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“Poorly Trained Paramilitaries’ and Occupiers”
On December 22, The Oregonian published an essay written by Portland Police Officer Peter Braun. I didn’t comment on Officer Braun’s guest column essay three days before Christmas; after all, a break from the news of the day, as short as it might be, is a welcome relief from the winter of our discontent.
Opinion: Sworn to protect and serve a city that doesn’t welcome it
I am not writing this as part of my professional duties as a Portland Police officer. The views expressed are mine and do not reflect those of the Portland Police Bureau. I am writing this as a third generation Portlander who is raising a baby daughter as the fourth. I care deeply about this community and want to help my fellow Portlanders live fulfilling, safe lives. That’s why I decided to become a Portland Police officer, as opposed to pursuing an easier or more lucrative career.
Since making that choice, I have never felt less welcomed or supported by my city.
To be clear, the members of the public I see in my work every day are not the ones who make me feel this way. Rather, it’s the elected officials, as well as a candidate running for office who make me feel unsupported and unwelcomed in the city I serve and have called home for my entire life.
I sat by and listened as Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioners JoAnn Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly condemned the Portland Police as an institution and rushed to judge individual officers earlier this year. They were angry about texts that, they thought, showed that a police liaison was too chummy with the right-wing protest organizer he was assigned to get information from. An investigation later cleared him. It hurt my heart, but I have tried to ignore it, and to Mayor Wheeler’s credit he did sit down to hear out the police officers who work for them, and learn from his mistakes.
However, that lack of faith isn’t evident in just our current elected leaders but also in those who are running for office. Mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone, who could oversee police if she is elected, accuses the Portland Police of racial discrimination in her campaign’s public safety plan. She also claims the team most active in trying to stop the cycle of gun violence that disproportionately impacts people of color is engaging in racist behavior. On her Twitter account, she retweeted someone who accused police of murder and called them “poorly-trained paramilitaries who live in the suburbs and occupy our communities.” And most recently she attacked the character of a police officer involved in a tragedy without bothering to wait for the facts. And she wonders why Portland cops don’t want to live in the city?
There is a difference between governing and ruling a city. It is much easier to try to determine what Portlanders should eat, and what type of bags will be allowed to transport their groceries home. Their dismay in your choice of transportation: Why aren’t you riding a bicycle to and from the grocery store in the rain? The difficult problems like the dismal high school graduation rate in the Portland Public School System or the thousands of homeless on the streets are ignored.
The problem is bigger than Ms. Iannarone or any individual elected official. The problem stems from how we talk about the challenges our community faces. When children attending Portland Public Schools face radically different rates of discipline and graduation based on their race, we don’t jump to calling all teachers racist. When people die preventable deaths, or are kicked out into the cold by the city’s premier mental health facility, we don’t call the nurses and doctors murderers. When thousands of Portlanders live on the streets in the throes of mental illness, we don’t demand that members of the public sit in judgment over the social workers who fail to provide them needed care, as we do with the police bureau’s Professional Standards Board.
Inevitably, when these Portlanders are failed by those public institutions, they become the responsibility of police officers. Then, and only then, do public officials speak up—and they do so to condemn the men and women I work with. I am not asking officials to point the finger at thousands of other dedicated public servants, but instead to recognize that police officers did not the create the problems we face, and we are in fact trying to help.
The incident that brought the wrath of Ms. Innarone down upon a Portland Police officer was the shooting of a mentally-ill man who threatened two Portland Police officers with knives. It was not the first encounter with a pair of edged weapons that this suspect had with police officers. One officer in the final confrontation had deployed a less than lethal impact weapon. The second officer provided lethal cover with an AR-15. In less than 13 seconds, the suspect was shot and killed.
From the Oregonian columnist Steve Duin:
I’ve had all week to reflect on the year’s fifth fatal shooting by Portland police. A few thoughts, then, on the police response, the follow-up by two mayoral candidates, and life and death on city streets in the foreseeable future.
Henriksen brought a history of mental illness to Southeast 103rd Drive. As Chief Danielle Outlaw confirmed Thursday afternoon, he confronted two Portland cops outside that same Starbucks several weeks earlier on Nov. 14, knives in hand.
“Henriksen threatened to kill the officer and took a step toward the officer,” the bureau said in a statement about that November encounter.
The officers requested cover, and retreated behind the patrol car “while they attempted to de-escalate the situation. Henriksen paced and shouted, but retreated. An officer spoke with him and after some discussion, Henriksen listened to the officer’s direction and threw the knives down.”
In November, then, police calmed Henriksen and transported him to Providence Hospital for treatment. Cops also helped Henriksen to a hospital in August when he told officers “he needed someone to kill him.”
Their interaction Sunday was altogether different. Officer Daniel Leonard approached Henriksen with a 40mm launcher that fired foam-tipped projectiles. Raphael and his AR-15 provided lethal cover, and quickly found reason to employ it.
Several witnesses were surprised at how quickly. “There was no negotiation,” Robert Vervloet told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “There was no, ‘Hey buddy, we need to talk about this.’”
Not when Henriksen was, yet again, brandishing those knives. Raphael saw those weapons Sunday. We’ve all seen them now. If it’s someone I love exiting that Starbucks, I don’t want police erring on the foam-tipped side of things.
I’ll leave you with one more thought from Officer Braun:
Published in PolicingI am not asking the community, or its leaders, to hold officers to a lower standard. I am asking that, if you want us to be a part of the community, start by remembering that police are asked to respond to tens of thousands of calls about people in crisis, often violent, every year. The vast majority of times it goes right, and no one hears about it. To do this, we put our physical and emotional health at stake every day.
The first time I held my daughter, my hands still bore the marks from a recent assault. We put ourselves through this because it’s worth it, and because we want to make a difference. I have worked in a few fields in my time: higher education, journalism, finance and the law, and nowhere have I seen more dedicated, and compassionate people than the ones I am now honored to call my fellow officers.
I hope the next time someone in a position of power has the urge to blame us officers that they remember our humanity and our sacrifice. If you still question our motivation and dedication, come along and see for yourself. My passenger seat is open.
Amen.
I think it should be required of the mayor of any city to do a ride along, at night, when the crazies are really out.
These people will never be convinced it is their policies that create these situations more often than not.
This is what occurs when the people of a city (this includes Seattle) elect 1960s radicals to run their town. They all still think of police as Pigs, and act accordingly. They will get something different when they elect different leaders.
In the meantime, I feel sorry for “Portland’s Finest”, since they, and not the criminals, will bear the brunt of that policy.
It will be different in Seattle when the crazies running for office there get elected and abolish the police.
Do I sense an outbreak of Blue Flu in the near future?
There is a no strike clause for the Portland Police Bureau. The problem is that City Commisioners are elected at large and do not represent specific neighborhoods in Portland. Campaigning consists of appealing to advocacy groups for votes. Portland may be the only city left in the country that uses this type of system. Neighborhood Associations that present problems, to include criminal activity are routinely ignored.
The Portland Police Bureau sends day shift district officers to neighborhood association meetings. Those day shift officers pass along concerns to the afternoon and night shift officers, to include residents that would like to speak to their district officers. The City Commisioners spend their time meeting with advocacy groups, unless of course they think that the neighborhood association is going to honor them, and provide a photo-op.
Waste of time. They don’t need convincing, they need to care.
Back in the late 1970’s, Mayor Jane Byrne of Chicago actually took up residence in an apartment in one of Chicago’s more notorious projects to see exactly what the people living in those places have to deal with. She then got criticized by various officials because she did have police assigned to ensure her safety and what not.
I always felt if she could do that, every mayor should roll up their sleeves and experience what is really going on. Your suggestion of including a police ride along, during the wee hours, is a splendid idea as well.
We have at-large elections of our city council in Alexandria, Virginia, too, and it is a disaster. We do not have a big crime problem, and our elected officials certainly respect the police, but our neighborhoods are routinely ignored on other important issues, and progressives have rapidly taken over. At-large representation is effectively no representation.
This also speaks to the Electoral College issue.
The politicians are only a mirror. If the voters in Portland didn’t feel that way, the politicians wouldn’t be able to say or do he things they do.
Makes you wonder why anyone would go into law enforcement these days. Even a justified shooting puts an officer at risk of a long prison term, something a young man or woman starting a family cannot afford.
It’s one thing when the middle class, squeezed by high taxes and failing schools leaves the city. But when law enforcement decides it ain’t worth the risk and departs, the city will end up becoming the Wild West shooting gallery the left predicted would happen when states enacted concealed carry and stand-your-ground laws . . .
Indeed, but there are contrary views even in Portland, and when the majority rigs the system by setting up at-large elections, there is very little chance for the minority to be effective. This emboldens the majority to go further than they otherwise might have done.
Is Braun still on the force, or was he fired for his “hate speech”?
Portland needs a Giuliani.
And now I see the former police chief, Danelle Outlaw, has moved on to Philly. That should work out well for them. How ironic. Her last name is outlaw and she’s a cop.