Portland DA Mike Schmidt has Run Off Yet Another Female Employee with the DA's Office. Surprise, Surprise! This is how Woman Haters Operate.

Several women attorneys have been Forced out of their jobs in less than 18 months, & now another woman has been forced out. Due to a hostile “Anti-woman,” work environment created by Mike Schmidt.

PORTLAND, OREGON: On July 7th, 2022, Willamette Week newspaper reported that yet another female employee in the current Portland DA’s office has resigned from her position. In other words, this competent, educated professional, Ms. Vanessa Palacios, along with nine other women attorneys, have been forced out of their jobs in only a few short months due to the blatant sexism and misogyny of DA Mike Schmidt. Ms. Palacios worked as a Victim’s Advocate and a source has told me that her resignation represents a “…devastating loss to the office. She’s incredibly talented and dedicated. She was one of the best advocates in that office.”

This is historic and the silence in Portland media is equally deafening.

Perhaps the media silence is because women’s rights are experiencing a frightening backslide, and the men in Portland media, and/or Portland politics, (the power players who make the big decisions) just don’t care. Its food for thought, isn't it and also not implausible.

The May 2nd 2022 Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion rights really brings the reality of sexism and misogyny home doesn’t it? This backslide in which women are slowly losing their rights, importance or value in the public sector seems to signal a change in the national consciousness, doesn’t it?

But why would this be happening in Portland to such an exaggerated degree? Isn’t Portland known as a place where women are appreciated and respected, or is that changing?

This new woman to leave the DA”s office, Vanessa Palacios, a Victims Advocate, was forced out of her job and has written a scathing letter, just as Amber Kinney also did in January of this year. In this new letter, Palacios blasts Mike Schmidt’s well-known incompetence, and inability to respect or relate well with women attorneys in the DA’s office, accusing Schmidt of not valuing female victims of sex crimes and other victims.

Many of these ten women had careers in the DA’s office that predated Schmidt's own career, with some of them actually having to show Mike the ropes when he became the DA. Palacios is quoted as writing: “Your office is falling apart, and the victims along with it.”

This pattern of experienced women attorneys and victims advocates fleeing the DA’s office, with Mike Schmidt at the helm is frankly unprecedented, but it is more than that, it is again, historic. This scandal will follow Mike for the rest of his career if he makes the mistake of trying to remain in positions of power, involving politics at any time in the future.

Some say Mike has his eyes on the governorship, and if not in Oregon, then somewhere else. They also say that Portland is just a stepping stone in his career path, and that he will be more than happy to leave for brighter shores and salaries when the going gets good.

But wherever Mike goes, the story of these ten women will follow him. And like a bad case of Halitosis, the stink of what he did to these TEN educated and professional women will indeed, linger.

Nothing like this has never happened before, particularly with someone like Schmidt who makes virtue signalling such an art form, patting himself on the back for being what he deems to be a social justice warrior who fights for the rights of those less fortunate, particularly people of color.

The problem is that Mike’s best friends are Antifa militants who get their kicks from looting, arson fires at police stations, assault and even murder. With each passing day, Mike loses credibility.

Back when Mike began as DA, there was a lot of talk about how he would “reform” the justice system in Portland. And frankly, he has. His poor leadership has resulted in a city that is now overrun with gun violence, murder, robbery and rape.

*In 2021, there were over 90 murders. The largest number of murders in the entire city’s history.

Mike has definitely had an impact on Portland, thanks in most part to his youthful inexperience and his abject lack of understanding as to how law enforcement is directly tied to public safety and always will be.

But thanks to the ill-fated and moronic Measure 110, when nothing is illegal, and when there are no rules and no consequences for violent predation, when violent male predators are routinely released by Mike, so they can go on to commit more crimes, including murder, social chaos is the result. When troubled criminals test their limits… on everything the result is sky rocketing crime and a complete lack of public safety. The criminals in Portland are running wild and preying on anyone weaker, more vulnerable, or even those who merely have a different political ideology.

REAL MEN vs. THE BOY.

Longtime DA, Micheal Schrunk, was by all accounts an excellent district attorney for Portland. He was also well-known as being more than able to work well with all people, including women. Schrunk made it a matter of pride to return every phone call or email that he ever got, from people from all walks of life. Whether they were important power players in the Portland political or media scene, or simply the mother or brother of a murder victim, if they called him, he called them back.

Mike Schmidt, by way of contrast, is known for ignoring hundreds of phone calls, emails and faxes from concerned Portlanders, and even powerful Portland business professionals, and other activists, from Portland and from out of state. Mike simply does not return phone calls, emails or faxes. Apparently, he’s got better things to do.

In an Oregonian article Micheal Schrunk is remembered as being a sane, level headed, professional and truly compassionate leader. A man who had respect and regard for everyone he worked with. And that included the WOMEN he worked with.

“Time and time again, those who worked with Schrunk — judges, former prosecutors, defense attorneys, elected officials — say they admire his motto, “Do the right thing, for the right reasons.”

Schrunk was also known for being cool under fire and for being supremely FAIR in his many years as Portland’s DA, handing out fair and reasonable sentences to offenders. When Schrunk could have flashed an ID badge, denoting his importance, or status, so he could cut to the head of the line, he chose to remain waiting at the end of the line, waiting with regular people so he could get into work everyday at the court house. Schrunk’s humility is remembered most of all.

These are all qualities Mike Schmidt lacks: Fairness, humility, genuine compassion for all people and respect.

For some unknown reason, young Mike does not seem able to relate well with women. Mike does not seem able to respect women, listen to women, or value women in any capacity. Mike always makes the right noises about how sorry he is to see these highly qualified women go, but in his case, his actions really do speak louder than words and any genuine regret is simply not present.

If Mike truly valued women in the DA’s office and if he was not continually replacing them with MEN, then perhaps Portland residents might believe he actually values true diversity. But it is clear that Mike does not value diversity.

The reality however, is that Mike is more than happy to see the Amber Kinney’s and Vanessa Palacios of Portland, (women who have worked decades in the DA’s office) leave without so much as a backward glance.

And when he does, Mike Schmidt replaces them with MEN. Frankly, that is not normal. It is not what real men do. It is what a coward does.

This pattern of promoting men at the expense of women, this pattern of creating a hostile work environment, due to Mike’s natural sexism is really quite significant. It is significant because it shows a man who is male identified and male dependent, at the expense of women in his professional circles. This pattern is extremely dangerous for what it communicates to the men in his office and any women who might want to work in the Portland DA’s office, as well.

What it communicates to the men in his office is that its okay if a woman loses her job due to a hostile, sexist work environment and that its okay if men are then replaced in every one of those positions.

It communicates that MEN are more important and women are NOT important.

This pattern, of creating hostile work environments for women, and then replacing them with men further shows a man who likely has serious issues communicating with women, along with a man who likely has poor intimate relationships with women.

Mike seems to prefer men to women in the workplace and in so doing, I believe he actively embraces patriarchal culture in the process.

When Amber Kinney and Vanessa Palacios say that Mike Schmidt has destroyed diversity in the DA’s office, and put the office back 40 years, they’re not just making weak accusations, they are making sound and reasonable declarations that can easily be proven by statistics.

One can only wonder what Schmidt’s wife, Clare Schmidt thinks, knowing as she does that her husband has repeatedly and consistently undermined the professional success of competent and respected women attorneys and Victims Advocates. These women attorneys and advocates acted as the tireless defenders for victims of sexual violence who are more often than not children, with a larger portion being young girls.

Does Clare Schmidt think about this? Is she a feminist, or merely an obedient mouse who does what her husband tells her to do, to say, or think? Does Clare object to the way her husband is treating the women in his office, or does she approve?

It would be interesting to know what the wife of DA Mike Schmidt actually thinks about the fact that nine women attorneys, and a respected Victims Advocate felt so unsupported, ignored and cast aside that they all chose to resign, rather than work for Mike Schmidt any longer, the man she chose to marry and have two children with.

Mike Schmidt's eager wife, Clare Schmidt.

It appears that if one is a criminal, a man, and a person of color, then Schmidt will go out of his way to fight for their rights and release them again and again, earning the nickname, “The Catch & Release Guy.”

But professional women working in his own office and female sexual assault victims are not deemed important to Mike Schmidt. He demonstrates this by virtue of his lack of interest in advocating for them and this accusation has been leveled against him repeatedly by these ten women.

To anyone of average intelligence it is obvious that Schmidt does not value women in any capacity and that he uses microaggressions, in the form of sexist passive aggressive behavior to create an atmosphere where women do not feel valued, listened to or even protected from the sexual advances of other men in the office. Read the letter by Amber Kinney in the active link above, to get more details on that issue.

Mike Schmidt, the troubled and beleaguered Portland DA seems to be flailing about and with each passing day more rumors of his abject incompetence flows out of the DA’s office.

Micheal Schrunk and Rod Underhill were both competent, respectful and well-balanced men who valued the role of women in the DA’s office and supported them as well in that capacity.

Micheal Schrunk once said: “You’ve got to have the confidence of the public in what you’re doing.” Portlanders did have confidence in Micheal Schrunk, and in Rod Underhill, as well, because they knew they were balanced men and not radicals. They knew they appreciated women, and that they genuinely liked women.

This will be Mike’s biggest challenge. To live down the fact that in only a few short months, nine women attorneys and a highly respected Victims Advocate left his office due to his inability to treat them with the respect, appreciation and regard that men like Micheal Schrunk and Rod Underhill were known for, citywide, in how they treated all people, and most definitely women.

Young Mike has some very large shoes to fill and frankly, he’s simply not going to be able to do it.

~Theresa Griffin Kennedy