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RAPPING BACK: Cop Union President & Editor Pull Boners in Newsletter Roger Morse, head of the Portland Police Association (PPA, the officers' union), and Jeff Barker, the Rap Sheet editor, exhibit less than professional conduct in the October and November issues of their newspaper. Personal attacks: In the October issue, Morse criticizes PIIAC Citizen Advisor Emily Simon for her efforts to see that a fair and complete investigation is done into the undercover police sweep of Laurelhurst Park in August 1992. Morse resorts to exaggerations and personal jabs, rather than simply stating the reasons for his concern. The following are excerpts from his article: Some citizen advisors...are once again messing with the system [PIIAC]...Ms. Emily Simon is the ring leader. ... Her shrill diatribe against the police is...now louder than ever from her perch on PIIAC... Ms. Simon, while jabbing her index finger in the air, rudely interrogates and interrupts witnesses... Ms. Simon's goal is nothing less than to gain total control of the PIIAC process. In the November Rap Sheet, Barker outdoes Morse: Simon has tried to hide her overbearing rudeness behind the mask of an activist's enthusism... At this meeting Simon appeared to have been leashed in and for most of the meeting she was well healed (sic.). Observers of the meetings know that Emily Simon did not warrant this portrayal. What she did was to challenge the commander of Internal Investigations to explain why no meaningful investigation into misconduct complaints had been done nearly a year after the Laurel-hurst Park incident. Promoting violence?: In the same article, Barker also honored community activist Douglas Squirrel with a few personal attacks. Squirrel came forward to IID with a complaint of misconduct he witnessed at the Forest Conference (or timber summit, depending on your political correctness-- Barker) when other demonstrators were being arrested for "malicious littering," i.e. dropping a cigarette butt. Unsatisfied with the Internal Investigations Division finding, Squirrel followed proper procedures and filed an appeal with PIIAC. Barker reports on an incident he observed at a distance going on between Squirrel and a man carrying a cross at the demonstration. A verbal argument was escalating between the two. Here is Barker's description: Our brave leader of Portland's anarchists quickly scurried away in a rodent-like manner into the crowd to avoid having to face the man he had goaded into action. From this action Squirrel did not even rise to the level of "coward." It was a clear case of good old fashioned chicken-shit! This analysis is particularly disturbing because the newspaper--written by police and circulated among most of our City's police officers--is advocating assault. How will the community ever learn to trust the police when the editor of their union newspaper uses his position to bait people into macho, old-west style brawls instead of advocating non-violent conflict resolution? Community policing?: Often we at POPSG are asked why there is a need for a civilian review board with sufficient power to compel police officer testimony. Don't the police cooperate with PIIAC voluntarily? At the end of his October article, Roger Morse gives officers this advice: The PPA...is advising its members to never testify before PIIAC, particularly in its present form. Clearly, a check on police authority in Portland is needed if the head of the union, in the era of "community policing," is advising officers not to cooperate with the citizen review process.
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![[People's Police Report]](/PPRHEADER.GIF)
First Quarter, 1994
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Portland Copwatch Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.
People's Police Report
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