Letters to the Editor: May 30, 2025

Backing the blue

I would like to express my support for the budget committee members who voted to allocate partial funding to mitigate potential position losses within the McMinnville Police Department.

The effects of having fewer positions and understaffed departments have been observed repeatedly. The reality is fewer officers means more crime and less service, while more officers results in less crime and better service.

Numerous studies have supported this, and my prior experience as a police officer confirms it. I have seen firsthand that adequate staffing allows officers to do more proactive work, reducing crime.

I have spent more than 30 years in law enforcement, and am continuing on now as a trainer and consultant. As a police officer, I worked in communities that appreciated and supported our mission.

The agency I retired from recognized the need for a new police station in 2002 and overwhelmingly supported the bond. This led to an immediate boost in morale and allowed the department to provide better service.

Officer recruitment and retention is far more complex than stated in Friday’s editorial.

Police agencies can recruit constantly, filling positions in a never-ending cycle. But if agency leadership or culture is toxic, or city leaders don’t provide support, officers will seek positions elsewhere.

While retention is a complex issue, officer satisfaction plays a significant role. Although I don’t know Chief Wood personally, I’ve heard positive things. I’m hopeful he will identify and address local retention problems effectively.

I also encourage the city council and residents of McMinnville to support McMinnville police officers with a competitive labor contract. That will assist in retaining dedicated, high-quality officers. Retention is much more than pay and benefits, but that is certainly part of the equation.

My personal and professional interactions with McMinnville officers have been overwhelmingly positive. I encourage the residents of McMinnville to actively support Chief Wood and the McMinnville PD.

Kelly Couch

McMinnville

Cold comfort

During the solemn ceremony at Arlington Nation Cemetery on Memorial Day, I was pleased to hear the president and commander in chief of the Armed Forces speak of his own brave accomplishments, including bringing the Summer Olympics and Soccer World Cup to the United States.

I’m sure thousands of people like me, who have lost family members in the service of their country, were comforted.

Barbara Wier

Yamhill

Fire the distortionists

President Trump took office promising to eliminate a “Deep State” that he feared would sabotage his agenda.

Now it seems he has a Deep State of his own: White House staffers who give him false information, making him look like a fool when he repeats their lies in public. Please join me in demanding that President Trump fire these staffers!

This happened most recently when he hosted Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa.

Staffers told our president that white farmers in South Africa were being murdered for their land. As proof, they gave Mr. Trump photos, including one of dead people being zipped into body bags, and videos, including one showing white crosses in a field and lining a highway. The staffers falsely told Mr. Trump that the dead people were white South African landowners and the crosses marked the graves of murdered white farmers.

In fact, the body bag image was taken in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a war is currently raging. The bodies were most likely those of black soldiers and civilians.

The white crosses shown in the video were erected as part of a protest in September 2020, when two farmers were killed — not 1,000, as Mr. Trump was falsely told.

The crosses did not mark anyone’s grave, but instead temporarily commemorated the murder victims. A court found that the killers were after money, not racial vengeance, and put the three men in prison, two of them for life.

While all these deaths are deplorable, allowing members of Mr. Trump’s staff to give false information like this to him both demeans him and embarrasses the United States. These staffers should be fired before they can feed the president more lies.

Susan Watkins

McMinnville