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Commissioners consult with prominent Black Lives Matter activist on Portland police contract
Posted Mar 14, 2019
AP DeRay Mckesson pictured in Baltimore on March 26, 2016. Mckesson spoke with city of Portland officials Thursday about the local police union contract. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
Staff for Portland Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly met Thursday with national Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson to strategize over the city labor contract with the Portland police officers’ union, an official in Hardesty’s office said.
Mckesson, 33, met with the officials as part of his work managing Campaign Zero, a group that reviews police union contracts nationwide and points out what it says are policies that shield officers from accountability for misconduct.
Campaign Zero’s analysis of the Portland police contract pointed to what the group says is problematic language that restricts questioning of officers, gives officers undue access to information about investigations of which they are targets, and limits officer discipline and recordkeeping of misconduct.
Daryl Turner, the police union president, declined to comment.
The official in Hardesty’s office said Mckesson gave “a detailed presentation about policing, contracts, accountability and their relationship to violence.”
Also present at the meeting were members of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, a faith-based group seeking greater police oversight.
Baltimore-based Mckesson wears many hats: Civil rights activist, author, podcast host and one-time mayoral candidate, among other work. He was in Portland on Wednesday for a taping of his podcast, Pod Save the People, for which Hardesty was a guest. Hardesty’s office asked him to extend his trip to give a briefing on the police contract, the official said.
Mckesson tweeted his take on Thursday’s meeting to his more than 1 million Twitter followers, saying he led a talk with “activists and advocates” to “discuss avenues for structural change.”
“It was incredible to be in a room of such solution-oriented advocates ready to do deep, sustained work. I’m pumped!” Mckesson’s tweet said.
We led a worksession today with activists and advocates in Portland today at City Hall to discuss avenues for structural change. It was incredible to be in a room of such solution-oriented advocates ready to do deep, sustained work. I’m pumped!
The official in Hardesty’s office said the commissioner, who has long been an advocate for police reform, will ask Mayor Ted Wheeler to schedule a public briefing led by Mckesson. The official asked not to be named because Hardesty had not authorized the aide to speak on the record.
Wheeler’s spokeswoman, Eileen Park, said such a briefing would need to be approved by the mayor and commissioners’ chiefs of staff and no such discussion has taken place. A spokeswoman for Eudaly didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.
The city’s contract with the Portland Police Association, the union representing rank-and-file officers, doesn’t expire until June 2020. Negotiations on a new contract are all but sure to draw a spotlight to City Hall, given tension between the police and public over officials’ handling of violent protests and officers’ shooting people of color or people experiencing mental illness.
