Dang. Progressives.
And NORTHWEST progressives at that - Oregon, in fact. I almost feel like I should finish with a boisterous shout of 'FOR THE WIN!' accompanied by a twinkie sort of person prancing with a My Little Furry trophy.
Alas.
As I haven't one handy, a description of what happened is going to have to do.
A little gruesome background.
In 1994, a 17 or 18-year-old man named Kyle Hedquist was asked by a young teenager named Nikki Thrasher about some items - electronics, rifles, etc. - while they were both at a mutual friend's home. Unbeknownst to the visiting Thrasher, Hedquist had stolen those very things during a burglary at his aunt's house and stashed them at his buddy's.
Thrasher's completely innocent questions freaked Hedquist out so badly that he lured the young woman into his truck on a pretext. He then drove her down one of the ubiquitous, isolated logging roads in the area and executed her with a bullet to the back of the head, throwing her body in a nearby ditch afterward.
All premeditated and planned in order to prevent himself from being fingered as the burglary suspect.
...Law enforcement officials described the killing as cold blooded execution style violence. This was not a crime of passion. It was a conscious decision to end a young woman’s life in order to avoid accountability. Prosecutors later stated that Hedquist admitted the motive was to prevent her from going to police.
Hedquist admitted to the killing. In 1995, he was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to life without parole, with an additional sentence of 80 months for a first-degree robbery charge and three kidnapping counts in a separate incident.
Obviously a stellar citizen.
Fast forward twenty-seven years.
In 2022, uber woke former Oregon Governor Kate Brown inexplicably commuted Hedquist's sentence. Even more unforgivable was the fact that Nikki Thrasher's family was never consulted or even notified by the state at any time during the process that her murderer was not only going to be eligible for parole, but when he walked out of prison a free man over the objections of multiple law enforcement officials.
...Despite the severity of the crime and the original life sentence imposed by the court Hedquist’s punishment was reduced when Kate Brown commuted his sentence in two thousand twenty two making him eligible for release decades earlier than intended. That decision drew immediate condemnation from law enforcement leaders across Oregon.
Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin publicly opposed the clemency calling the murder calculated cold blooded and execution style. He said the decision to release Hedquist was shocking and irresponsible and that it rejected the justice delivered on behalf of Nikki Thrasher her family and her friends. Hanlin noted that Brown ignored objections from multiple law enforcement leaders including district attorneys and sheriffs who warned against early release.
What many Oregonians did not learn until later was that families of victims were often not properly notified when violent offenders were released under Brown’s clemency decisions. In Nikki Thrasher’s case her mother Holly Thrasher was never informed that her daughter’s killer had been released from prison. She learned only after the fact that the man who executed her child in cold blood was no longer incarcerated.
Victims advocates describe this failure as devastating infuriating and deeply cruel. For families who already endured unimaginable loss the lack of notification felt like a second betrayal by a justice system that claims to prioritize victims while quietly sidelining them.
This is the party of empathy and compassion, right? The party that constantly lectures all of us on right and wrong?
Oh, you bet it is.
It gets worse, as you probably figured.
Somehow, Hedquist got himself unanimously appointed to the Salem City Council Police Review Board in 2024.
EXCUSE ME, WHUT
Oh, yes. And it wasn't until his reappointment came up for this year that someone said, 'Um, like, hey. That guy's a stone-cold killer, FOR REALS.'
The burbling from the Salem City Council was something to behold. Like, 'Why, we don't actually check who people are when they're nominated, you know. HOW AWKWARD FOR US.'
...Hedquist was unanimously appointed to the police review board by Salem City Council in 2024.
His position on the board came under scrutiny due to his past murder conviction and commuted sentence by former Gov. Kate Brown in 2022.
City officials said they recently realized they hadn't done background checks on members, meaning Hedquist's background could make him ineligible for reappointment, because of the city's rules around considering members' criminal history.
And darn if folks aren't being a pain in the butt about reappointing the convicted murderer to the Police Board now.
Dang.
Salem City Councilor Vanessa Nordyke is calling on the city council to revisit in January the reappointment of a Community Police Review Board member with a past murder conviction.
Salem City Council voted 5-4 Dec. 8 to reappoint Kyle Hedquist to the police review board.
Nordyke, who is running against Mayor Julie Hoy, originally voted in favor of Hedquist's reappointment, but said he should be removed from public safety boards after hearing from the Salem Police and Salem Fire unions. She is calling on council to revisit the issue Jan. 12.
Only in Oregon would you get the excuse - with a straight, sincere progressive simper - to keep a convicted murderer on a police review board because he 'brings a unique perspective to the position.'
...Defending his reappointment to the board — whose members train with police and take part in ride-alongs — a Salem councillor praised Hedquist for the “perspective” he brings.
Hedquist “brings a perspective that most of us don’t have,” Ward 6 City Councilor Mai Vang said in a video shared on Facebook following the Dec. 8 vote.
True, it is perspective we don't have because the vast majority of us are not murderers.
...“As someone who’s been through the criminal justice system, he understands community safety from a different angle. He’s one voice among nine — he’s not running the show, but his experience matters,” she added.
She added that since Hedquist is ineligible for ride-alongs due to his felony conviction, the city will waive the rule that applies to other board members.
“Kyle’s recent work shows he’s genuine about turning his life around and using his experience to help others. And honestly? If any of us needed a second chance, we’d want the same consideration,” Vang said.
You get second chances for working and supporting yourself, not for jobs in the public sector dealing with the very people who had to pull that girl's body out of a ditch because of your bullet in the back of her young head.
It's kind of different from getting fired for over-salting someone's fries at McDonald's, but I wouldn't expect a progressive to understand that.
The Salem board MAY, might, kinda, maybe, sort of will think about whether they keep Hedquist on or not.
It won't come down to courage of convictions.
It'll come down to how much heat they have to take.
But Nikki Thrasher was a foster kid, so trash to these progs in any event, and a convicted murderer who cleans up so nice is, like, sweet, you know?
OREGON — Kyle Hedquist murdered a teenage girl execution-style, left her body on a country road, and was sentenced to life in prison.
— Taren Feist (@tarenfeist) December 27, 2025
He was released early by Democrat Governor Kate Brown — and now Salem put him in a public safety oversight role.
Oregonians… are you tired of… pic.twitter.com/IeBpuwjntA
You can brag about him at your book club meetings and such.
All the other Karens will be so jelly it's almost worth it.
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