Who's Minding the Store?
Chief Marshman was put on leave in March for supposedly having his adjutant Lieutenant Mike
Leasure (also on leave) sign him in to a DOJ-related training he didn't attend. Chris Davis, who
fired a beanbag gun at José Mejía Poot in Mejía's 2001 death (PPR #24) was made Acting
Chief. Davis became an Assistant Chief in January, when Mike Leland retired. Marshman returned
to work April 13 after being preliminarily cleared.
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Business Owner Kills Houseless Man, Isn't Charged
On February 20, Charlie Win Chan, an east side business person, shot and killed Jason Petersen, a
houseless man with a history of schizophrenia. The police classified Chan as the victim and the
dead man as the suspect. A grand jury did not bring charges against the shooter.
Earlier, the men argued about Petersen leaving his belongings in front of Chan's business. Chan
had put them in the trash. After hearing a door slam later, Chan went outside with his licensed .22
revolver and confronted Peterson. Chan says Peterson made threats, so he killed him in fear for his
life-- an excuse raised constantly by shooter cops.
Oregon's Supreme Court says deadly force is justified under the state's "stand your ground" law if
a person is confronted by someone "committing or attempting to commit a felony involving the
use or threatened imminent use of physical force" (Portland Mercury, March 22). It's
open season for houseless and other people, and police and the rest of the criminal justice system
are fine with that.
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Council Passes Ordinance to Exclude People from Meetings
In a unanimous March 15 decision, City Council passed an ordinance letting them exclude what the
Oregonian called "rowdy protestors" from city meetings for up to two months
(March 23). In December 2015, federal Judge Michael Simon ruled excluding
a person from a council meeting based on past behavior violates First Amendment rights. Mayor
Wheeler declared Council would eject disruptors for a day at a time but wait to enforce long-term
exclusions until the ordinance passes constitutional muster.
Portland Copwatch weighed in on the ordinance, suggesting simpler ways to de-escalate. These
include expanding the open communication section of the meeting so more than five people can
testify, and allowing people to sign up on the day of a Council meeting to address current issues.
Currently, people are required to turn in their names to the Council Clerk six days in advance. We
noted less of Council's time would be taken up by public comment than is taken up by repeatedly
calling the Council into recess, clearing the chambers, and putting City Hall on lockdown.
Other Copwatch suggestions included meeting the demands of the protests: Be more responsive;
quickly release more information about officer involved shootings; create a culture of
accountability; find a new location for Right 2 Dream Too rather than hoping they'll go away (article), and/or do a
better job of expressing support for justice, equality and freedom.
Though Mayor Wheeler later held a few open forums for people to attend, they did not include all
the other Commissioners. Two weeks after passing the ordinance, security gave out dated tickets to
attend Council, demanding visual bag inspections on the way in (Mercury Blog, March 29).
The bag checks are still in effect.
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