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Rapping Back #92:
Portland Copwatch member Dan Handelman analyzes Police "Union" social
media (formerly the"Rap Sheet" newsletter) for the People's Police Report

Corrupt Constables Make Mockery of Democratic Dialogue

One of the biggest stories surrounding the Portland Police Association (PPA) these past few months is their effort to create a ballot measure that would overturn what's left of Charter Section 2- 10, which was voted in four years ago to empower a civilian oversight board (see oversight article). While the volume of articles posted to their Facebook page continues to dwindle (there were only 14 posts from December to mid-April), they were sure to make a splash on February 26 announcing that, and a second ballot measure. Interestingly, the post (which is really just the PPA's news release) says that they are "considering whether to take the unprecedented step of launching an effort to directly engage the people to lift their voice and desire to reprioritize public safety in our city." Essentially, if they don't like the ballot title that gets assigned to either the "gut the Community Board for Police Accountability" measure or the "let's pretend we care about Portland Street Response by asking for more money for cops" measure, they might not bother to gather 40,748 signatures for either measure by July 1 to force the topics on the November ballot.

As if the 82% of voters who put the Charter chapter in place and the 20 months spent by the Police Accountability Commission doing research and talking to dozens of people-- including the PPA-- were not enough, they say this is about "giving Portlanders their voice in public safety." As noted elsewhere in this issue, the accountability measure will take away community members' ability to decide whether officers violate policy and how to discipline them. It's not clear, then, what they mean by their measure promoting "true accountability behind our government, with mutual oversight of the City Council, Police Bureau, and Citizen Oversight Commission [which isn't the proposed or actual name of any body in Portland]." They admit their filing to take away powers of the Board and add cops to their ranks may seem "suspect" but they blame the way the original ballot measure was crafted in "haste."

The rest of the posts break down like this: nine about crime (64%-- including one article which ran twice about an Oregon State Police dog helping with a drug bust), three showing their "friendly" side (21%), and one remembering Officer Colleen Waibel (January 27), who was shot during a botched drug raid in January 1998 (PPR #14).

Be Careful Who You Idealize

The second most notable post was published on January 18 and highlights the work of Officer Betsy Hornstein, who won an award as traffic officer of the year. A video shows Hornstein riding a motorcycle through an obstacle course and an officer praising her work. The voiceover says "we should all learn to work like her." What's missing from the pomp and circumstance is that Hornstein appeared in our newsletter twice for actions in 2014-- once for kicking and beating Black teen Thai Gurule (despite her Crisis Intervention Training) and once for "liking" a post on Facebook saying "I am Darren Wilson," a tribute to the officer who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, widely considered motivated by racism. Hmm.

Crime Dominates the News and the News Feed

The PPA used to publish its own monthly newsletter, the Rap Sheet, and would fill it with stories written by rank- and-file officers. Now most of the news derives from the Police Bureau (six posts) or the mainstream media (three posts). Facebook posts of a December 24 KGW-8TV story on a "holiday theft mission" and a 50% decrease in stolen vehicles between January 2023 and January 2024 from KATU-2TV (February 27) are just a few examples of how the PPB and PPA continue to bemoan low staffing levels yet seem to be able to take special well-publicized efforts to show people they are tackling property-related crimes.

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The officer in the KATU story on car theft is Brad Nutting, who repeatedly hit Matt Klug with a Taser in 2014 and was not disciplined after City Council refused to agree with the Citizen Review Committee that he had violated policy (PPR #71).

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There were also Portland Police Bureau pieces about the drug-seizing dog (January 24 and 31) and another "crime reduction mission" where officers went into three neighborhoods with police dogs, the District Attorney and detectives' help, arresting 12 people and issuing five citations in a "proactive" effort (January 29).

May, 2024
Also in PPR #92

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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