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No Surprises at Council Terror Task Force Hearing
as Activists Stream Live Watch Party
PPB Responds to "People's Report" with Inadequate Answers

Several organizations involved in the campaign to keep Portland Police out of the Joint Terrorism Task Force held a live watch party as the Annual Report on the JTTF was presented to City Council on January 27. While the Council was hearing parts of the Bureau's Report recited by Sgt. Pete Simpson of the Criminal Intelligence Unit, three organizers gave running commentary similar to a sporting event, talking about history of the JTTF and issues which were and were not raised during the hearing. The watch party was inspired by Mayor Ted Wheeler continuing to refuse to take public testimony during Reports to Council, even though City Code allows him to do so. Six organizers held a news conference the previous day to express concerns about the Report. Most of those involved had earlier put out a "People's Report" on the JTTF for the second year. To their credit, the PPB responded to the issues raised in the new People's Report; unsurprisingly, those answers did not fully address the concerns.

The Bureau's Report included four cases they worked on that were closed in 2020, two of which had to do with people talking about obtaining weapons. One was about a person with an "anarchist extremist group" possibly seeking to harm a person with a "racially motivated violent extremist group," and one about an assault that took place at a local protest which the PPB had already investigated as a crime. There were six other cases the PPB sent to the JTTF, one of which was a bomb threat apparently called in from Seattle (so likely not a real "threat").

At the Council hearing, the most engaged member was Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who led the 2019 Council effort to remove Portland's two part-time officers from the Task Force. She asked Simpson questions which did not draw out any new or meaningful information. Commissioner Hardesty did suggest revisiting the criteria for cases shared between agencies before the next Report-- something five community members suggested to City Council during Communications in October 2020 (PPR #82).

In addition to preventing public comment, the Mayor also instructed the Council not to vote against accepting the Report, suggesting such presentations are merely ceremonial. He either did not know or forgot the history that a previous Report on the JTTF in 2013 was only accepted by Council on a narrow 3-2 vote (PPR #59), and the 2014 Report was sent back for more work and only adopted on a second reading (PPR #62).

The livestream commenters from Peace and Justice Works/Portland Copwatch, Portland Democratic Socialists of America, and Jewish Voice for Peace-Portland, spoke about how Portland got out of the JTTF in 2005 and 2019, the details of the Report's 10 cases shared between the FBI and PPB, the dangers of political spying, racism, threats to civil liberties, and more.

During the vote, Commissioner Carmen Rubio echoed community concerns about staying vigilant against xenophobia and racial violence when entering into relationships with the feds. Commissioner Dan Ryan acknowledged the FBI's rocky history with communities of color and activists. Commissioner Mingus Mapps simply voted "Aye."

As for the People's Report, it raised questions about Portland Police cooperation with federal law enforcement, including former Attorney General Bill Barr's encouragement of JTTFs to investigate Black Lives Matter organizers, and the PPB working with (and being deputized by) federal agencies during the summer protests as a possible backdoor to rejoining the JTTF. It also asked whether Portland Police were involved in the local JTTF arrest of a Troutdale man for "material support" of terrorism due to his posts on the internet in November.

In its response, the Bureau, for example, said they did investigate people in relation to the "civil unrest" on behalf of the JTTF, but not because of AG Barr. They also stated no members of the Criminal Intelligence Unit were involved in the Troutdale arrest-- but didn't speak to possible broader involvement by the Bureau.

On February 11, the Brennan Center for Justice held a national webinar on organizing against Joint Terrorism Task Forces, an issue of great import after the Capitol marauders in Washington, DC set off a call for new "Domestic Terrorism" laws. Host Michael German, a former FBI agent who helped Portland's efforts to withdraw (PPR #77), holds a firm belief that plenty of laws exist against the types of activities engaged in by these and other white supremacists. He was joined by organizers from San Francisco and Oakland, as well as local activist Brandon Mayfield, who has been instrumental in Portland efforts following his illegal arrest by the FBI in 2004.

US Attorney Billy Williams, who referred to the decision to withdraw from the JTTF as "a mistake that defies logic," was asked to resign by the Biden administration.

The community continues to push for the City to end its cooperation with the JTTF altogether, rather than maintaining the current status which allows case-by-case discretionary involvement. At the least, the Bureau should be required to improve the quality of the annual reports.

See the live watch party at youtube.com/watch?v=GNQSnwvxzhQ ; that video and the January 26 news conference can both be found at youtube.com/peaceandjusticeworks.

May, 2021
Also in PPR #83

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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