A man who shot a 19-year-old woman in the back of the head to prevent her from testifying about his burglary activities will now be helping decide how laws are enforced in Salem, Ore.
Because Kyle Hedquist was 17 and therefore legally a minor at the time he callously gunned down Nikki Thrasher in 1994, woke authorities let him out of jail, even though he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown argued in 2022 that the severity and cruelty of the crime were negated by the cold-blooded criminal’s young age, per The UK Daily Mail. Now Hedquist is being rewarded for the fact that he is a deadly criminal by being reappointed to the police review board in Salem.
The Salem City Council first appointed Hedquist to the board in 2024 by unanimous vote. He applied for the position two years after Brown released him from prison.
Unsurprisingly, many locals have protested Hedquist’s presence on the board, especially since he was never even supposed to be released from prison. This seems to be another good reason to bring back the death penalty across America.
Notice that Democrats are always full of empathy for criminals, but not for victims. Brown was delighted to virtue-signal about Hedquist, even though he killed a young woman and ruined her family‘s lives.
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In another example of leftist sympathy for thugs, earlier this month, Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden griped days after another train stabbing that Iryna’s Law, named for the Ukrainian refugee murdered on a Charlotte, N.C., train, will overcrowd the jails. He painted a sad picture of violent criminals’ families deprived of the criminals’ company due to restricted release, as if the criminals were the victims in the situation.
The Daily Mail reported:
Now, the Salem City Council has reappointed Hedquist in a five-to-four vote on December 8, despite his 27-year sentence for the execution-style killing… The 47-year-old was also appointed to the Citizens Advisory Traffic Commission and the Civil Service Commission, an advisory board that oversees traffic and fair employment issues, per KATU2… Board members also train with police and participate in ride-alongs to understand how officers operate.
As mentioned above, Hedquist’s appointments have drawn backlash. Salem Police Employees Union President Scotty Nowning pointed out the craziness: “To think that we're providing education on kind of how we do what we do to someone with that criminal history, it just doesn't seem too smart.”
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Nowning added that comprehensive reform is needed: “If you move him off there, if you don't change your guardrails or what the requirements are to be on there, you could just put someone else on there with, you know, equal criminal history or worse.”
Salem Professional Fire Fighters Local 314 reportedly went so far as to create a website to protest Hedquist’s appointments. “As police and fire professionals in the Salem community, we are asking Salem residents to stand with us. Tell [the council] to reconsider this decision and fix the mess that they created,” they urged.
No convicted murderer should be on a police review board, even if he was a legal minor when he blew out a young woman’s brains to cover his criminal tracks.
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