Sweet Home’s city councilors made a public statement against racism in the community at their Jan. 25 meeting.
The declaration stems from a Jan. 7 incident at a Sweet Home High School wrestling tournament featuring area schools.
A video from that evening subsequently posted to Facebook shows a Lebanon High School junior named Darius Freeman, who was participating in the tournament, in a cowboy hat among a group of students who had placed in the event. A man approaches the group, speaks and extends his hand. Freeman removes the hat, which the man takes and walks out of frame.
Freeman later told KEZI-TV News, “[S]omebody comes up to me and says, ‘I’m going to return this to the rightful owner,’ and he takes off my hat. I just feel out of place, embarrassed, and like I just didn’t want to be up there. Because everybody was right there behind the camera, just looking, and it made me feel awkward.”
In the same interview, 38-year-old Travis Freeman, the youth’s father, said he was seeking an attorney to pursue the case as a civil rights issue.
Police Chief Jeff Lynn said Monday, Jan. 31, that his department has completed an investigation of the incident and has forwarded results to the Linn County District Attorney’s Office.
“The DA’s Office is the final charging authority,” he said. “We wanted them to take a look at everything. Those aren’t easy questions. We are combining an era of free speech with bias crimes.”
At the council’s Jan. 25 meeting, Mayor Greg Mahler read a “Proclamation Denouncing Racism in Sweet Home” signed by all seven councilors. “We are grieved and deeply saddened to hear that a neighbor has been poorly treated while visiting our community,” it read. “We ask for forgiveness for any people who have ever been harmed directly or indirectly by our community in the past.”
“History has tragically taught us what happens when people stand by and allow acts of hatred to occur. We desire to train our young people to honor all people, and strongly encourage all leaders, guardians, parents and teachers to teach those in their care to demonstrate equal respect, sincere appreciation, and care for everyone.
“The Sweet Home City Council denounces all forms of racism and asks our community to look deeply and continuously into their hearts and minds to identify all signs and vestiges of racism; to rebuke the use of racist language towards others; to root out such racism in daily life and daily encounters with persons we may know and with strangers we may not know; and to expand our consciousness to be more aware and sensitive to expressions of racism and racial stereotypes.”
“I want to say thank you (for making the proclamation),” Councilor Angelita Sanchez said. “As a person of color, it means a great deal to me and my family, as well as people that come into this community, to know that we do not accept that type of behavior. I appreciate the fact that forgiveness was asked for.
“For me personally, my family has been harmed by racial stereotyping, name calling, and profiling. I spoke to my daughter when I ran for a city council position, telling her that one person could make a change in racism in this community. And I feel as though I was able to give her my word that I would make that happen, and because you allowed this proclamation for our city council to be said, I’m very proud of this moment in our town.”
“There is no room for racism in this town. None,” Mahler replied.
Also at the meeting:
n The council voted unanimously to use $10,000 in economic development funds for the purpose of supporting a Sweet Home Economic Development Group (SHEDG) spring event, as well as a series of weekly June “Tune-up Tuesday” concerts leading up to the Oregon Jamboree Music Festival, which runs from July 29 to July 31. (Last year’s inaugural series took place in late August, in the parking lot west of the Rio Theatre.)
Festival Director Robert Shamek said that the spring event would be a “music and brews” fest featuring on-site vendors.
“Anyone can come in at certain set hours, and then at night you’d have to have a ticket to watch the bigger acts,” he explained.
Shamek said he was looking into putting up a tent on the old tennis court property on Long Street’s north side, across from Sweet Home High School, but wasn’t sure if the school district would permit the sale of alcohol there during the event. SHEDG is also looking into the Boys and Girls Club and a few private parking lots as other potential locations.
Shamek thinks the 2022 Jamboree will be a good one.
“We have been doing a remarkable job this year of putting our talent together,” he said. “Our lineup is pretty awesome this year.”
He added that the Jamboree will once again host “a big kick-off party” the Thursday before the festival. Vendors and live music will be part of the day and evening.
“It’s always fun,” he said. “It’s open to the general public. We are bringing in a national act for that this year, which we haven’t done much of in the past. It should have a better draw for the community. We’re excited to still be alive. COVID was a tough road to go down for the Jamboree. Luckily we were able to have our event in 2021, and it did really well for us, so we’ve survived to have another event.”
He noted SHEDG’s focus on bolstering Sweet Home’s economy.
“SHEDG is all about bringing people into Sweet Home. If we can make a few bucks, it’s great, but we don’t necessarily have to. It’s all about bringing money into our town, and bringing people into town to spend their money.”
According to Shamek, the group contributed more than $30,000 to school groups last year, such as the football, soccer, and baseball clubs that helped with the Jamboree.
In the future he wants the Jamboree to focus on putting on events held solely in the city.
“We’ve kind of gone away from hosting other events outside of Sweet Home. We used to do events in Corvallis, Bend, and Portland,” he said. “But the SHEDG board’s mission is that everything we do, we bring it to Sweet Home.”
— The Sweet Home Police Department swore in Officer Jake Castadio.
“We are super-excited to have him on, and we look forward to seeing what he does here in our community,” Captain Jason Ogden said.
Castadio grew up in Morro Bay, a coastal community in California. He went to school for computer science and computer networking, but decided once he got into that career field that “it wasn’t really for him, and had a calling to become a first responder,” Ogden said.
Castadio moved from California to Oregon in 2019.
— Mayor Mahler selected Sanchez as the city council’s Managed Outreach and Community Resource Facility policy board member.