Front Page > Issues > 2004> May

Grand jury triggers more community outrage

Will Perez shooting force real police reform to happen?

“All they knew is that, because of Mr. Perez’s [sic] actions, what should have been a routine traffic stop was deteriorating badly...Every bit of Mr. Perez’s [sic] conduct, every bit of Officer Sery’s training, told him that Mr. Perez was about to shoot him.”
—Portland Police Association
April 22, 2004

Less than one year after the fatal shooting of Kendra James by white police officers, a new fatal shooting by police clears the grand jury. Community leaders demand remedies once again. But will these remedies create institutional change or just political quick fixes?

By Dave Mazza

Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk found himself once again notifying city residents that a white officer who fatally shot a person of color under questionable

ircumstances was not guilty of any crime. Schrunk made that statement on April 22, just two days after convening a grand jury to examine the actions of Officer Jason Sery on the night of March 28, when he and Officer Sean Macomber pulled over James Jahar Perez for failing to adequately signal before turning. The district attorney emphasized that the grand jury’s findings were not “an affirmative conclusion that the use of ‘deadly force’ was appropriate.”

But those words are of little comfort to a community that believes the police bureau is too quick to use deadly force against people of color.

“We feel it [the grand jury findings] indicates exactly what our group has said for some time — the system is broken; the relationship between police and the community is fractured,” stated Marlene Howell of the Alliance for Police and Community Accountability. “The issue is not about one shooting or one police officer; it is about a system that allows that kind of shooting to go unchecked; to terrorize communities of color, and poor people, and gays and lesbians.”

Howell acknowledges that the city has made changes. As a member of the Albina Ministerial Alliance ad hoc committee that looked into police conduct following the Kendra James shooting, Howell and other committee members came up with a laundry list of changes to be made in order to improve the police bureau’s operation and relationship with the community. She commends Chief Foxworth for implementing some of the suggestions found in the committee report, however, it is the surface things that are being implemented rather than those changes that go to the heart of the matter. Foxworth is insuring that officers are sequestered after a shooting, but, Howell asks, where is the revised policy defining specifically when the use of deadly force is permitted? What kind of training goes on and what happens when that training can’t be implemented? It is the absence of change around the bigger issues that Howell finds “very much in keeping with what white supremacy does to keep people of color in their place.”

City officials appear aware of how deep community anger runs, as evidenced by the unprecedented moves taken since the March 28 shooting to keep the community informed. Unlike the Kendra James case, where weeks went by before any information was released, Portland Police Chief Derrick Foxworth began sharing limited information even before meeting with the officers involved. While much of this was about process rather than facts related to the shooting, announcing that the federal government was being invited in to investigate possible civil rights violations marked an openness not previously seen in the bureau.

Official concern inside and outside the bureau was also evident by the fact that Schrunk, Foxworth, Mayor Katz and the City Council, and even the police union felt it necessary to issue statements as soon as the grand jury decided not to indict Sery. In each case, the public inquest was held up as the place where the public could learn the full story.

“It is my hope that the public airing of the evidence will allow members of the community to have accurate information and to make intelligent and informed judgements in this matter,” Schrunk stated in a statement issued to the press on the evening of April 22.

Mayor Katz and the City Council expressed similar sentiments. In a statement released the same evening, they sought to “remind all citizens of Portland that we have not heard all the facts in this case, and that there are additional processes and forums that will provide the public with important information regarding this tragic incident.”

But the inquest is already suffering from a lack of confidence.

“I have no confidence in the inquest; I think it will be a waste of time,” stated Jo Ann Bowman, vice president of the African American Chamber of Commerce. Its to their [Officers Sery and Macomber] disadvantage to testify. But it is my belief that even if they wish to testify, the union and the lawyers will keep them as far away as possible.”

Concerns about what the inquest will accomplish is not just coming from the community, even the district attorney has expressed doubts.

“It is my hope that the public airing of the evidence will allow members of the community to have accurate information and to make intelligent and informed judgments in this matter,” Schrunk stated in his April 22 statement. “The only vehicle I have to make this information available is the inquest. I remain concerned, however, that the inquest - as presently structured - is not the most effective means to do this.”

This absence of infrastructure to address current problems with the police bureau and engaging the public more deeply is in many people’s minds.

“The thing is, the inquest is the only tool we have other than going to the Justice Department, or the FBI, from which we haven’t heard about what they found out about Kendra James,” states Marlene Howell. “Why can’t we create something that is contemporary that meets our needs?”
Bowman concurs.

“No question we need to change the institutions,” Bowman stated. “We absolutely must create a citizen police oversight committee. This auditor-developed system is not serving the purpose we thought it was going to serve - more police accountability to the public.”

Both Howell and Bowman see training as another important piece of the puzzle. Bowman has suggested to Commissioner Erik Sten that money needed to be put into training the officers we have rather than hiring new officers. As she notes, “I’d rather have no police officer on my street than an ill-equipped one.”

Howell’s Alliance for Police and Community Accountability is taking specific action on the issue of training. Howell has organized a May 24 meeting between the Portland Police Bureau’s Training Division and the public. The meeting will be used to ask the police about the Albina Ministerial Alliance report on greater citizen involvement by trying to develop a dialogue between the bureau’s training division and the community. The meeting takes place from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the bureau’s North Precinct headquarters.

But this represents only a few items on what most community leaders see as a long laundry list for cleaning up the police bureau. An independent police commission composed of elected officials, police and citizens - common in many larger cities - is an institutional strategy for de-politicizing police work that has been raised in the community. The replacement of the medical examiner with independent investigators for carrying out inquest investigations would help restore trust between the city and the community. Then there’s State Senator Avel Gordley’s bill to make grand jury transcripts available.

The question is, who is going to make this happen? With city elections only weeks away, community leaders have mixed feelings that real change is going to come from that source.
“I think any number of those candidates understand the seriousness of the issue and with the right kind of public pressure may move things along,” stated Howell. “Potter has a better understanding of the police than Francesconi. Busse understands that the issue is really about Portland culture.”

Bowman sees the retention of Foxworth as an important element in bringing about change - that and a willingness to “push the police bureau.”

“It will be interesting,” stated Bowman. “If Tom Potter is elected, he’ll retain Foxworth. Francesconi has remained silent about Foxworth.”

Ultimately, changing the Portland Police Bureau rests in the hands of the community and depends on the community’s ability to develop a broad-based police reform movement with a comprehensive program. That program must look beyond solution of individual problems to developing a strategy for systemic changes within the bureau and city government as a whole.

That’s a tall order, but Portlanders aren’t alone in this struggle. The police accountability movement is a national movement, with significant successes occurring every day. Portland’s police reformers need to reach out to these other communities to learn from them as well as to share our city’s own successes. By doing so, we reinforce the message that we are the real vehicles for change in bringing about better policing and a more just society.

“If human beings can construct these things, we can deconstruct and reconstruct them in a better, more just way,” stated Marlene Howell.

Dave Mazza is editor of The Portland Alliance.