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Rapping Back #84
Portland Copwatch member Dan Handelman analyzes
the Police "Union" social media
(formerly the "Rap Sheet" newsletter) for the People's Police Report

Cops Claim Commonality with Community, Countering Crime

The Portland Police Association (PPA) has continued its ongoing crusade to convince the people of Portland the City needs more police. As usual, their social media posts on Facebook over- emphasize crime (including "riots") and the alleged short staffing of the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). From late April to mid-August, 20 of 33 posts (61%) were focused on crime, funding the police, or both. One repeat theme, mostly from PPA Executive Director Daryl Turner, is to express how tired "the community" is of civilian-on-civilian shootings and to push the idea that police are part of the community-- ignoring the fact that less than 1/5 of officers actually live within city limits (Portland Mercury blog, July 26). The two other most prominent categories were articles showing positive images of cops, also known as "bluewashing," and accountability/oversight with four and three posts respectively. There was no mention at all of the PPB fatally shooting two people in mental health crisis (see the Shootings article in this issue). Like most of the 18 pieces derived from mainstream media sources, one about the topic of screening out racist officers includes a quote from Turner. Another, loosely tied to the crime/budget issue, was a national TV interview where Turner discussed the resignation of the Rapid Response Team (see the Protests article in this issue).

Important news broke on the PPA Facebook page on June 8, when they revealed they had moved out of their headquarters on NE Lombard. due to the repeated attention it was getting from protests and vandalism (including a few small fires and graffiti). They stated they intend to sell the old building, but did not reveal the location of the new one. State records indicate these cops who pledge to be "part of our community" have moved to Milwaukie. Next, we have comments on some of the other posts.

PPA: Don't Give Money For Social Services Unless You Also Fund Police

Many of the articles addressing funding more cops to combat crime also pay lip service to the idea the Police Association is ok with giving money to social services, as long as the money doesn't come out of their budget.

--On May 4, Turner said "people are hurting," with gun crime up and the pandemic still out there. Saying the Bureau incorporates "integrity" and "accountability," he bashes "electeds" who won't give money to cops. He calls funding social services a form of "political tricknology," a "smoke and mirrors" effort to deceive the public. Trotting out the statistics that Portland has 120,000 more people than 25 years ago but 170 fewer officers, he once again ignores the overall comparison of crime. Excluding shootings, crime is mostly down in Portland. He points to Oakland and Minneapolis as two cities which re-funded the police after defunding last year. He specifically says not to make people choose between public safety and social services, without explaining how he would plan to balance the budget paying for both. Significantly, he offers a half hearted apology for referring to Portland as a "cesspool" (PPR #75), but only to people who find the term offensive. After all, we need to turn the City around, he says.

--In a May 13 piece titled "The Elephant in the Room," Turner claims the city is on the precipice of a "gang war" as in the 1990s. Once again asserting causality-- and ignoring data from other cities-- he claims the rise in gun violence is a direct result of dismantling the Gun Violence Reduction Team last year (PPR #83). Turner, who is an African American man, accuses the City Council of turning a blind eye to the fact that 65% of the victims of gun violence are Black, Indigenous or People of Color. Begging for more funding, he claims people are moving away and businesses are being "forced to relocate." (It's not clear who is forcing them to do this.)

--In highlights taken from an Oregonian article about whether to fund police (May 18), the PPA notes that 50% in the metro area and 42% of Portlanders want more police, while 24% and 30% want the same amount. Turner highlights a quote he gave the reporter that people don't feel safe. In the original article, there are references to shootings and destruction of property, Council's inability to cut $18 million from the police in the fall (PPR #82) and their rejecting funds to reinstate the GVRT. At the end of the article a community member talks about Black people being questioned for no reason by police and advocating for cuts; Turner's analysis ignores this.

--Another May 18 post focusing on a KOIN-TV6 piece talks about how 50 shots fired by civilians could have been a "death sentence." Apparently, the Police Association doesn't understand the difference between when the state takes a person's life and when community members harm one another. Though the KOIN piece quotes Portland's FBI Special Agent in Charge being cautious about using the term "gang war," Turner is convinced the shootings, which led to people threatening to do violence to one another in a hospital (and drawing a response from 64 officers), was "gang violence." Side note: Rattling off data about there being 33 homicides by May 18, Turner seems to forget one of those was an officer killing Robert Delgado in April.

--The PPA uses a KOIN story on May 23 to argue a Trimet bus driver was hit by a stray bullet because the City isn't using "common sense" to fund police so they can "proactively" prevent crime.

--On June 10, Fox News (national) echoed the PPA's sentiment that Portland is "reeling from deadly gang violence amid calls to defund police," saying "people are scared." That article quotes former GVRT head Sergeant Kenneth Duilio saying the multiple shootings are a new phenomenon. He closes out claiming the Bureau is down 100 officers.

--On June 21, the PPA posted an Oregonian article where Chief Lovell bemoans the difficulty in moving forward when dealing with so many setbacks. It says over the previous year, 130 officers left-- 75 of those retired and the other 55 resigned. They say 88 more could retire in the coming year. Duilio is quoted again here, saying we "have to stop the bleeding," another poor choice of words from a paramilitary, violent organization.

--On June 22 and 29, the PPA posted two related news stories by NBC national news. Officer Krute Aroonsuck calls the protests unfair for focusing on what an officer did in another city-- a reference to Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd. The pieces touch on the resignation of the Rapid Response Team, then lets Turner go on about "rioting and sustained violence" during a time of "catastrophic" staffing levels and defunding. To their credit, NBC notes retirements are up 45% nationwide, and resignations up by 18%, something Turner ignores as he likes to think Portland is unique in this area. NBC also reports there were 130 vacancies in Portland in 2019, more than the current 104 Turner complains about.

--It's not clear why it took until July 11 for the PPA to post a story from the June 30 national NBC "Good Morning America" show featuring Turner. (Side note: Turner, who up until this point was sporting a beard and moustache, appeared on the show clean-shaven.) The anchor set the stage by saying Portland had been subjected to 150 nights of protests and that the entire Rapid Response Team resigned after one of their members was indicted (see the Protests article in this issue). Turner explained they had thought about resigning in 2020 because they were criticized about their actions when they "volunteered" to be a buffer between the protests and the community. There's a lot wrong with that sentence, but to be clear, the officers who were on the RRT were paid for what they do, they just volunteered to take on this role. He noted the same officers can still be ordered to provide law enforcement at protests. Turner tied together many of the above themes, saying there is no "us vs. them," and that the police stand with the community-- again ignoring the actual demographics of the PPB. More importantly, we note the police are not actively calling for an end to the killings of civilians by law enforcement. He described the lack of support from City Council as being "handcuffed and tied down." When the anchor asked whether the calls to defund were "self-inflicted" by police behavior, Turner said all 800,000 law enforcement officers in the country have good contacts with the community.

--On August 4, the PPA announced a new "Public Safety Awareness Campaign," which politicizes funding the police by criticizing City Council members who recognize police can't solve all of Portland's problems.

Screening Out Racists from a Racist Institution

A New York Times article posted to the PPA Facebook page May 12 was titled "Efforts to Weed Out Extremists in Law Enforcement Meet Resistance." While the conundrum of respecting individuals' First Amendment rights to be hateful is explored, the article cites a new Oregon law allowing review of officer candidates' social media posts. The statute includes a clause stating "racism has no place in public safety." For his part, Turner is quoted supporting vetting of new officers to allow individual police departments to decide how to deal with extremists. In other words, he seems to be OK with localities which are overtly racist to keep racist cops in the institution of policing, which was created and perpetuated to keep America a white-led nation. Turner does agree officers need to be held "to high standards."

General and Specific Responses to Accountability Issues, Including Indictment

These were the three pieces focusing on officer accountability:

--On June 15, Turner called the decision to indict Officer Corey Budworth for hitting a protestor in the head a "politically driven charging decision." He says Budworth was facing an "agressive crowd" with people wearing "tactical helmets" and carrying weapons, and used the "lowest level of baton force." Anyone who has seen the video can tell Budworth whacked the woman squarely in the head before walking off, seemingly proud of himself. (It's not clear why this news release can't be found on the PPA's website.)

--On May 8, a post from the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs (ORCOPS) called for people to contact the legislature to oppose SB 621, designed to allow the new civilian oversight board to be instituted in Portland without negotiating its terms in collective bargaining. Warning against "bait and switch," the lobbying group told people the ballot measure said the City would meet its obligations under collective bargaining law but then had the legislature pass the bill to break that promise. Since the PPA likely still has some legal challenges to the bill, which passed and was signed by the Governor, up its sleeve, it remains to be seen whether it is really an "anti- union workaround."

--On June 18, another statement from Turner specific to the resignation of the RRT accuses elected leaders of acting "as if looting, arson, property damage, physical violence and even murder were permissible and lawful First Amendment activities." This bit of hyperbole is supported by more claims nobody thanked the officers who "volunteered," only to have objects thrown at them and threats yelled at them. This, says Turner, has led to "baseless complaints and lengthy investigations devoid of due process." Does he think they are baseless because he believes nothing the Portland Police do is wrong? He said the RRT officers had "no alternative" but to quit, echoing the tired trope of police saying they "had to kill" a suspect for whatever reason. He accuses "roving gangs of black clad rioters" of failing to speak for the residents and business owners who "want a safe and clean city." Turner claims these people (and by the way, the PPB's riot uniforms are black, too) "hijacked" a social and racial justice movement, and accuses Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty of promoting an "anti-police agenda." It's important to acknowledge when the police recognize the overall intent of the movement which sprung up after George Floyd's murder, since you'll rarely see them admit those injustices are exemplified by police behavior. Need we say one more time that most local cops don't reside where they work, making the closing remark "Portland wants our city back" a form of, well, hijacking the message.

Another ORCOPS post on June 4 called on people to defeat HB 2002, which attempted to ease bias-based policing by limiting officers' ability to arrest people on certain minor charges or pull cars over for non-moving infractions. Phrasing their action alert as "don't allow trespassing, theft and dangerous vehicles," they ask their supporters to agree that "lawlessness isn't ok."

September, 2021
Also in PPR #84

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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