SERVING JUSTICE INSTEAD OF THE POLICE:

"What we're doing is recognizing that the right to speak and have your voice heard is extremely important," Schmidt said. "If you're out there committing violence, you're damaging property, those cases are going to be prosecuted. If you're a person who is out there demonstrating and you get caught up in the melee, those are the kinds of cases that we're talking about."

His statements came during his first news conference at the Multnomah County Courthouse since he took over Aug. 1 as the county's top prosecutor, running on a platform of progressive reform to reshape the criminal justice system.

Schmidt was surrounded by four Black leaders from Portland who are part of his 15-person transition team, a rare display of public collaboration between community members and a Multnomah County district attorney, especially one just days into his new job.

The changes, he said, reflect his recognition that people taking to the streets are deeply frustrated by over policing and disparate treatment of people of color and that his office doesn't want to further perpetuate the deep-seated problems.

Schmidt said many of the people arrested over 75 days of consecutive daily demonstrations have little to no criminal histories and prosecuting them would cause unnecessary harm.

"This policy acknowledges that centuries of disparate treatment of Black and brown people have left people with deep wounds,'' he said. "This policy recognizes in order to advance public safety, we must not only prevent crime but we must also promote economic and housing stability, educational opportunities, strong family and community relationships, mental and physical health and build trust with everybody in our community."

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