Elected through Terror

Untitled Part 14

On January 7, 2015 I took Office. I, along with other newly elected officials, took my oath from the Circuit Court Judge.

I was surrounded by family and friends as my wife pinned the Sheriff's badge on my chest.

While I had very limited contact with the Rajneesh, until I took Office, in comparison to the rest of the county residents, I did have to spend more time and energy dealing with their issues once I took Office.

There were things that were obvious to me and as I go over this period of time in my writings I think I have garnered a little more insight into the mind of the leaders.

I am not a psychiatrist, just my feelings, as a person and law enforcement officer, from what I observed and heard – some from their own mouths – about Rajneesh and his key leaders.

The Rajneesh accused the local people of being prejudiced towards them because of their religion.

While the locals didn't understand the Rajneesh religion most of them really didn't care.

It wasn't the religion they disliked; it was the arrogant attitudes and the methods the sect used to get their way. If they didn't get their way they would retaliate any way they could and screaming religious discrimination was just one of them.

The Rajneesh had a very low opinion of the local citizens, shown by their condescending attitudes and actions.

Most of the leaders were highly educated and had come from a background of privilege, by their attitudes you could tell they felt the local citizens were uneducated, unsophisticated and fools. They felt they could easily manipulate or intimidate them.

Sheila, Rajneesh's closest confidant and his voice to the world, came from a wealthy family in India. As we know India has a caste system and Sheila's status was at the top of the system. Bhagwan was a religious guru and felt entitled to be praised and given special privileges; the lavish wealth bestowed on him by his followers did nothing to discourage that feeling.

Rajneesh, Sheila and some of his followers fled India as the government was starting to come down on them for some of their practices and failure to pay taxes.

They found their way to America and stayed on the East Coast while Sheila went about the country looking for a large isolated property where they could build an empire. It had to be large acreage and not easily observed by the outside world.

Unfortunately, for her and Rajneesh, those kinds of properties were in the western part of the United States.

While America doesn't have a caste system, there are those that believe we have a class system – which is true to a point - those at the top often feel they are more important that those below them. However, the farther west you come the less importance is placed on class and money and more importance on how hard you work.

The people that owned the kind of property Sheila was looking for had grown up working side by side with their employees. These people were not afraid to get their hands dirty by working hard.

This size and type of property usually denotes cattle or sheep, not hands clean living. The neighbors of these people were of the same basic cloth.

Sheila found the Muddy Ranch and as they drove down, quickly concluded this is where they should go. This is where they would build their empire but concealing it by saying they were a group of agriculture enthusiasts willing to try new methods in farming.

The land had a few hundred acres of farm land. The rest of the 64,000 acres was hills, valleys, dry land and scrub brush. It was rocky and not conducive to farming. I will give a better description of the property and its isolation as I relate my first trip to the ranch in 1985.

Their stated intent was to bring Rajneesh and a small number of followers to the ranch for agricultural purposes – trying new techniques to grow various crops. While they were planning on farming – to a degree, their main plan was to build a great commune with a college and other plans dedicated to the Rajneesh and his teachings. In short they lied.

They began with a lie, and continued to try and live that lie while bringing in more people than they originally said; focusing on building buildings with only a slight nod to farming. Somehow they thought the local people wouldn't notice or they could bluff, bribe or even intimidate them.

They did have several people in the sect that had training and education in the behavioral sciences and they used their knowledge to set up confrontations. However, while some were Americans, they came from larger cities and truly didn't understand all the nuances of ranchers and people living in a rural area in Eastern Oregon – a ranching community made up of independent people.

While they knew the local citizens would be in culture shock over the sect's methods and lifestyle, and they thought they would take advantage of their naiveté, they also had a culture shock coming.

They badly misjudged the citizens of Wasco County and its government.

What you are about to read are generalities, obviously, but based on a common denominator in the county. I also want to make it clear that Eastern Oregon is a far different culture than the more 'metropolitan' areas of Portland, Salem and Eugene, Oregon. Because of that difference it took a lot longer for those Oregon citizens to understand and accept that criminal activity was happening in Wasco County.

The Rajneesh mistook Eastern Oregon hospitality and a laid back easy lifestyle for lazy and uneducated – in short they considered the locals to be just country bumpkins they could manipulate. They had little regard for their worth and could care less if they exploited what they thought were backward people who were beneath them.

The Rajneesh were upset that they didn't get the deference and respect that they were used to getting elsewhere. In their minds they deserved it because of who they were – and they felt they were worthy of high esteem.

The residents of Wasco County are grounded people with common sense and a strong sense of right and wrong.

They are not uneducated and they are not fools.

They are very independent as would be expected from the stock of the pioneers that settled in the area.

They are honest and law abiding and not likely to kowtow to anyone.

They are straight forward in the way they deal with people and are suspicious of those that aren't.

They deal with each other by a nod and handshake and an understanding that each would uphold the verbal contract.