If you are interested in joining our mailing list, please submit your email below.
Read the Portland Mercury article about last week’s hearing –
We packed the last hearing; told them to EXPECT US at this one.
Support Peaceful Occupiers who have been brutalized by Portland Police.
Attend Hearing in Solidarity with option to speak directly to following proposition for 2-3 minutes:
Proposition 1377: Establish the authority for the Citizen Review Committee to make policy recommendations directly to the Portland Police Bureau, increase the length of term served by Citizen Review Committee members and clarify procedures of the Citizen Review Committee in hearing appeals from community and bureau members (Previous Agenda 1341; amend Code Chapter 3.21)
http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?c=26997
A Message from Portland Copwatch:
Hi
Thanks again to all the Occupy folks who came to City Council on Thursday to testify. I hope to see many of you again this Wednesday at 2 PM.
If you haven’t seen this yet, the Independent Police Review Division (IPR) deliberately sent information to the police outlining how many commendations came in about how the police acted when clearing out Occupy, contrasting it with (what was then) only one complaint that they’ve opened, for Justin Bridges. It’s posted at the Portland Police Association’s newsletter website, the Rap Sheet:
http://pparapsheet.org/2011/
I stongly advise anyone who is facing criminal charges to talk to a lawyer before contacting IPR, but otherwise, the many of you who told personal stories should contact IPR either with a formal complaint or a comment so they know what they got before and sent to the Police “union”‘s newsletter was not indicative.
You can get a commendation/complaint form at the IPR site:
http://www.portlandonline.com/
Once you fill it out, you should keep a copy so you can be sure you know if they ignore part of your complaint. Be as detailed as you can– cops’ names, exactly what they did that you think violates policy (or if it doesn’t, why the policy should change), witness contact info, etc.
The italics in the Rap Sheet article are very confusing– I’m assuming the last two paragraphs in the article were actually from the commendation and not from IPR office staffer Marilyn Sheperd– but if they ARE from her, I think IPR has a serious problem on their hands.
It’s amazing that this kind of thing is going on behind the scenes while we’re arguing publicly that IPR is too close to the police and needs to be more independent…
Friends
We have at least one more chance to push City Council to give more power to the “Independent” Police Review Division (IPR) and its Citizen Review Committee (CRC), as well as to urge them to call for more changes to Bureau policies including use of force: This WEDNESDAY, December 14 at 2 PM, the fourth hearing regarding the Mayor and Chief’s 44-page document on policy issues and the Auditor’s 45 pages on IPR/CRC will take place, and the Mayor promised there would be more public testimony.
Yesterday’s City Council hearing on police accountability issues included some brief updates from our organization and the League of Women Voters about the specific proposals to improve Portland’s police oversight system, about a dozen other testifiers who spoke directly to either strengthening the system or improving police policies, and a few dozen other folks from the Occupy movement who came up one after another to tell their stories of being beaten by batons, dragged, pushed, hit with pepper spray, and/or otherwise abused at the hands of the so-called “restrained” Bureau. It was quite powerful, especially at the end when the last woman speaking told Mayor Adams that every time a cop hit her (or anyone else) it was him doing the hitting; she emphasized eloquently the movement’s commitment to nonviolence, and begged Adams, “Please be nice to us.” As she was speaking, fellow Occupiers put their hands on her shoulders for support, and by the end, the entire floor of the Council chambers (in front of the chairline) was filled with people. I’ve never seen anything like it. Mercury reporter Denis Theriault captured the moment in his blog post on the hearing:
http://blogtown.portlandmercur
The Mayor nearly shut down the whole hearing when Commissioner Amanda Fritz had to leave to attend a memorial service, but the Occupy folks would not have it. Adams agreed that he and Commissioner Nick Fish would stay until everyone had time to talk, and indeed the scheduled 1 hour agenda item lasted just over 90 minutes.
The Occupy folks promised to be back, each person bringing 2-3 friends.
Here again are the most basic talking points if you want to contact Council ahead of time or speak at the hearing next week:
”I don’t trust the oversight system we have that at its heart has police
investigating complaints of police misconduct, brutality and racism, and
I want you to change it.”“I believe there should be strict limits on some forms of police
use of force and disagree with the Chief and Mayor’s suggestion that
they need more ‘flexibility.’”
On that second point, Mayor Adams challenged one testifier where he got his information, and mumbled something about not having giving any such orders. But then, another person came up and read the Bureau’s response to AMA demand #1.8, which calls for a complete review of all less-lethal weaponry and its appropriateness for use against civilians. Reese and the Mayor’s response, which states, “The subsequent evaluation of whether the use of such force is within policy includes a careful review of the totality of circumstances as they are known by the officers at the time.”
That idea is more broadly addressed in item #1.1, which asks that serious uses of force be tied to serious offenses, with the Chief and Mayor stating that the “totality” standard “allows officers the flexibility necessary to deal effectively with threats to themselves or others, while being held accountable for their decisions.” In response to the idea of officers using Tasers no more than three times on a subject, the Chief/Mayor wrote they “Disagree; a numerical standard such as this does not allow sufficient options for officers.” They also “disagree” that less-lethal shotguns should be restricted to use from more than 10 feet and not used on people who are merely failing to comply. Add to that the item asking that police dogs not be used simultaneously with other uses of force, to which the Chief and Mayor’s response was “Disagree; does not allow enough flexibility,” and you can see a pattern emerging.
We’ve slightly updated our outline of the Auditor’s seven proposed changes to IPR/CRC (and our analysis of why some need to be strengthened) with 11 other changes from the Stakeholder report; it now also includes a modified recommendation to add two _non-voting_ members to CRC as a compromise between the Stakeholder recommendation to go from 9 to 11 members and the City (and CRC)’s stated reluctance to do so.
http://www.portlandcopwatch.or
(If you, like the Mayor, prefer a strike-through version, let us know and we can post that too.)
For your convenience, here again is the Council’s contact info:
Snail mail: 1221 SW 4th Ave, Portland OR 97204
Commissioner Dan Saltzman <>
Room 230 Phone:
Commissioner Amanda Fritz <>
Room 220 Phone:
Commissioner Nick Fish <>
Room 240 Phone:
Commissioner Randy Leonard <>
Room 210 Phone:
Mayor Sam Adams <>
Room 340 Phone:
–Portland Copwatch
(a project of Peace and Justice Works)
PO Box 42456
Portland, OR 97242
(office)
(incident report line)
http://www.portlandcopwatch.