Dave Frohnmayer

Media Watch

David (Dave) B. Frohnmeyer died on March 9, 2015 at age 74 in Oregon.

Quote Frohnmayer

He was the Oregon Attorney General from 1981 to 1991, Dean of the University of Oregon School of Law from 1992 to 1994, and President of the University of Oregon from 1994 to 2009.

He is particularly well known among former commune residents for his relentless pursuit of all matters Rajneeshpuram. The presence of the commune almost immediately created fear among the local Oregonians – and the few remaining residents of Antelope. Hence the destruction of the commune became a crusade for Frohnmayer and private activist group 1,000 Friends of Oregon.

The Oregon Alumni Association’s obit shows a photo of Frohnmayer with the following quote:

He obviously didn’t think this should apply to others as well… and actively kept on filing lawsuits as part of a state and federal effort to destroy and shut down Rajneeshpuram.

Also, as Sven Davisson wrote in the Ashe Journal in 2003, “White House documents show that Edwin Meese III, the ‘shadow president’ of the Reagan administration, noticed the Rajneesh ‘situation’ as early as 1982, and in a 1984 interview in The Oregonian, congressman Bob Smith stated he had begun ‘pounding’ the INS to resolve the Oregon-Rajneesh ‘issue’ in April 1982.”

KVAL out of Eugene, called Frohnmayer’s time as the AG among the most turbulent in Oregon history thanks to one man and a Central Oregon commune. “Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers grabbed the headlines, formed their own town and ran afoul of the law.”

“As Oregon’s top cop, Frohnmayer had to face the commune and its foes and enforce the rule of law. Frohnmayer said the commune posed ‘real threats to public peace that we needed to make sure did not result in some horrible Ruby Ridge or Waco type situation, which might easily had happened.’”

For those not familiar with these references, Ruby Ridge was the site of a deadly confrontation and siege in northern Idaho in 1992 with agents of the United States Marshals Service and the FBI involved, and the Waco massacre occurred during the siege of a compound belonging to the religious group Branch Davidians by FBI and Texas state law enforcement and military in 1993: in both cases minority groups were slaughtered by government agents.

And just for the record, sannyasins know this is exactly what would have happened, hadn’t Osho flown out of Rajneeshpuram with the sole purpose that the National Guard (apparently about 4,000 were lined up) would not descend on us and we would have been history.

Bhagawati

Related article Remembering Dave Frohnmayer

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