Small world

Remember Brandon Mayfield? If you were around and paying attention during the Bush-Cheney "War on Terr," you might. If not, Wiki can bot-splain it to you:

Brandon Mayfield (born July 15, 1966) is a Muslim-American convert in Washington County, Oregon, who was wrongfully detained in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings on the basis of a faulty fingerprint match. On May 6, 2004, the FBI arrested Mayfield as a material witness in connection with the Madrid attacks, and held him for two weeks, before releasing him with a public apology following Spanish authorities identifying another suspect. A United States DOJ internal review later acknowledged serious errors in the FBI investigation. Ensuing lawsuits resulted in a $2 million settlement. An initial ruling declared some provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act unconstitutional, but the United States government appealed, and the ruling was overturned at the Ninth Circuit level on technical standing grounds.

These days Mayfield is back to being a lawyer, practicing his profession in Beaverton. He seems to have escaped the limelight, finally, which I'm sure is a relief to him.

I would have forgotten about him if it weren't for this blog post, pointing out that his daughter, Sharia, is running for Multnomah County chair. The younger Mayfield, educated at Stanford and then at Georgetown Law, is an attorney herself.

I don't think she'll get elected – she's pretty green – but she's saying some things I could get behind. Like:

Let’s be real. Ask anyone with eyes and they’ll tell you our County is in decline with heaps of garbage, biohazards, and multiple growing emergencies. In 2021, federal analysis showed that Oregon jumped to having the second highest unsheltered population in the entire US right after California..., even though the County acknowledged we were in a homeless “emergency” all the way back in 2015 and could have prevented this. More recent studies show us enduring record gun violence, homicide and traffic deaths, the worst drug addiction treatment in the US, abysmal graduation rates, and exploding crime, all while shouldering some of the highest tax burden in the nation. Now, more than ever, we need a leader with direction and purpose to help heal this County....

Sharia is the only candidate to unequivocally say we need to create alternatives immediately and enforce unsanctioned camping laws. Urban camping is unsanitary and inhumane, and costs the County thousands of taxpayer dollars in endless cleanups. Sharia supports a sanitation-first, treatment-first model to end homelessness (similar to Amsterdam’s model). The very first step is setting up sanctioned camp areas with hygiene services like toilets, shower, laundry, and garbage removal services, to act as a stepping stone. In addition to designated camp areas, Sharia supports rapid construction of rest villages, pod cities, RV parks, and shelters, with concurrent enforcement of the unsanctioned camp laws. Getting people into designated areas streamlines expenditures and connects people to a fixed address so they can get SSDI benefits if eligible, and relieve some of the local taxpayer burden. 

Put simply, everyone person on the street must be accounted for and in sanitary locations. For those wanting to improve their situation, we help them, some needing only a rent voucher to get back on their feet. Those who are violent must be arrested for the safety of others, and those with dangerous mental illness need to be civilly committed for evaluation and treatment....

Sharia is encouraged that a Behavioral Health Resource Center is geared to open in Portland in 2022, and believes it will provide a key component to the solution. She also supports increased funding into dual-diagnosis treatment centers (to treat substance abuse and mental health together), especially for those on the streets, as the newest Domicile Unknown report shows that 49% of deaths of people living on the streets involved methamphetamines. We cannot let people shoot themselves up until they die in a ditch, or alone in housing. We need to encourage people to get help, and mandate it for those who are imminently dangerous.

Even if she doesn't get enough traction to prevail in her current campaign, Mayfield the Younger seems to be a person worth watching, no pun intended.