Lars Larson: The MAC club car bomber. Ignoring red flags.

By Lars Larson
NW and national radio host,

The Northwest Nonsense

After the bombing at Portland’s elite MAC club Saturday morning, Oregon lawmakers could take meaningful action, but I expect they won’t.

Let me explain.

So many people knew the threat that bomber Bruce Whitman posed to the community.

But Oregon’s civil commitment laws forbid actually doing anything about it.

How much proof do you need? After getting fired from his bartending job at the MAC club, Whitman spent the next 7 years demonstrating how dangerous he could be.

Two red flag warnings, restraining orders, publicly confronting people at the place he eventually bombed. Four years ago, the club warned its members to expect Whitman to show up at their HOMES and threaten them.

Seems like plenty of warning to me. But what options do the laws provide?

Lock a nut case up for a few hours or at most a few days. Then cut them loose till they demonstrate a danger to themselves or others. Lather, rinse, repeat.

If there were real public servants working in that big white building in Salem with the bowling trophy on top…they’d call a special session, pass new laws and allow real solutions for the dangerous mentally ill.

That’s the Rose City Rap. Join me at noon on KXL for 4 hours of Honestly provocative talk. I’m Lars Larson