SGT. POOL: IN ONE END AND OUT THE OTHER

Sergeant David Pool (DPSST #8424), notorious leader of the Police Bureau's Mounted Patrol Unit, retired on February 26th. Pool left a legacy of hatred, resentment, and fear after 25 years on the force, 19 of them as a mountie.

Pool is most reviled by downtown Portland's homeless population. His approach to homeless people involved verbal abuse, habitual harassment, and selective enforcement of loitering, littering, and trespassing laws, among others. Copwatch members have documented dozens of incidents between Pool and street youth. In each, he belittled them and their problems, calling them "worthless," "low-lifes," and "whores." Pool also routinely confiscated property without cause and threatened to beat suspects. His behavior seemed driven by a profound ignorance of the causes and realities of homelessness and poverty.

Pool's attitude and heavy-handedness also garnered antipathy from political protesters over the years. Routinely called in to break up protests, the Mounted Patrol under Pool has been aggressive, dangerous, and often out of control. In the past five years alone, Copwatch has documented scores of indiscriminate horse charges, pepper sprayings, illegal orders to disperse, and a few tramplings that have endangered bystanders almost as often as protesters.

Pool was caught on tape admonishing activist Craig Rosebraugh "not to get shitty" and ominously accusing Rosebraugh of becoming a "martyr" seconds before Rosebraugh was ambushed by Lt. Scott Winegar, who broke Rosebraugh's arm (see PPRs #19 & 25).

In addition to Pool's disregard for civil rights and the law, observers have marveled at his near- complete lack of equestrian skills. In protest situations, it was difficult to determine whether Pool's reckless endangerment of the public was deliberate or was simply the result of his being such a poor rider. While police horses frequently appeared frightened in crowd situations, Pool usually seemed to have more trouble than the rest of the team keeping his steed under control. In fact, Pool's reckless riding caused him to be bucked from his horse at a 1991 protest. More recently, Pool charged through a peaceful assembly at Parkrose High School in order to turn his horse around in the right direction. In a puff-piece on Pool's retirement, the Oregonian quoted Pool as saying he had no experi-ence riding horses when he joined the Mounted Patrol, except knowing that "the food went in one end and came out the other end."

Pool, coming out the rear end of the Bureau, plans to retire in Montana.

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