Throw your stuff all everywhere.
[00:47:46] Speaker C: You know what I mean?
[00:47:48] Speaker A: And so, you know, we don't really know. It could. This type of behavior could be planned, not just.
I'm gonna get out and go over there with him.
[00:47:58] Speaker C: Hi, guys.
I'm Michael.
Everything doing okay? I hear somebody moaning. I want to make sure everybody's safe and all good.
Oh, really? You guys need a cigarette?
Bad nightmares are always good when we create change of morale.
No? Okay. All right. Do you guys need anything?
You want a cigarette? Okay. Here, I'll hook you up. Hey, how are you?
Good. It's been a while.
How have you been? My name's Michael. I know. Alicia. Yeah, we've spoken before.
Yeah.
If you put down that knife, my man, I'll give you a few cigarettes.
Thanks, man.
[00:48:46] Speaker A: Not unless you got to cook up some steak.
[00:48:47] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Knives are okay if you're cooking.
Okay.
Yeah. There you go. Oh, don't. Yep, there we go. Okay.
[00:49:00] Speaker A: Are you interested in getting into a shelter?
Recovery works.
Nice.
Recovery works. Northwest. How many days were you in recovery?
Five days. So you. You're clean, I mean, right?
Yeah. Hey, my man, can we put this fire out right here?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got water. You want a bottle of water, too? Hey, Bob, can you get two bottles?
This is Nathan Vasquez.
[00:49:44] Speaker B: Shake your hand.
[00:49:48] Speaker A: So this gentleman went to a recovery program, spent five days in recovery. He got out, they didn't have a bed to put him in. He was clean, and now he's been on the streets four days.
It is tough.
[00:50:01] Speaker B: That's a hard, hard comeback.
[00:50:03] Speaker A: And so part of this is, why is there no central tracking system? I know that you're not running for mayor, but, I mean, as the DA, you could probably present these ideas to the county commission. Right?
[00:50:14] Speaker B: Well, it's something that we're talking a lot about, is that there needs to be things like a detox center that's accessible, but also then that idea of when you get out, you have a place to go, and that's, you know, right now they don't have that database, but it needs to exist right now.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:40] Speaker C: How you doing, man?
[00:50:46] Speaker A: Well, do you know Spencer or Terrence? They work for loving one another.
Are you gonna be here tomorrow?
All right, I'm gonna have Spencer and Terrence come check on you. And if you want to get into a shelter, they can get you into a shelter.
Yeah, I feel you on that. I feel you on that. They had. They have access to housing, too. There's, like, 200, you know, there's some small.
Kind of, like, small houses and different areas. So they. We do. We do this all the time. We transition around 150 people a month in the detox shelter and housing and. So what's your name?
[00:51:23] Speaker C: Leo.
[00:51:24] Speaker A: Leo, I'm Alex. It's nice to meet you, Leo.
[00:51:29] Speaker B: I'm Nathan. You can also call me Nate, though.
[00:51:33] Speaker A: It's nice to meet you, man. I want to let you know something.
When you were in second grade and that teacher asked you what you wanted to be when you grow up, I know that this wasn't the answer.
And I want you to know that there are people out here like me and Nate. We still believe in you, and we know you have a future in Portland, Oregon.
Okay. I'm gonna send that nonprofit out to meet with you probably around nine or 10:00 a.m. Are you gonna be here? Okay, Leo, I appreciate you. God bless you, and I hope to see you soon, man.
[00:52:00] Speaker B: Thanks for chatting with me, Leo. I appreciate it. All right.
[00:52:03] Speaker C: You wanna water, my man?
Okay.
You gotta.
[00:52:10] Speaker B: Good luck to you, Leo.
[00:52:11] Speaker C: Have a good day, Leo.
[00:52:17] Speaker A: So, you know, it.
[00:52:19] Speaker B: It's that key. It's that from. From detox to where? And it's. If it's back to the street that's the problem.
[00:52:26] Speaker A: It's insane.
[00:52:26] Speaker B: I know.
[00:52:48] Speaker A: Hey, we're on the ride along. We're hitting the streets of Portland right now. We got Nate Vasquez, senior deputy district attorney. To my right, running shotgun, we got America's security guard, Michael Bach, in the back. He's like the DJ. He plays all music with whatever you want all night long.
Nate, you know, as a father and as someone who used to investigate juvenile sex crimes, that role that you play, you know, you're really stepping in and protecting that child like a father would when no father can. You know, how does that make you feel when you're doing that in that role?
[00:53:23] Speaker B: You know, it's a very tough, you know, job to do, and it can be a very emotional. But you really need to set all that aside because, you know, it's a. It becomes more than just a responsibility. It feels like it's your duty. And, you know, when I'm doing my job right, it's following that victim all the way through, not just the case, but making sure they're getting counseling. And because these are real life traumas. And so, for me, it's just been critical to really be there for the family and most importantly, for the victim. Even when it's been hard for me personally, it's so important for that victim. And, you know, for me, it's always about focusing on that victim.
[00:54:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:54:01] Speaker A: So important. All right, well, we got someone passed out. I'm gonna go shake a shoulder, make sure they're okay.
Oh, looks like they're moving a little bit.
Hey, my man. You doing okay tonight?
Yeah, I'm making sure you're not trying. You're not overdosing.
You get. Bro, I had an arcane.
You need a cigarette?
Dude, I. The police, bro. I'm just walking by.
[00:54:32] Speaker C: You want a cigarette?
[00:54:33] Speaker A: Cigarette?
[00:54:35] Speaker C: Okay.
You don't have to.
Okay.
All right. Ma'am, do you need anything?
Any help or anything?
[00:54:52] Speaker A: Oh, nice.
[00:54:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:53] Speaker C: Yeah. I just kind of, like. I stay here all night. We're trying to open this as a center.
[00:54:59] Speaker A: Oh, really? Yeah, this is Victor Outreach.
[00:55:01] Speaker C: So, this.
[00:55:02] Speaker A: Bro, I've been friends with Alejandro. Oh, is that right? I work with Victor outreach all the time. Yeah.
[00:55:07] Speaker C: Yeah. So I've been with Victor for four years.
[00:55:10] Speaker A: Oh, bro. Man. Nice to meet you, bro. Same year. That's awesome, man.
[00:55:12] Speaker C: So I've been, you know, so right.
[00:55:15] Speaker A: Now I come here at nighttime, stay here all night. That's awesome. Do you know my cousin JJ arevolo?
[00:55:21] Speaker C: I think so.
[00:55:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Big Mexican with green eyes.
[00:55:24] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:55:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that's my cousin. Yeah.
[00:55:26] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:55:27] Speaker A: Cool, man. I tell them, but sometimes if they.
[00:55:29] Speaker C: Bump a fire, I said, no, don't do that.
[00:55:32] Speaker A: Yeah, it's good. Yeah. And 02:00. 03:00 I'm not gonna change my way.
[00:55:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:55:36] Speaker A: Yeah, bro. Yeah.
[00:55:37] Speaker C: You know.
Is it this building here, that 615?
[00:55:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:43] Speaker C: When is it open?
Right now. We're working on everything.
So not. We don't know yet. Right? Yeah. That's fantastic.
[00:55:51] Speaker A: That's so exciting, bro.
[00:55:52] Speaker C: That's great.
[00:55:53] Speaker A: Good, man.
[00:55:55] Speaker C: That's great.
[00:55:55] Speaker A: Yeah. We'll fill it up for you. Yeah, for sure.
[00:55:58] Speaker C: Is it.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: You know, it's gonna be something that, when you come in, you think I.
Hey, so we're checking on this gentleman right here with Nate. Nate's kind of doing his thing. We ran into Andy. Andy works with victory outreach. It's a ministry that we work hand in hand with. Alejandro runs the Portland area. My cousin Hermias Arevolo, he's kind of working with them. We hire y'all to do fire watch and different things like this all the time. So this is going to be a victory outreach post here in downtown Portland.
[00:56:34] Speaker B: John, where are you from?
[00:56:35] Speaker A: Yeah, so they'll receive men and who are coming off the street or getting into detox, and they can actually live here while they're getting their lives back together. Great times, Andy. It's good to see you, bro. God bless you, man.
[00:56:48] Speaker B: I appreciate you looking to stay here.
[00:56:50] Speaker A: Have a good night, sir.
Just great opportunities, you know, victory outreach is a national ministry, and they're one of the best. They're, like, city team and victory outreach are really the top two that I like to work with. They really know what they're doing.
The people that are running those ministries and those nonprofits have been doing it for years.
They're very compassionate. They have a great outlook in life. Something.
[00:57:16] Speaker B: You hang in there, buddy.
[00:57:19] Speaker A: You know, we're just doing what we can do, bro.
[00:57:21] Speaker B: I know. It's that. I know. It's just sad.
[00:57:24] Speaker A: It's hard.
[00:57:24] Speaker B: It's hard to watch.
[00:57:26] Speaker C: Nate, Larry here on the scooter wants to say hello.
[00:57:28] Speaker A: All right, cool. Yeah, let's go. We got a citizen contact. Y'all ready? All right.
[00:57:32] Speaker B: Chatting with Larry.
How's it going?
[00:57:37] Speaker C: How you doing, man?
[00:57:38] Speaker B: I'm doing great to meet you. I'm Nathan Vasquez.
[00:57:40] Speaker C: Nice to meet you. I've seen you on the news a little bit.
[00:57:42] Speaker B: Oh, yeah?
[00:57:43] Speaker A: Do you mind if I stand close to you so my mic picks you up? That's fine. Yeah. All right, cool, man.
[00:57:47] Speaker C: I'm Mary.
[00:57:47] Speaker B: Where are you from? Are you from around here?
[00:57:49] Speaker C: I'm actually just moving downtown here in a few days.
[00:57:53] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:57:53] Speaker A: So I was out in the west.
[00:57:54] Speaker C: Side, rent a penthouse up in the lab building.
[00:57:58] Speaker B: Okay, nice. Nice.
[00:58:01] Speaker C: But what's important to me down here, being a new resident of Portland is the fentanyl epidemic. It's crazy.
[00:58:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:08] Speaker C: And, I mean, I have a family member that is stuck on it, and.
[00:58:14] Speaker A: I've tried and tried and tried, and it's. I don't.
[00:58:16] Speaker C: I don't think it's possible to get them off of it. I mean, it's crazy. And just what you see down here, the tents and Portland's not like it used to be, for sure.
[00:58:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:26] Speaker C: And it's sad. It's gonna kill them all. No, it's crazy. It's sad. Very sad.
And I don't know what you're gonna do. Yeah, well, you got a job ahead of you.
[00:58:37] Speaker B: It is. It's a big job. I'll tell you, though, it's. It's why I decided to run to become da is because I looked around here and I saw too many people like this that are struggling and then a lot of people that are dying. And I felt like, you know, we weren't, as a community, doing enough. And, you know, for me, I'm trying to put together, you know, not only the prosecution side, you know, but how do we get people into treatment? How do we continue to kind of push that so that there's that both that carrot of getting through to sobriety, but a little bit of the stick, which is the accountability and keeping people moving in the right direction towards treatment. Because, you know, for someone who's coming to live downtown, you know, it's. You know, we have to balance that out where you have to be helping people get off the streets, but we also have to make it so that everyone that's here, it's livable for all of us. And so it's. It's that right combination of compassion but accountability.
[00:59:28] Speaker C: It's like zombieland. Yeah, it is.
[00:59:31] Speaker B: No, and we've gotten to this place where, you know, sadly, at times, it feels like there's just no rules. And we got to get back to, like, kind of a baseline where, you know, people feel safe coming around downtown, people feel like it's a healthy community, but.
[00:59:45] Speaker C: Cigarette, my man.
[00:59:45] Speaker B: It certainly.
[00:59:46] Speaker C: I don't feel unsafe around them. I mean. How you doing?
I mean, they're just most.
I can't help.
[00:59:53] Speaker B: Yeah, most of the kind of doing nothing but sad. It's hard to watch. I mean, I was over there talking to this guy, and, you know, I mean, he's almost passed out. He's drooling. And it's just like, I think as a comedian, I look at that and I say, I know we can do better than this. I mean, it's just. We're just. Letting people die on the streets doesn't make any sense.
[01:00:13] Speaker C: No, absolutely not.
Well, I'm sure you're busy. I'll be on my way.
[01:00:18] Speaker B: Well, I appreciate your time.
[01:00:19] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for talking with us, brother.
[01:00:21] Speaker C: Thank you. I appreciate it.
[01:00:23] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[01:00:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:00:26] Speaker B: All right.
[01:00:26] Speaker C: Take care.
[01:00:26] Speaker B: See ya. It's great to meet you, bro.
[01:00:28] Speaker A: I don't have my card on me, but.
Give your phone. I'll give you my cell phone.
[01:00:37] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:00:38] Speaker A: Okay. So we're driving and we saw this guy. He's obviously been on fentanyl, and he's likely could overdose.
Doesn't want our help. He's refused medical care. And so this good Samaritan kind of thing ends for us at that point, as a security guard, we don't.
[01:00:57] Speaker C: We don't have that.
[01:00:57] Speaker A: That civil mandate as law enforcement to do anything about it. But I think we did the best we could. Right?
[01:01:03] Speaker B: So try to make contact, meet him where he is. I know, but right now it's tough.
[01:01:09] Speaker A: It is tough.
[01:01:09] Speaker B: Tough situation.
[01:01:10] Speaker C: People have to want to partner with their own recovery.
[01:01:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:01:14] Speaker C: That's the bottom line. And you can encourage them. You can create the right culture in the right environment.
Have to want out.
[01:01:22] Speaker A: You have to want it.
[01:01:23] Speaker C: Yeah. And that's that. Two times a week, right? Constantly being here, constantly talking to people. You want to help people, but they have to want help back.
[01:01:30] Speaker A: You want to keep patrolling?
[01:01:31] Speaker C: Let's do it.
[01:01:32] Speaker B: Let's keep going.
[01:01:33] Speaker A: Go.
Whoa.
[01:01:37] Speaker C: Nearly died right there.
Hey, buddy.
My name is Michael.
You doing okay?
I work security, man. I'm not the police.
You want a cigarette? I just saw the fire, man. I thought I'd come over and say hello.
Can you put that out for me?
Yeah, here, I'll give you some cigarettes, man.
Yeah, I'd give you some water, man, but I just ran out. Don't get your shoe on fire, brother.
What did you put in there? It looks like there's alcohol in there.
Yeah. Your shoes on fire, my man.
There we go. Here, I'll give you some cigarettes. What's your name, brother?
James.
Huh? Jojo. All right, Jojo. My name is Michael. Do you need anything right now?
Like help getting into a shelter or anything? I mean, right now, though, it's late, so they're.
Well, I don't know which ones are open. I mean, in terms of have availability, but we'd have to wait until tomorrow to find that out.
Uh huh.
You're stuck here.
What would you. Would you be interested in trying to go home?
I can help you work on that, my man.
Yeah. So it would it be like shelter here and then trying to get home to Newport or to Eugene like you said.
Yeah. I appreciate you putting out the fire, man. Yeah. You want to meet my friend Alex?
[01:03:43] Speaker A: What's up, man?
So Tiffany's back in town. If he needs a ticket to Eugene, we can get him a ticket to Eugene tomorrow. Yeah.
[01:03:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:03:55] Speaker A: I'm thinking Blanche, a house for lunch.
[01:03:57] Speaker C: Yeah, after that, we can totally do that. Well, it was either there or Newport. Which one? Which one of the two would have a place that would be. We could get you home to because you have to have somebody at the other.
[01:04:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:04:16] Speaker C: How old are your kids?
Teenagers. That's a pretty good motivation to get back there.
Yeah. Well, that's good. They need you.
Yeah.
Being close to people that need you is going to be really good, man.
[01:04:40] Speaker A: Difficult to find any ground.
[01:04:45] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Do you know, like. Like Alex was saying, are you. Have you ever had food at Blanche house?
Okay, and are you. Do you by any chance get lunch there? Okay. If you want, I can have somebody meet you at lunchtime and we can talk about getting you arranged to get your ride home. There's a ride home program, right?
[01:05:06] Speaker A: Too easy, bro. Too easy.
[01:05:11] Speaker C: Would it be? So here's the thing. Finding you would be difficult without your picture. Would you. Would you give me permission to send the people who would be looking for you your picture?
[01:05:19] Speaker A: We're not the police.
[01:05:21] Speaker C: I'm not policeman. I do security work. Yeah. I usually do that with the two of us together so that they know that you and I talked. Is that cool? Okay, you want to stand up for me real quick?
Okay.
Yeah, cool.
[01:05:47] Speaker A: Okay, sweet.
[01:05:48] Speaker C: There it is. Right? Okay. I'm not gonna post it anywhere. Only thing I'm gonna do is share that with the people who help me.
[01:05:55] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm not worried about it.
Appreciate you reaching out.
[01:05:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:06:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Too easy, bro.
[01:06:02] Speaker C: Yeah.
I got one bottle of water left. Do you want it? Okay. Let me go grab it for it.
[01:06:10] Speaker A: Nice to meet you, bro.
Yeah.
[01:06:16] Speaker C: Hey, Blanche a house at noon, okay? And it's Jojo.
All right? My name is Michael. Okay? All right. Yeah. I'll tell Tiffany, okay, that we're working on getting you back home. Okay? Yeah. And I'll make sure somebody's there to meet you. Okay? When you're there at Blanche A. Okay, there'll be security guards like me, okay? We work for a company called Echelon. You can see. You can come up to any one of us. Okay?
[01:06:46] Speaker A: And.
[01:06:47] Speaker C: And we can find the right people for you, too. So at Blanche A. Will be there, too. Okay. All right. You want a couple more cigarettes? Okay.
There you go.
There you are, buddy. Hey, man. Get home to your family, brother. Okay? We were just. I got kids, too.
They need you.
And you need them just as much as they need you.
[01:07:13] Speaker A: I'm not.
[01:07:13] Speaker C: I'm not here to lecture you. I'm here to be your brother. Can I say something to you that only a friend would tell you? You ready?
So what now? What?
Because that's the bottom line, you know, I mean, you can't, like, look around and be like, this. All this sucks, and not do anything, right. The house only gets rebuilt unless you start swinging a hammer, you know? I'm saying, you got the wood around you. You got the motivation. Let's make it happen. Okay. I'll have somebody there to meet you. Okay. All right. Good to see you, buddy. Okay.
[01:07:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So we saw a guy. We were driving around, looked like he was on the nod, sleeping, you know, with the effects of fentanyl, and turned out to be a great conversation. It looks like we'll be able to get him a bus ticket home. He's from another city in Oregon, and they. That's what needs to happen.
[01:08:11] Speaker C: He's got kids and huge motivation for people to get things straightened out.
They need them just as much as you need them.
You know, kids need their parents. Parents need their kids. Feel for the guy, though, you know, stuck up here in this environment, sometimes tough. It is.
[01:08:29] Speaker A: It is tough. And he was ready. He was done.
[01:08:32] Speaker C: Done. Perfect. Yeah.
[01:08:46] Speaker A: Here we are in the south park blocks.
Beautiful night, and the city actually looks pretty good. I mean, you know, there's a lot of. I think the fentanyl use is really hurting the city, but we don't see a lot of drug dealing right here, and it kind of moves. You know, the police, Portland police are always chasing it. The drug dealers and the criminal organizations are always weaving through the streets, choosing new areas.
And so, you know, one of the questions I've been wanting to ask, you know, your job is really resource management.
[01:09:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:09:21] Speaker A: There's only. There's a finite amount of resources that. That you can use to serve the victims of crimes. And it just seems like in this city, but in all cities, there's a small demographic that's constantly using up all of that criminal justice resource, even emergency management resources.
And so what can we do to better use those resources? What's the best way forward?
[01:09:49] Speaker B: Well, it is. It all comes down to partnerships and using strategic prosecution. I've seen this time and time again where that is. The future of prosecution is using that to really identify those individuals that are having the highest impact on our system. They're really the ones that are taking up all the 911 calls, the ones that are just in and out of, whether it's their fire, medical calls, or police calls, using that data to identify that and then coming up with, really the creative solutions. And how you get creative is by having partnerships. Right. You gotta work with everyone from the folks that are out here. You know, night after night, talking to them, to the treatment agencies and everywhere in between. Because if you want to have long term impact, you gotta, a, know who they are and b, then help them find a way out. But, you know, with that, it's just, it is, it's a situation where you have kind of, you know, a set group of people that are taking up a ton of resources.
[01:10:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:10:52] Speaker C: You know, and we mentioned it earlier that, you know, the call times are out of control and they have been really high for a long time. But I mean, those are just numbers until you're the guy on the phone calling 911.
[01:11:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's something that I know our community is really frustrated with is, you know, know, why is it taking so long to get responses? You know, when you have resources tied up, whether it's police, you know, whether it's nine one callers, if you have so much of it tied up, it becomes a situation where the everyday person that, you know, their grandma, their mother has a medical emergency, there's no one to come and get them. And it takes for forever to get an ambulance to them.
[01:11:29] Speaker A: And as violent crime increases, you know, you're gonna have more than one or two police officers on a murder scene. You go to a murder scene, you'll have a coroner, two detectives, multiple police officers holding the scene. Cause you can't go back without a warrant, these things. And, you know, as that level, if we allow crime to continue to become more and more violent, the home invasions, the carjackings, right. We're gonna see those resources dwindle. It's gonna dwindle.
[01:12:00] Speaker B: We're in a situation where if you have a single homicide, it takes almost all the resources out of the city. If you have two. We're in a real world of herd and it's become a situation where sadly, with what we've seen, with the homicide rates the way they are, it's crazy.
But Portland is actually the leading city on the west coast for homicides right now.
When you look at, if you take, wow. If you take San Francisco and Seattle and you combine them, they still don't have as many homicides as Portland does.
[01:12:31] Speaker C: That's incredible.
[01:12:32] Speaker B: And so that's incredible. You know, you look at these rates and I looked at them just the other day, and, you know, even compared to Los Angeles per capita, we have more homicides, which is still shocking.
[01:12:42] Speaker C: That's incredible, that's horrible.
[01:12:44] Speaker B: But on the, on the west, scary.
[01:12:45] Speaker C: It is scary.
[01:12:46] Speaker B: It's a situation where, you know, I think as a community, we have to come together and say, look, we can do better than this. We can find a way to actually get back to doing the work of holding people accountable that are engaged in really violent conduct and then getting back to a place where, as a community, we can get these horrific, violent crime rates down.
[01:13:10] Speaker A: Well, I can tell you one thing, Nate. It's not going to happen unless we elect you. If we don't elect Nate Vasquez for deputy or for district attorney of Multnomah county, there will be no change. It's time that we leave these legacy models behind, these failed models on the wayside. And we, you know, we're the pioneer state. I think it's time that we're pioneers, because we have to listen, Clark. But it's time that we have a pioneering spirit and we move forward and be progressive and actually make a real change for our community.
[01:13:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's what I'm hoping. With May 21 coming, coming up, it's time for a change. It's time for a change of leadership. We need to get out of this kind of rough cycle we've been into. But I see a lot of hope and a lot of promise for Multnomah county and for Portland. But it's time for a change of leadership.
[01:13:55] Speaker A: If you're out there and you're watching this podcast, this man is living out his dream and his grandfather's vision to serve this community. He's been doing it for 24 years.
Right? He has been here serving you. And it's time that we elect him to be our district attorney. Nate Vasquez, where can they find you? How can they donate?
[01:14:14] Speaker B: Easy way to find me. Just go to my website. It's nathanvasquez.com. And you can go on there. You can learn more about me, all what I stand for. But also, there's a way to donate on there. There's a donate button and go right there.
[01:14:26] Speaker A: Awesome. Please donate, get involved, hit the streets, tell people about Nate Vasquez, and make a difference in the community today.
[01:14:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:14:34] Speaker A: Thanks for coming on the ride along, Nate. Appreciate.
[01:14:36] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you for all your work.
[01:14:39] Speaker C: Thank you.
[01:14:39] Speaker A: Awesome. This was a great ride along. I say we hit the van and maybe cruise down to Cali, some baja tacos. What do you think, man? Berea or just this taco?
All right.
So weren't you. You had a question about the DOJ?
[01:14:56] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay, so as I understand it right now, the DOJ has restricted against or on PPB.
[01:15:02] Speaker B: Yeah. They're under a settlement agreement.
[01:15:03] Speaker C: Okay. So. But doesn't that mean that it also reduces the amount of manpower that you have if there's a certain incident?
[01:15:09] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, what essentially happens is that they have a lot of resources dedicated to the settlement agreement, and whenever there's a use of force incident, they have to have a sergeant come in, interview all the witnesses, and there's just tons of different levels of paperwork that go on and then reviews that happen. And then also a lot of their data analysts are all kind of dedicated to that. So in the end, it just.
