Letters to the Editor  http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/letters  


Denise Ward

I can't get over how they've done this...they have made an ordinary flu look like some rampant virus that will destroy life on earth, that lurks on every surface and every coughette. They've got companies putting up shields and marking floors where to stand. So much do they care about health that they refuse people food if they don't wear a mask in their grocery store.

The planners have got us arguing and that's a good thing. That's what we need. This will backfire on them. We can't go on simply sweeping everything under the carpet.

What our malaise comes down to is an embedded belief that others owe us a living. We think that we can demand of others actions which we believe in. This comes from believing in authority - as you give your power over to someone outside of yourself you divest yourself of power.

And isn't this what the masks represent? A belief that I will reduce my oxygen supply so that you (whoever they pluck - the elderly in this case) see my respect for them.

That's the program they output but respect is selective as virtue signallers ignore so many other deaths - people being bombed in Yemen, Palestine, and the many other countries. Nor respect for the many other illnesses that take people's lives many times over this supposed "covid".

That respect is selective, inkeeping with this hierarchical system. That kind of selectivity ends up being favoritism, discriminaImage may contain: text that says 'WE'RE SUPPOSE ΤΟ YOU'VE CHANGED'tion that no longer sees reason - a normal flu that hasn't killed even as much as the average flu rate. With it plastered over our faces every day is uncountable. This pseudo-crisis is pushed into the forefront of our minds constantly. Repeat, repeat, repeat and eventually they will believe, just like Gobells (sic) or whoever sweet Nazi said.

The underlying belief that grinds humanity is the belief that might is right. Whether it be might in financial strength, or weapons strength or military strength, or muscle strength - this culture the world over, believes from its core, in hierarchy - it believes that I am the boss of you and someone is the boss of me.

A new perspective could be to consider each individual a sovereign individual. And hold this as the new belief. Maybe we'll make up a new word to define this status better as we also update the language.

Believing in your sovereignty and the sovereignty of others essentially translates in practice that workers, parents of children, even custodians of dogs do not give orders. For to give orders means you are bossy and hierarchical and this actually threatens yourself and others. It also means you yourself are bossed, and this acquiesce to wherefore others do not. As below, so above. That's how it goes not the other-way-around. Start with you - you are the core and your efforts ripple outwards. When we do it this way, harmony is achieved. We start with the home where children can see us in action. No need to preach - demonstrate! Children, even adults, need new models now.

Imagine if you will, living in a world like this, where each of us truly believes that we are equally valuable. How would we relate to each other this way? How would it make you feel?

We can be done with the nonsense we are marinating in. We can live on this earth with abundance and stimulation working to get off fossil fuels within 5 years, working to develop systems that reward people for doing the right things by the environment, rewarding people for growing hemp which will be used to make products that are environmentally beautiful and sustainable. We remove the use of pesticides because we believe that all life is valuable. We discover new ways of coexisting with insects while also receiving more abundance of food from the earth. We work in alignment with mother. We give the miscreants a five year plan so they have time to reform. Nobody gets killed. No blood is spilled. It's much easier than having a traditional revolution.

We would live in a world of free speech, where all information is available to all for free. We can say anything we like and if people get offended, then they can say anything they like back. We all find ways of coexisting.

The internet is so much fun - we'll develop it further. We'll have ratings on profiles so people can see how others experienced a person. This is how we can see good people or trolls really quickly and easily.

Facebook lags in innovation. There is much more we can do with this technology. There is more we can do with it even in its current state, (which we're not utilizing) but there is a plethora of fabulous tools we could be using it for if it were free to advance, or if we used another platform dedicated to this. Consensus will be the new politics. It will make politics obsolete.

We are being held back. We've been mercilessly abused. We've been farmed. But it was only able to be done through our unawareness. Realization is everything. It only takes a spark and the whole box of matches will go off. That's the beauty of exponential growth. Nothing can stop exponential growth. And it can tip in an instant."

Jacob Andoy Bureros

July 1 at 2:16 AM · 

"I'm safe.
I hope everyone is okay.
The Portland Police lost control tonight.

The only reason I made it home safely tonight is because my community had my back.
The Police declared a public disturbance right as we arrived, before anything could even be disturbed, and they attacked us minutes later.

In spite of a national moratorium and a restraining order, the police used tear gas on a crowd that included children, in the neighborhood filled with families, families who were on their porches supporting the people.  

Police targeted streamers and journalists who were documenting their crimes, brutalizing them while screaming "stop resisting" to people who were laying on the ground with their arms covering their heads.

Police shot impact munitions and pepper bullets at people who were doing nothing but standing on a sidewalk or in the blocked off road, deliberately shooting people in the face, neck, and groin.
Police deliberately hit people in the head with batons and trampled over those who were doing nothing but peacefully sitting in protest of police brutality.

Tonight, the Portland Police broke the national moratorium on the use of teargas in non-life-threatening situations.
Tonight, the Portland Police disregarded the local court order banning the use of teargas in non life-threatening situations.
Tonight, the Portland Police broke their contract with this city and they need to be held accountable.
The Portland Police ignored the Constitution of the United States and stole our first amendment right to assemble.

If the police are the ones who are breaking the law - ignoring our protections under the Constitution, ignoring a national moratorium on teargas, ignoring a direct order from a judge - if the police are the criminals, and if the mayor supports their criminal activities, what recourse do the people have?

If the police can break any law whenever they want, without consequence, if they can target journalists, if they can brutalize peaceful protesters, if they can gas an entire neighborhood filled with families, if they are exempt from acknowledging the protections of the Constitution of the United States - and there is literally nothing we can do about it because City Hall said so in the contract they signed with these pigs, then it is the DUTY of the mayor and City Hall to end this contract that endangers the entire city.

It is a contract that allows the police to do anything they want to anyone in Portland for any reason that they see fit, and have zero consequences for it.
This is the contract that the mayor signed with these animals.

I want to file a lawsuit. I want to take every possible peaceful step to find recourse. I want to believe that there is a legal way to get justice. Because if we cannot find recourse politically, peacefully, then it confirms that we don't live in a free country. If we don't live in free country, then we live under tyranny. If we live under tyranny, then it is our duty - to ourselves, to our children, and to future generations - to fight for our liberation by any means necessary. And believe it or not, that is the last thing I want.

Governor Kate Brown
Senator Jeff Merkley
Earl Blumenauer
Tina Kotek

Is there any recourse for the people? Or are you powerless to control Ted Wheeler and his state sanctioned goon-squad?
Please respond.

When you are silent in the face of injustice, you are complicit."


 


Jennifer Robin

Portland: Last night I watched friends’ live feeds from the protests. Tonight (and I do feel nervous about it) I’m going in. I’ll tell you about last night: Many feeds, more than one protest. The first gatherings on the Burnside Bridge (where thousands demonstrated a “die-in”) and in Pioneer Square (with an original Black Panther as speaker) were peaceful, packed, and well-documented, and not brutally BATTERED by cops, but as the night progressed, the militarized police got impatient to reinforce their lie that peaceful protestors are having “Unlawful Assembly” by using, you know, tear gas and rubber bullets banned by the Geneva Protocol.

I watched as multiple rounds of tear gas were fired (at least four, and likely more, depending on what corner you were on, because the cops were wheeling around madly, in their cars and on their robotic intercom troop transport trucks, dangling off the sides in their obscenely expensive crustacean gear, dozens more unloaded from cars in black street beat uniforms, clubs and rifles, on foot, bodies casting deformed yet strutting shadows through the fog of canisters already spent.

Do you know how brave a peaceful protestor is to stand up to this night after night? Fucking brave. I kept on thinking of a scene from a Clockwork Orange, bodies strutting like blood clots in a haze—do you know what a cop's strut is like? Do you know how a bully rolls through the air? Do you know the smirk of a coward who is made bold because he is surrounded by a thousand more cowards in magic robot shells, and they think this is their chance to annihilate what they are afraid will take over?

How much strength would it take for a cop to escape this system, and repent? I hope many do, but I’m not holding my breath. Last night they chased people from corner to corner like in a video game, taunting, firing, like the thugs they have been trained for decades to be. Dozens of peaceful protestors were retching in the streets and wherever they could find shelter for a moment, because the gas gets into every part of you. Word is that the police may be unveiling LRAD tonight (sonic disorienters) as well.

Do you know what it’s like to run, blinded by gas, unable to open your eyes for two blocks because it stings so much, but you have to keep being alert, because these people are still after you, waiting to shoot at your head because you are still standing? I do. Years ago I was sprayed in my face, so close I saw the gleam on the canister, the woman cop’s eyes, four feet from me, she aimed at my face and squirted. It changes you. It does happen here.

If nothing else in your life has up to this point made you feel like this is NOT your country, being gassed, shot at, and arrested may do the trick. This is what happens when you stand in solidarity with those most abused by this militaristic nightmare known as America.

As the night of a protest progresses, the Occupying Force hold as their objective surrounding and throwing down anyone left standing. Every man, woman and child must GO DOWN. It can be a group of people, or a single person. The Occupying Force surrounds, the blood song takes over. Like cats exhaust their prey, wear it down with each bite, each scratch, each chase, each block, until the prey no longer moves. On the ground. Sometimes the word prone can feel so ugly.

The murder of George Floyd—and millions of Black women and men before him—is being honored by outraged yet peaceful protests all over this planet. Other nations march, watch what happens here. AND? In the US, protestors (and witnesses) have been ambushed and murdered in cold blood for the past five days. Journalists and medics, the “helpers,” as Fred Rogers would say, are targeted, maimed, arrested, equipment destroyed.

A pregnant woman in a car. They shot at her and dragged her husband to the ground. A young man in Austin is lying in a coma with brain damage right now because of a rubber bullet to his skull. His brother says he may not know his right arm from his left when he wakes up. A journalist’s eyeball was split in half, fired at deliberately and at short range, to silence her.

Cops always make up this story afterwards—someone had a mortar, a brick, or gasoline, or it looked like a weapon, he was moving in a menacing way, but in our age of phones, we can see for ourselves that cops are now doing to peaceful protestors of all colors and ages what they have done to Black and Indigenous peoples for the entire wretched period of colonization on this poisoned patch of land. They do it reflexively, because THEY GET AWAY WITH IT. Cops have their own media, their own culture, are infiltrated by white supremacists motivated by “accelerationist” rhetoric that a “Race War” is coming and that they are fighting for the right side. Even the ones that don’t define as white supremacist have been so pumped full of military protocol that they will follow their mates into any fight, surround the prey, the blood song takes over.

Tonight the 82 Airborne Division in addition to the National Guard are supposed to “enforce curfew” in Washington DC. The government is threatening war on its own soil, against its unarmed people.

To be in the front lines in a protest means you consent to be a foot-soldier. You may have to run, prepare to be thrown down, arrested, never come out the same way again. In other words, there are different levels of commitment. If you don’t have the best mobility or strength, there are earlier evening protests, or you stay further back in the crowd. The violence usually comes after sundown, lockdown, front lines, the chase.

This is a critical time to be present. There are many forms of protest. Listen to, watch, read, share the expressions of somebody who isn't white! This is the time where a lot of people who are poets/preachers/public figures "summing it all up" (self included) need to share the stage and at many moments ENTIRELY STEP DOWN to let new voices be heard.

Black Lives matter. Black Voices matter. The working poor matter. The homeless matter. The fate of this nation matters. Earth matters. All of these issues connect, because Racism and Capitalism and Fascism connect. I don’t liberally use the word evil, but what we see in the Occupying Force is the Whole Enchilada of Evil, and we have let it go on long enough.

There are no more hours that we can put off fighting the Occupying Force. The atrocities this nation was built upon—and those that have happened under fascist regimes in other nations, we read of them in history books, they pass down in whispers—will come back and engulf us, in ways we can’t presently imagine, if we do not stand up now.

(I know... As I post this, I am late for the protest. I now close the mouth, stop the typing fingers, commit to being there, and seeing.) 

 


Ellen Rosenblum wants to put Frank  Gable back in prison  for a crime he did not commit...


by Theresa Kennedy-Dupay       http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/Rosenblum


Mike Munk

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

Public employment not so secure

As a former public employee, I feel the need to respond to the Dec. 30 letter written by Michael Munk, “An unstated perk of public employment.”  

In his writing, he posits that “job security” is the unstated perk. However, in the 16 years I worked at Portland Community College, I saw many employees lose their positions due to money constraints as budgets are reworked every year. This was especially true after the passage of Measure 5. After the measure passed, each year there were more and more cuts, leaving those of us left to pick up the slack. Witnessing longtime, exemplary employees lose their jobs due to budget cuts was very difficult. So, I would say that one’s job is only as secure as the budget allows.

Joy Ruplinger, Portland

Joy is right of course. Public employes can be laid off just like I was in 1959 from the Oregon Unemployment Compensation Commission in a "Reduction in Force" (RIF) order by by a new Repub governor.

But those unorganized workers who serve "at the pleasure" of private bosses have much less job security.--Mike

3You, Connie Ne


 


U.S. Ferguson-Police-State, Which Song Fits Best?

letter to editor by ~Tracy Turner~


Image result for francis scott keys bombs bursting

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air ~ Francis Scott Keyes…

https://youtu.be/_FrOQC-zEog?list=RD_FrOQC-zEog
 

"Hello?

Is there anybody in there?

Just nod if you can hear me.

Is there anyone at home?

Come on, now,

I hear you're feeling down.

Well I can ease your pain

And get you on your feet again.

Relax.

I need some information first.

Just the basic facts

Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain you are receding

A distant ship smokes on the horizon.

You are only coming through in waves". ~ Pink Floyd ‘Comfortably Numb’

===========================================

Another “Compare Ferguson and Watts” article, my finger down my throat is only “coming through in waves…”

So where doth thou 1966 LA Times Staff Pulitzer Prize resideth wherein “Ferguson”, hereafter simply referred to as “Fergie Indoctrination”? Part of the sacred LA Times Pulitzer for 1966 was a man a bit too black (red hair, permanent nose freckles (like those of my youth or bad sunburns) and curly hair. In other words, he was too white and nearly got shot in Watts and told to go home repeatedly; he was also too ethnic for full acceptance in White-Bread-Orange-County (in 1966 or today).

So where are the 1966 mixed-racers winning 2014 Ferguson Pulitzers? It’s all or nothing; either baptize us all with the pure, 100% real race hubris and indoctrination or “get of the pot”. Since CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc., won’t get off the pot, then at least throw Pulitzers at all the b### sh#t reporting so we can all bask in the warm sunshine of perfect compliance to the police state as an investigation into how it was overly armed as the departments are simultaneously accepting more armored vehicles and bleeding edge 2015 model “tommy guns”.

Putting the blacks on trial or the Ferguson police on trial for U.S. Federal Government overreach and government violations of any and all Constitutional Amendments are mostly media mindless brainwashing. The 1966 L.A. Times-staff Pulitzer and the 2014 FedGov-on-a-leash-media could not be two more disparate times and events. The Federal government’s trained poodles shine a dim, un-illuminating light on how polite Ferguson black’s are about being beaten, shot, tear-gassed and the like by Federal Government over-reach including over-reached Bush/Bama government now researching into its own overreached self.

There is, however, another way to look at this. Hollywood and Government have been pushing us all to be more multi-cultural while simultaneously being polite about bluecoat abuse, gumshoe-crime, patrolman-rage, firing-squad-trials and the like… Since government committees need their nose pointed into their own poo prior to detecting any whiff of self-folly, here goes: will the next Randy and Mrs. Weaver be black, Hispanic, Asian or white? Will the next Tim McVeigh be Arabic, Hindu, Buddhist or Protestant? Since police firing squad trials are so en vogue and so multicultural, the next Terry Nichols be “Islamist” or merely Vanilla Homegrown Militia? All these groups have hatred of FedGov as the supplier of 1.6 billion bullets for “social security”… as one of their central themes, along with wishing to preserve the very rights the Stasi-FedGov routinely trample to death along with Aaron Swartz and peers of Aaron Swartz.

The real criminals are not the police; the real criminals are those sitting on 1.6 billion bullets-worth of taxpayer money whist investigating them to write a report by the police state about the police state…

In 2012, Tarek Mehanna was prosecuted by the FedGov for crimes against the police state thought-crimes… “hello, is there anybody out there? Just nod if you can here me”…



A Letter from Joe   

Letter to editor, Friday, September 4, 2015 @ 2:00 PM

I would like an opportunity to share with you my experience with the ILWU. Many perceive the longshoreman wage system as, "funded by the many (rank and file) for the benefit of the few (Union officials and favors they cultivate). There exists an interwoven and incestuous business relationship between the Pacific Maritime Association, the so-called "progressive" ILWU and other elements of the geopolitical "system." As a graduate of the Jesuit University of San Francisco (USF), I was conned and manipulated when my ILWU registration was denied. Perhaps I lacked (at the time) the political savvy to challenge decisions which were rendered.

I have, as a whistleblower, been blacklisted and falsely arrested in San Francisco for attempting to reveal the circumstances and details of my registration. I have been harassed for a long period of time.  I have corroborating evidence, paperwork relative to my being registered as a longshoreman under the ILWU-PMA "permissive rule"-Coast Labor Relations Committee(CLRC) Item 21-63 Item 2J for sons, and now of course daughters, of deceased longshoreman. Almost twenty years after my Father's death, and after years of being repeatedly denied registration with the union, the union wrote me to inform me that my registration was UNTIMELY, according to the above rule.

I feel this is a clear case of double-jeopardy.  My Father passed away in 1968, and his plug number in  Local 10 was 4075. I was not registered under the "permissive rule until 1986. To my knowledge, this is an UNPRECEDENTED situation and few or none will speak or comment on this potential source of political embarrassment. There remains much, “between-the-lines,” concerning the socio/political purpose of such a late and untimely denial of registration with the ILWU.  

The ILWU was founded by the controversial Harry Bridges, who was considered a radical in the labor movement during the McCarthy era. The ILWU is an economically critical Union whose hierarchy, to my experience and observance, operates like any other self-serving interest group. They pay lip service to a whole laundry list of “so-called” progressive causes and promote a much cozier relationship with employers than many choose to acknowledge. Members of the rank and file and those who believe in the ILWU's reputation seem, unfortunately, to be subjected to cliquey, arbitrary representation. An artificial facade masks what goes on behind the ILWU's public image. The "last great rust-belt union" and an "injury to one is an injury to all" have long been standard descriptions of the ILWU. From my perspective their byline should be: "I got mine, good luck getting yours."

Are the ILWU's socio-political and economical mandates for sale at any given time? Was my registration in the ILWU for the purpose of creating and cultivating a political pawn?  Some of the political activists in the union have carved years out of my life and finances to protect their names. They are not concerned with the merit of the situation or the truth, but their view prevail according to attrition.  I would think that anyone purporting to be an "honest" politician, labor leader, or a socio-politically conscionable and responsible person, would be interested in this matter. 

My name is Joe Gianforte, formerly A book #8724 ILWU Local 10. This local is in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area. My telephone number is (510) 305-7912 and my Email is joegianforte@yahoo.com.  Thank you.


July 16, 2014

This is what the city of Portland has come to: an attempt to erase Mark Kruger's Nazi past from history. Capt. Kruger must see this as a victory. But his worship of SS troops might be erased from a city file as part of some bizarre move after he harassed a female colleague - another incident he has not been held fully accountable for - but Portlanders will remember this police officer who dressed as a Nazi and built a shrine in honor of Hitler's most fearsome troops. We won't forget. And our trust of the Portland Police Bureau and the Portland City Council will be further diminished because of this day. The U.S. Department of Justice investigation of the Portland Police, which found a pattern of civil rights abuses by Portland officers, didn't go far enough. There is a cancer in our bureau and no effective civilian control of this entity whose employees can get away with literally anything.

- Rev. Chuck Currie

503-208-6521


        


Dear Portlander,

 
Since becoming the Police Commissioner in 2010, I have worked closely with Chief Mike Reese and the professional officers who protect our public safety to continuously improve the services that the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) provides to our community. Chief Reese and I are committed to continuous improvement, and to systems of accountability within the PPB that are transparent, fair, and build community trust.  
 
Over the past two years, three groups have spent considerable time and effort crafting recommendations to improve operations and the public trust in the PPB's complaint-handling and internal discipline processes: The Citizen Review Committee (through its PARC Report and Structure Review workgroups), the Albina Ministerial Alliance, and the Police Oversight Stakeholders’ Committee. When the third of this series of reports was presented to City Council, I made a commitment to Portlanders that we would closely analyze and release responses to the over 100 recommendations.
 
I am pleased to provide you with this Draft Report on Recommendations Regarding the Portland Police Bureau (PDF). In addition to providing this to the three groups who submitted recommendations to the PPB for their review, I request the feedback of all Portlanders on these important recommendations and our responses.
 
We would like to specifically highlight a few of the recommendations and responses that, together, provide a very brief look at the entire report. The recommendations and responses provided in this email have been paraphrased. You will find more detailed responses to the recommendations in the full report, but take a look below to get an idea of this important dialogue between the community and our police bureau.
 
Our response to each recommendation in this report fall into three general categories:
Recommendations that are already current practice or have been implemented partially or fully to date;
Recommendations the City agrees with but has not yet been implemented; and
Recommendations the City disagrees with.
 
Recommendations that are already current practice or have been implemented partially or fully to date.
 
Some recommendations that are already current practice.  Some recommendations we implemented immediately, and other recommendations are not implemented completely, but have guided improvements. Paraphrased examples include:
The Bureau must involve community members in developing police training and policy.  (AMA #1.5) Agree. Community groups, the community academy, advisory group feedback, the Citizen Review Committee, and City Council currently give input directly to the Chief, and we are further strengthening our current practice.
Policy and training related to de-escalation must be enhanced. (AMA #2.1) Agree. The Bureau recently conducted Inservice training regarding deescalation. For situations requiring a multipleofficer response, Bureau members are trained to make a plan and have a leader responsible for coordinating the response.
The IPR Director or designee shall be called onto the scene of any shooting or death in custody. (AMA #4.6) Agree. Current policy since February, 2011.
PPB should ensure medical aid is rendered “as soon as possible unless the circumstances clearly demonstrate that to do so would unreasonably endanger the officers or the medical personnel.” (CRC PARC Workgroup #3)  The current Deadly Force Directive effectively requires this.  We have also deployed ballistic shields to facilitate faster response to downed suspects.
City Council should provide adequate resources for scenario-based training of PPB officers and supervisors.  (CRC PARC Workgroup #9)  City Council has approved funding for a dedicated training facility for the Police Bureau, and efforts are underway to obtain one.
The initial interview with officers involved in cases of serious injuries or deaths shall be immediate.  (AMA #4.1)  Internal Affairs has adopted a Standard Operating Procedure requiring officers involved in the use of deadly force to submit to a recorded interview as close as possible to 48 hours after the incident.  This is the earliest time allowed under the current collective bargaining agreements.  Witness members are required by Bureau directive to submit to an interview before leaving work for the day.
 
Recommendations the City agrees with but have not yet been implemented
 
Some recommendations will be implemented, but require changes to either Police Bureau policy or procedure, or City Ordinance.  These include:
Increase the length of term for CRC members from two years to three years.  (Stakeholders #II-C) Agree. IPR is working on necessary ordinance changes.
Give CRC the Authority to make policy recommendations directly to the Police Bureau.  (Stakeholders #II-D)  Agree. Requires a slight change to the City Ordinance. IPR is working to make this change.
Broaden the use of cameras with audio recording.  (AMA #10.3)  The Police Bureau is in the process of a pilot project to install cameras in patrol cars, and plans to equip all cars with this equipment.
 
Recommendations the City disagrees with
 
We found some recommendations to be unworkable.  Most of these fell into two general categories:
Inconsistent with current case law, employment law, or collective bargaining agreements.  This category included several recommendations for rigid policies regarding use of force, which were inconsistent with the US Supreme Court’s decision in Graham v. Connor.  This decision has become the standard for police use-of-force policies nationwide. Other recommendations violate current State law regarding the confidentiality of records pertaining to personnel actions.  These recommendations mandated things like public reporting of CRC review documents (Stakeholders #III-F) or a public response from the Bureau when the Chief’s decision differs from the Police Review Board’s recommendation (Stakeholders #III-J).
Inconsistent with the original intent of the Citizen Review Committee or Independent Police Review.  These entities were established in an effort to increase the transparency and fairness of the Police Bureau’s complaint-handling and discipline processes, not to supplant those processes or relieve the Police Bureau of the responsibility of holding its own members accountable.
Some of the recommendations addressed in this report seek to expand the mission of IPR and the CRC from that of review bodies to one of administrative bodies.  Among these are recommendations to require CRC review of proposed allegations before an investigation is started (Stakeholders #II-H), allowing CRC to hear new evidence and rule on that evidence rather than review the reasonableness of the Commander’s proposed findings (Stakeholders #II-A), and allowing the CRC to compel testimony (Stakeholders #II-B).
 
As mentioned, Chief Reese and I are committed to continuous improvement of the Portland Police Bureau. We hope to file this report with the City Auditor's office on Wednesday, November 9, for an initial hearing before City Council on Wednesday, November 16 at 2pm. Additionally, we plan to maintain and improve the bureau's relationship with community groups, oversight organizations, and stakeholders to ensure that the PPB is a public safety agency that represents the values of Portlanders.
 
Sincerely yours,
 
Sam Adams
Mayor

November 2011 

Answer to Sam Adams:
 
Since becoming the Police Commissioner in 2010, you have worked a bit too closely with Chief Mike Reese and the professional officers who protect our public safety, and sometimes they have not improved services the PPB provides. Chief Reese seems less committed to continuous improvement and to systems of accountability within the PPB that are transparent, fair, and build community trust and more committed to covering up errors.

The Bureau must involve community members in developing police training and policy.  (AMA #1.5) You may agree, but community groups, the community academy, advisory group feedback, the Citizen Review Committee, and City Council currently give input directly to the Chief, but he
then chooses to ignore them and thus we still get rogue cops on the street and little accountabilty and ineffective management.

Policy and training related to de-escalation must be enhanced. (AMA #2.1) You may agree, but while the Bureau recently conducted Inservice training regarding deescalation, for too many officers this was a joke. For situations requiring a multiple officer response, Bureau members are trained to make a plan and have a leader responsible for coordinating the response. Of course, this has repeatedly failed.  Officers who have killed citizens have not been held responsible.

The IPR Director or designee shall be called onto the scene of any shooting or death in custody. (AMA #4.6) Agree. This may be "current policy since February, 2011," but this is closing the barn door a bit late.

PPB should ensure medical aid is rendered “as soon as possible unless the circumstances clearly demonstrate that to do so would unreasonably endanger the officers or the medical personnel.” (CRC PARC Workgroup #3)  The current Deadly Force Directive effectively requires this, but
it is not happening!!!

The initial interview with officers involved in cases of serious injuries or deaths shall be immediate.  (AMA #4.1)  Internal Affairs has adopted a Standard Operating Procedure requiring officers involved in the use of deadly force to submit to a recorded interview as close as possible to 48 hours after the incident.  This is the earliest time allowed under the current collective bargaining agreements.  Not enough, 2 days later is not immediate!!!

 

Give CRC the Authority to make policy recommendations directly to the Police Bureau.  (Stakeholders #II-D)  You may agree, but it has not been done. If it requires a slight change to the City Ordinance, then the IPR needs to get it done.  So do it.

 "In the process" of a pilot project to install cameras in patrol cars, and plans to equip all cars with this equipment.... is not good enough.  Get it done.

Recommendations mandating things like public reporting of CRC review documents (Stakeholders #III-F) or a public response from the Bureau when the Chief’s decision differs from the Police Review Board’s recommendation (Stakeholders #III-J) are necessary and prudent. Get it done.
And collect the data in a secured cloud accessible to city council, anyone who has been captured on police, and the press.  

If this is inconsistent with the original intent of the Citizen Review Committee or Independent Police Review, then the intent must be changed.
These entities were established in an effort to increase the transparency and fairness of the Police Bureau’s complaint-handling and discipline processes and this is not happening.

Some of the recommendations addressed in this report seek to expand the mission of IPR and the CRC from that of review bodies to one of administrative bodies.  Good, go for it, get it done!

Sincerely yours,
 
Tim Flanagan

Associate editor of the Portland Alliance

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We Tried to Take Back Armistice Day: Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018  in Washington D.C.