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Rapping Back #76: Portland Copwatch member Dan Handelman analyzes the Police "Union" newsletter, the "Rap Sheet" for the People's Police Report

Expressing Elite Evaluations Excluding Everyday Earthlings

Perhaps because Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner was busy running around Portland promoting the use of the empty Wapato Jail as a homeless shelter (p. 7), the Portland Police Association's online presence was intermittent between mid-August and mid-December. Portland Copwatch (PCW) only found 26 pieces posted to their Facebook page, about half the regular amount. However, the themes are fairly consistent. The largest number of articles-- nine, or 35%, were the usual "bluewashed" feel-good stories meant to mask the stench of racism, corruption and brutality that have not gone away from the Bureau as an institution. Six were about homelessness, and three had to do with the PPB's controversial crackdowns on protests.

Police Association Ignores Racism, Calls Protestors "Privileged"

On October 22, Turner posted a piece called "A Line in the Sand" where he said violence at protests is nurtured by "the culture of enablement, restriction of enforcement, criticism of police when we act, [and] and over-emphasis on de-escalation and disengagement." He calls Portland "one of the most politically violent cities in America," urging the City to focus on "livability issues, the affordable housing crisis and homelessness." He claims the PPB upholds the right to free speech, but will stop violence that "erupts" by arresting people and call on the criminal justice system to "ensure wrongdoers are held accountable." Thus, he argues, there need to be "adequate resources" thrown at the police. The PPA also reposted a KGW-8 story about stopping violent protests which quoted Turner (October 17).

On November 16, two days after City Council voted down the Mayor's draconian anti-protest ordinance (p. 1), Turner posted a statement "Calling on City Council to Stand Together Against Lawlessness." In the piece, he asks Council to "decry violent assaults against other citizens or police officers, destruction and damage of property, and violation of traffic laws during protests." No doubt the menace of people jaywalking is a threat to democracy; Turner doesn't talk about the people who have been hit by cars during recent demonstrations (p. 10). Instead he blames the Council, saying they "chastise and second-guess the Bureau every time someone comes before [them] with an unproven allegation about the police." This is likely a reference to the well- documented injuries from August 4 where a man nearly died from a police projectile hitting him in the back of the head (PPR #75).

Turner then makes it sound as if protestors are related to the wealthy elite by saying the City has to protect everyone, "not just the privileged few who choose to do what they want at the expense of everyone else." He criticizes the fact that no Council member other than Mayor Wheeler (who, he fails to note, is the Police Commissioner) has sat in the PPB's Command Center during protests. The closest Turner gets to acknowledging the street brawls being instigated by out of town white supremacists is in closing when he asks Council to "tell those who come to Portland to hurt others and to destroy our City that their bad acts will have consequences."

Tight Relationship Between "Union" and the Chief Exposed

In a November 8 letter to the Willamette Week criticizing their cover story on Chief Outlaw (p.11), Turner expresses his "anger and outrage" at the "Jim Crow fashion" illustration of the Chief. He accuses the reporter of trying to "discredit and demoralize our Police Chief and the Portland Police Bureau." Turner suggests the article was racist and full of stereotypes. His reasoning is that the article describes the Chief's physical appearance, and that it suggests the reason she has a close relationship with Turner is that they are both black. In fact, the article notes that it is unusual for the Chief to have such a close relationship with the "union" but does not speculate why, saying that Turner refused to comment. Turner defends management and labor's tight ties by accusing the WW of engaging in "heightened anti-police rhetoric that continues to vilify law enforcement no matter what we do." Interestingly, two weeks later the WW revealed that at the behest of the PPA, unarmed officers who had been promised to the community as patrol cops who can deal with low-level offenses are going to be relegated to desk duty or tow truck calls (November 22). That the Chief and Mayor who tout community policing would go along with this "bait-and-switch" (as PCW referred to it in the article) shows the insidiousness of the close relationship. On December 6 Turner posted a "clarification" to Council in which he said the unarmed cops will fill out reports at precinct desks, berating the Commissioners for failing to talk to him. Perhaps he could have shown up in City Hall to testify for himself and that would have helped.

Oh, the Irony: PPB Helps Houseless People Replace IDs

In stories that ran both on KGW-8 and KPTV-12 (posted by the PPA on September 13 and October 11), Officers Todd Engstrom and Ryan Engwiler are shown helping houseless people obtain replacement identification cards. While the stories are important in highlighting how hard it is for houseless people to do anything without ID-- and the hurdles it takes to prove who you are, it ignores a glaring irony: much of the time when people lose their IDs, it is because the police (or private security) confiscate them and don't give them back. The program is in conjunction with Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare and involves the two officers being certified as notaries, a task which probably should be left to other city employees. PPR readers may recognize Engstrom's name-- he is the cop who pinned a houseless person's dog to the ground and then pepper-sprayed a man in the ensuing backlash (PPR #63).

Other articles about houselessness include a letter to the Oregonian complaining about how humans are not meant to sleep on sidewalks (September 12), the anti-houseless group that calls itself "Enough is Enough" organizing against "drug use and camping" (via KOIN-6, September 17), and a piece posted August 20 by the PPA involving a study reporting Oregon is one of four states with over 50% of homeless people living unsheltered (the others being California, Nevada and Hawaii).

Friendly Neighborhood PPB: Hanging with Youth, Showing Off Paramilitarism

As with previous articles showing the PPB attempting to sway public opinion with happy stories, several pieces showed officers working with young people. Perhaps the oddest was a picture of Officer Madison Ceaser with a tot on his shoulders as a promotion for recruiting officers, claiming the PPB is a "leader in community policing" (September 6). Following the link to the recruitment page, it turns out officers get a $64,409 starting salary (possibly as much as $89,039 if they are recruited from another agency), which belies the argument that so few officers live in Portland because they can't afford it (p. 5).

Other pieces included the PPB highlighting the Youth Services Division, where they say partnerships with the Timbers (soccer team) and Boys and Girls Clubs focused on race, ethnicity and diversity help break down stereotypes-- about police (August 22). As with other outreach events we have reported on, their open house at Multnomah Days included the Explosive Disposal Unit, the Special Emergency Reaction Team and the K-9 unit, all of which are more paramilitary and/or violence-related than community-oriented (August 17). In an affront to PCW's institutional place as part of a peace group, the North Precinct is shown re-dedicating a Peace Pole with the Crisis Response Team on August 26. Also, the group Word is Bond (WIB) put on a "peace jam" including basketball games with police and youth (posted September 22). WIB has three regular and one alternate member on the new Portland Committee for Community Engaged Policing, which is supposed to oversee the police to be sure they are reforming and using less force (p. 8). This relationship calls into question WIB's objectivity.

The PPA's facebook page is facebook.com/PortlandPoliceAssociation.

PPA Comforts Family Who Lost Loved One. (jk)

On October 31, PPA President Daryl Turner posted a statement about the Grand Jury finding in the shooting of Patrick Kimmons, killed by multiple police bullets- - most of which hit him in the back-- on September 30 (p. 1). Turner stated officers "fired their weapons to protect their community," explaining officers "acted to stop a person who posed an immediate, deadly threat." However, the cops stood and watched as Kimmons shot and wounded two people moments earlier. Turner claims the officers were "faced with no other reasonable option but to use deadly force." The Grand Jury only asks whether officers committed a crime-- not if they violated Bureau policy, yet Turner said the finding was that the use of deadly force was justified. The gist of the piece was to say that there was anger at the police "fueled by false narratives" warning that "we must stop the spread of false information." The fact that the Bureau released almost no information about the shooting until the Grand Jury concluded is not even on his radar-- not to mention that he doesn't extend condolences to those who lost a loved one.

January, 2019
Also in PPR #76

Portland Copwatch
PO Box 42456
Portland, OR 97242
(503) 236-3065/ Incident Report Line (503) 321-5120
e-mail: copwatch@portlandcopwatch.org

Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.

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