Knopp intros bill to make ‘terroristic threat’ a felony

(Update: Knopp intros bill to create felony for threatening ‘terroristic act’; DA Hummel also supports move)

Senator Tim Knopp (R-Bend) introduced on Monday the -27 amendment to Senate Bill 1543, adding the crime of threatening to commit a terroristic act to Oregon’s criminal statutes. It’s a move supported by the superintendent of Bend-La Pine Schools, which has dealt with a rash of threats of violence in recent days, as well as the Deschutes County district attorney.

Currently, there is a gap in Oregon law as it relates to people who make threats to cause mass casualties, Knopp said in a news release.

If an individual makes a threat but does not take observable steps to carry out the threat, prosecutors struggle to find a statute that fits. In these cases, DA’s must look to menacing, disorderly conduct, and harassment charges in order to prosecute threatening individuals, and this only allows misdemeanor charges.

“In the days after the horrific events at Parkland High School in Florida, Oregon experienced an upswell of violent, terroristic threats targeting schools and communities across the state,” Knopp said.

“Oregon’s district attorneys are constrained by current law that fails to take into account the unique nature of threats against schools and other public gathering places,” the lawmaker said. “Creating a new statute to address these circumstances will go a long way in deterring future threats and punishing individuals who threaten the well-being of our kids, families, and communities.”

Similar to existing laws in other states, the law would criminalize making a terroristic threat, which is the threat to commit a crime that will result in great bodily harm, regardless of whether the person intended to carry out the threat.

This would help prosecutors charge individuals who don’t fall under disorderly conduct, menacing, or harassment statues and creates a criminal penalty commensurate with the harm caused by such a threat.

Knopp said the amendment is supported by Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel, Bend Police Chief Jim Porter and the Bend-La Pine Schools.

Amid a string of threats of violence at Bend-area schools and nationwide, Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Shay Mikalson urged lawmakers in a letter sent to parents Monday to create the new felony crime of “terroristic threat” and to fund threat assessment teams for youth in crisis.

In the letter to parents and others in the school community, Mikalson also urged legislators to extend the maximum juvenile detention from 36 hours to 10 days for misdemeanor charges against youth who have threatened others who are accused of weapons offenses.

In his letter, Mikalson also urged parents to secure weapons and pills from children and outlines safety improvements underway or upcoming, including secure lobbies at all schools.

An aide said Knopp testified on his amendment Monday but has been working on it since last week.

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Here’s Mikalson’s letter, in full:

February 26, 2018

Greetings Bend-La Pine Schools Community,

Last week I shared with you a few of the ways that our schools are working to ensure physical and emotional safety at our schools. Today, I want to share with you the ways that you can join me in these efforts. By acting together, we can exponentially increase our positive impact as we continue to advocate for the safe learning environments our students and staff deserve.

Urge Lawmakers to Create New Laws
Please join me in urging our elected official to create new laws that immediately help to improve school and community safety throughout Oregon. Our elected officials are receiving many big asks right now, so I have identified three that I believe are easy to implement now, during their short session.

I am asking lawmakers to:
1. Create a new crime in Oregon of terroristic threat at a felony level.
2. Fund threat assessment teams to provide threat assessments to youth in crisis.
3. Extend maximum detention from 36 hours to 10 days for misdemeanor charges filed against youth with weapons offenses or who have made threats against others.

I sent messages to our state representatives and senators this morning urging their support of these school and community safety efforts that I believe must be moved to law during the current short session. You can see these letters and learn more about these asks at http://www.bend.k12.or.us/letters

Secure Weapons, Pills from Children
I plead that you take a moment to secure weapons and pills in your homes in ways that do not allow access to children. It is important to understand that everyone experiences tough times. During these tough times, it may be best to give your weapons or pills to a friend for safekeeping. Temporarily holding pills, a gun, knife or other weapon for a loved one or friend can help that person get through stressful periods safely. It is a temporary step until things get better.

Additionally, our friends at the Bend Police Department are offering free cable locks. Just drop by their main office to pick one or more up for your home, office or vehicle. Locking up weapons may also reduce the number of stolen guns in our community. On average, in Bend alone, at least one weapon is stolen out of an unlocked vehicle each week. Imagine how – by working together ‑ we could reduce this number dramatically and keep weapons out of the hands of our youth.

Facility Safety Improvements, Including Secure Lobbies
In 2014, we hired an international expert on school safety and his team to assess our school safety practices and to assess our facilities and provide architectural observations. You may have noticed many changes that we have made since this time, including requiring visitors enter through main entries, requiring visitors and volunteers to check-in and out of our schools, locking exterior doors, improvements in exterior lighting and many other efforts.

This assessment suggested the addition of secure lobbies at all of our schools. We successfully piloted a secure lobby design at several school sites before asking voters to fund the construction of secure lobbies at all schools in 2017. Thanks to your overwhelming support of the May 2017 construction bond, work to deliver secure lobbies at our schools is currently underway. The work at the more than 20 school sites was previously planned through the bond to occur over the next four summer construction seasons.

I have been meeting with teams to evaluate how we can speed up this work and we have made a decision to accelerate our schedule. By allowing construction to happen in our schools during the school year, rather than just during the summer months, the work to secure our lobbies will be expedited. As we work through the logistics of the accelerated secure lobby schedule, we will continue to keep families updated.

Visible Visitors, Volunteers and Staff
Until these lobbies are complete, we are making efforts to ensure visibility of visitor access through improved line of sight on entries and diligent supervision. You, too, can help ensure a safer school environment by always checking into our main offices for permission to visit and wearing proper identification. You can also help by sending anyone without proper identification – including our staff – to the Human Resources office for a visitor badge or replacement staff badge.

Counselors and Support Staff

This school year, we added additional counselors to our secondary schools. We currently have more than 30 counselors who meet with students each day at our middle and high schools. In addition, schools have psychologists who provide student support and advocacy at all elementary, middle and high schools. We also employ two full-time therapists who support our highest needs students at our schools in Bend, La Pine and Sunriver.

We staff schools in ways that ensure students have access to mental and behavioral health support at school with the funding available. We could do even more with better support from our legislature. If this is something you are passionate about, I ask that you contact your elected officials to make increased funding available for the hiring of additional positions to support our students’ social and emotional health needs.

Planning, Prevention, Intervention and Response
Safe schools are fundamental to students’ school successes and achievements. Providing a safe and orderly school environment is an ever-present priority of Bend-La Pine Schools. Here, school safety is addressed through a comprehensive approach that focuses on planning, prevention, intervention and response. Systems and programs are in place that create caring school communities where students and staff feel safe and supported. Bend-La Pine Schools is committed to ensuring psychologically safe, healthy learning environments. You can learn more about these efforts by visiting our Emergency Preparedness webpage and our Student Mental Health webpage.

I am thankful for you, our wonderful Bend-La Pine Schools community. Thank you for caring for and supporting not only our students but each other.

Sincerely,

Shay Mikalson, Superintendent, Bend-La Pine Schools

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In response to a question from NewsChannel 21, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel shared these comments on the issue:

I’m supportive of the push for a new crime in Oregon to address threats of mass casualties. There is a gap in Oregon law that makes it difficult to hold people accountable for making threats to cause mass casualties. When someone makes such a threat, often by boasting about their plans on social media, but does not take concrete and observable steps to carry out the threat, prosecutors struggle to find a statute that fits the act.

For example, prosecutors sometimes charge the misdemeanor offense of disorderly conduct (ORS 166.025) which proscribes: “[U] nlawfully and knowingly creating a risk of public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm by initiating or circulating a report, knowing it to be false, concerning an alleged or impending crime, catastrophe or other emergency.” The obvious shortcoming of this statute is the fact it requires the report to be false. But what if the report is true?

For true reports, we often look to the crime of menacing (ORS 163.190) which proscribes: “[I] ntentionally attempt[ing] to place another person in fear of imminent serious physical injury.” It seems like this is a fit, except that Oregon courts have significantly narrowed the scope of this statute. To secure a conviction the state must prove intent to engage in particular conduct and intent to cause the requisite fear. (State v. Durst, 248 Or App 689 (2012). More specifically, the state must show:

(1) That the defendant intentionally engaged in particular conduct (State v. Durst) ; and

(2) That the particular conduct would place a reasonable person ( State v. C.S., 275 Or App 126 (2015)) in fear of imminent physical injury (Durst) , which is injury that creates a substantial risk of death, or which causes serious and protracted disfigurement, protracted impairment of health or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ; and

(3) That the defendant intended the particular conduct to cause that fear ( Durst) .

These additional proof requirements are sometimes difficult to meet because it’s a challenge to know what is going on inside the head of a person who makes a threat. Also, the crimes of menacing and disorderly conduct are misdemeanors when a threat to commit a mass shooting should be treated at the felony level.

What’s the solution? Many states have on their books the crime of making a terroristic threat, although Oregon is not one of them. These statutes generally proscribe making a threat to commit a crime that will result in great bodily harm, regardless of whether the person intended to carry out the threat. Here’s California’s law:

California: Cal. Penal Code § 422

(a) Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her immediate family’s safety, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.

An Oregon terroristic threat law bill would have to be written with precision in order to not run afoul of the free speech protections contained in Article I, section 8 of Oregon’s Constitution. But there is a way to balance free speech rights and the rights of Oregon kids to be safe and secure in our schools.