News Feb 25, 2010 at 4:00 am

Campbell Shooting: New Facts from Down the Rabbit Hole

Comments

1
you'd have had "three" items to this story had you followed up on the Curiouser and Curiouser issues as to WHY the PPB would have hired a man who'd been Senior Agent in Charge for local BLM (federal agency under the US Department of Interior) who actually had a documented work history of POLICE ABUSE OF FORCE, and guy now is now PPB's "Police Background Investigator". A step-down in job for sure, but WHY? Is it because he was charged with severely beating a 19 year old for failure to have a $12 BLM Recreation Pass with case investigated by the FBI and it seemingly quietly hushed up and the guy "somehow" lands at PPB to be primary gate-keeper as to who is considered for police appointments, as he decides what to check of their background and how it's to be presented for higher review and ultimate acceptance of the applicant. IF THE GUY HAS ABUSE OF POWER ISSUES HIMSELF, THEN IT STANDS TO REASON HE'LL BE LENIENT AS ALL HELL FOR OTHER APPLICANTS THAT ARE STRUGGLING WITH THAT ISSUE THEMSELVES. Is this how some of these Rogue Cops have gained a foothold at PPB? Don't let this dude, his background, his history, and why Rosie, Sam and Dan aren't talking too much about him fall down the rabbit hole. It's you job to jerk this man out of the hole before he falls so far as to be found again. So, pull this "rabbit" out ASAP and see how many faces are red as result!

2
The whole having media play the cop and having a cop shoot them thing is so irrelevant and here is why. Since 1980 we have had what 2 cops killed? The PPB would love for you to believe that suspects try to kill them everyday and so they have to defend themselves to the point that a couple unarmed people a year dying isn't a big deal, but it just isn't the case. Really you are more likely to be killed fishing for salmon or logging than you are as a Portland cop.
3
Yeah, and bringing up police suicide rates is ridiculous. The suicide-by-occupation data in the US is confusing and sketchy, because we are too sensitive and in too much denial, as a society, to study that sort of thing rigorously. What data we have does not place cops high on the list. Medical professionals and tradespeople have far, far higher rates in the US.

In Britain, however, they are not afraid to study the subject. And the most recent data reports the following suicide rate per million:

Food batchmakers (241)

Physicians (222) and health aides (excluding nursing) (221)

Lathe and turning machine operators (199)

Biological, life and medical scientists (188)

Social scientists and urban planners (171)

Dentists (165)

Lawyers and Judges (140)

Guards/sales occupations were tied at 139

Tool and die makers (126)

Police, public servants (118)

Looks like if you work in a food factory you have twice the rate of suicide as cops. Of course, in the UK cops don't deal with guns that look like wallets, guns that look like videocameras, guns that might be in the waistband of people being riddled with beanbag bullets, etc

I went by Sandy Terrace yesterday. let me tell you, if you are one of those I-fart-on-your-general-religion atheists, you should sit in the parking lot there for a while. the supernatural will touch you.
4
What I take from the training that the reporters got to see is that Portland cops are trained to expect that every single person they encounter will be armed, will pretend to comply or otherwise distract the officer, and will pull out a gun and shoot the officer. Maybe some of the training should involve people who end up not having guns and not trying to kill the officer, which corresponds to 99 percent of the calls they will actually respond to on the job. Clearly they are trained to think that everyone is out to kill them, which I think explains a lot of their behavior.
5
I would like to know if the rate of police officer suicide is higher than the rate of of suicide overall. That is to say, if there are 25 suicides out of every 100 people on average in the US. And there are 100 police officers and 25 of them commit suicide - that doesn't tell us anything about whether police are more likely to commit suicide. If 75 out of 100 officers committed suicide, then there might be something to talk about.

Also, it's pretty specious to say that "There are a lot of officer suicides, therefore being a cop is dangerous/stressful". For a long time dentists were the profession in the US with the highest rate of suicide. Does that mean being a dentist is dangerous? A high rate of suicide can be caused by a huge number of things.

I am really fucking sick of hearing how hard it is to be a cop. It's a non-sequitor. Cops are not allowed to kill unarmed people because their job is hard. It's not a defense so why are we hearing it so much?
6
People are so afraid of fucking up, so afraid to be accountable, to themselves or anyone else, and it's totally impractical, since, you know, we all fuck up every day. The difference is when I fuck up, life isn't hanging in the balance. Yeah, cops have a hard job, and yeah, at any moment they could be in a situation where a split-second decision could end in death, but that's all the more reason there should be accountability and support for police.

And we need both. But when the police, as a whole, close ranks, make t-shirts and essentially say "fuck you, you don't know what it's like, you're not in our shoes, we did nothing wrong" it makes it impossible to feel anything but contempt and anger. And right now it feels like the Campbell case is just one more headache for the Mayor, the Chief, the Commish, and the PPB, something they wish would go away.

Until they see that the PPB is broken, and hasn't worked properly in a while, and that this is the time to do the real work of repairing the relationship between the police and the community it is supposed to "protect and serve" I don't see any meaningful change coming. I'd say lets go march in the streets, but I'd honestly be a little worried about getting beanbagged. I really don't feel like any of the powers that be actually care about anything but remaining the powers that be.
7
Matt C. Davis writes: “ … Liani Reyna, has a longstanding discrimination beef …(?)”

Hmmmm. …
I have never heard of this of type of meat before.

Mr. Davis describes it as “standing” and “long.”

Never heard of something like “discrimination beef” either.

Is discrimination similar to Kobe Beef? Is it like corned beef? Or, is “longstanding discrimination beef” a SERTain “beef” that ONLY EXISTS and is EXCLUSIVELY RESTRICTED for chewing in the mouths of female Portland’s police officers?

C’mon Matt, whats with your choice of a demeaning noun “beef” to describe the appalling unconscionable conduct this woman details in lawsuits that were litigated to appellate review?

IS IT YOUR OPINION AND DO YOU DESIRE TO CREATE THE IMPRESSION IN READERS THAT BECAUSE SHE DID NOT WIN A JUDGMENT IN A COURT OF LAW THAT OFFICER REYNA’S COMPLAINT WAS SOMEHOW WITHOUT MERIT?

Do you not self-edit BEFORE USING A VALUE-LADEN WORD IN THIS CONTEXT to recognize that you are trivializing workplace hostile environment and gender bias?

If you do not mean to single out, lay blame and judge the totality of circumstances for the Campbell shooting onto a single officer, why then make (personally defamatory and inflammatory) causal inferences?

Workplace gender discrimination is NOT as banal or inconsequential as you appear to believe it is - and mistakenly so - at least in this police officer Reyna case.
8
Sarafina,

I am no expert and am going off of articles where I found information that is probably but not definitely reliable.

The overall suicide rates in the US are roughly as follows: 60 per million amongst females, 200 per million amongst males, so an overall average, if you assume roughly equal numbers of women and men, is about 130 per million. Police suicide rate is about 120 per million, so less than the overall average. This is likely because cops are all adults and teenagers are by far the most vulnerable to suicide.
9
NOTICE: The first attempt to list this post was apparently Censored SOMETIME BETWEEN 5 PM – 10 PM 01-25 presumably by MCD ?

appropriating the misery of another for one’s own status or profit or to win ‘debating points’ for one’s theory (or journalistic awards) is the casebook example of opportunistic exploitation. Which may explain why he removed the post.

Matt C. Davis writes: “ … Liani Reyna, has a longstanding discrimination beef …(?)”
Hmmmm. ….

I have never heard of this of type of meat before.

Mr. Davis describes it as “standing” and “long.”

Never heard of something like “discrimination beef” either.

Is discrimination (beef) similar to Kobe Beef? Is it like corned beef? Or is “longstanding discrimination beef” a SERTain “beef” that ONLY EXISTS and is EXCLUSIVELY RESTRICTED for chewing in the mouths of female Portland’s police officers?

C’mon Matt, whats with your choice of a demeaning noun “beef” to describe the appalling unconscionable conduct this professional woman details in lawsuits that were litigated to appellate review?

IS IT YOUR OPINION AND DO YOU DESIRE TO CREATE THE IMPRESSION IN READERS’ MINDS THAT BECAUSE SHE DID NOT WIN A JUDGMENT IN A COURT OF LAW THAT OFFICER REYNA’S COMPLAINT WAS SOMEHOW WITHOUT MERIT?

Do you not self-edit BEFORE USING A VALUE-LADEN WORD IN THIS CONTEXT to recognize that you are trivializing workplace hostile environment and gender bias?
If you do not mean to single out, lay blame and judge the totality of circumstances for the Campbell shooting onto one single officer, why then make (personally defamatory and inflammatory) causal inferences?

Workplace gender discrimination is NOT as banal or inconsequential as you appear to believe it is - and mistakenly so - at least in this police officer Reyna case.
10
Give this story a rest. The dude choose to ignore orders. Next time, maybe the perp will comply. Stop fighting and disobeying a cop's orders. Jesse came to town because racial protests were low across the US and he needed some attention.
11
give it a rest there "lanquan" as you seem like one of those double-digited IQ folks that think cop's are "gods" with this silly "...stop fighting and disobeying a cop's orders..."as if they are worthy of being obeyed. Most of us have grown beyond 3rd-grade mentalities and believe it's far better to challenge authoritarian/totalitarian forces rather than simply comply and "obey"! Get with it! This ain't the 1950's...this is 2010 where Americans believe in being "all you can be" and not what someone else tells them they can be....
12
First, Lanquan, you're an idiot!

Do you understand the terms "passive resistance" and "justifiable force"? Obviously, not. How about the concept "following procedure"? Go back to listening to KXL and KXTG, where racism, bigotry and ignorance rule, and spare us from your 'all cops are great' misguided mentality!

Jesse Jackson nailed this one. It was an "execution", without the rope! As a white man, I truly believe if Aaron Campbell were white, he would still be alive.

Second, FlyingTiger/SwimsWith Sharks, sometimes it takes a longer time for posts to be posted. there is nobody in the city that is more open to opposing views than the Mercury. I don't agree with them about recalling Sam Adams, but they have always allowed my opposing views to be posted.

Reyna was subjected to a hostile work environment, no doubt. By not filing her complaint sooner, she lost some credibility, and that's unfortunate. Don't wait for three months or three years to speak, that's the lesson.

Did Reyna's "beef" effect her judgement to call SERT. Sure looks like it, and her relationship with male officers appears to also have effected Ronald Frashour, who removed his ear piece, and Ryan Lewton, who violated police policy when he fired his beanbag gun.

Thank you Dan Handelman! Where would we be if it weren't for you, and the Mercury staff, if we had to only depend on corporate shills like Lars Larson for our thinking.

Boycott the Portland Trailblazers until they change their affiliation with such disreputable media outlets like KXL, KXTG and KGW.
13
lanquan
your comment is sickening.
14
the more I think about it, the 'execution' of Aaron Campbell sounds more like 'shooting fish in a barrel...

One will use a stick to slap the fish and get it to move, and the other hunter will fire the deadly shot.

The $10,000,000 question:
Did Reyna try to control the two eager hunters, but they weren't listening?

Rashour remove his earphone. Reyna may not have known this-

Did any of the civilian witnesses see Reyna attempting to control the situation before Bob Day arrived? Hummmm.....

Maybe, along with holding bad cops responsible, we also need to recognize good cops like Jim Quackenbush for his efforts to find a peaceful resolution.
15
There seem to be a lot of people convinced that police officers are highly motivated to kill people they don't have to. It's a disturbing thought, so do any of you have a credible reason to believe this? I will preemptively exclude any anecdote involving a bully who took your weed, hacky sack, etc. It sounds like they really messed up, but it seems unfair and foolish to explicitly accuse the officer of murder.
16
Re: “Curiouser and Curiouser”
you asked a question there "filthyhip" that is worth a few moments of my time to answer. You asked do we have any credible reason to believe that "police officers are highly motivated to kill people they don't have to..." and I say Y-E-S!

I'm a single parent father that raised my 3 children alone and to me, they are the most precious reason for living and fighting for JUSTICE. My son, who I raised from 6 months on alone, manifested a severe neurological disorder some 4 years ago and it required extensive hospitalization, brain and spinal cord surgery, and lengthy rehabilitation's that clearly left him disabled (both physically, and to some degree mentally due to the extensive medications he has to take to relief unremitting PAIN) and it's obvious to anyone in his presence.

About a month before James Chasse was so savagely "murdered" by PPB thugs by stomping him to death, my own son had a "near-death encounter" with one of PPB's other thugs. It was the first time since his surgeries and the lengthy rehabilitation's, that his friends talked him into going on an evening outing downtown to enjoy dinner and some dancing. As they were outside standing in the q-line to the establishment, a fight broke out between two young men that none of them had any connection with, nor knew...just a bunch of rowdy boys pushing 'n' shoving.

He realized that he did NOT need to be shoved by these characters, so walked away to stand on the curb side of the sidewalk to be far away from any jostling 'n' shoving. As he was standing curbside watching the little "fight" a PPB cop car pulled up in a screeching halt and the cop jumped out opening his door so fast that it hit my son as he was struggling to get out of the way of this hyper-charged cop (we suspect he was on Steroids, as our subsequent later investigations into him informed us that he was reputed to be a 'roids-abuser') and the cop jumped out seeing my son faltering backward and "automatically assumed" he was involved with the fight he'd been called to break up. The cop quickly--without saying a word--grabbed my son's arm and twisted it behind his back and was cursing him. Naturally my son--given his condition--collapsed to the pavement and immediately went into a Grand Mal seizure as the pain's intensity was too much to endure as it triggered his spinal condition's relapse.

The cop, I'm told nearly crapped his pants at this sudden development and was breathing heavy and about to have a stroke himself, and as my son's GM seizure caused his legs to kick 'n' jerk, the cop was so stupid that he thought he was attempting to get away from him, so tackled him while laying on the pavement to attempt to put handcuffs on him.

As the totally unnecessary struggle continued, my son's friends stepped forward to try to halt this MADNESS and one friend, even found a loose brick in the nearby pavement and had it in his hand with full intent to bash the cop's head in to force him to stop his craziness. Other friends prevailed on the cop to stop 'n' listen, as they explained to him what was my son's condition and why what this idiot cop was doing was the absolute wrong thing and could so easily result in his death.

Soon a supervisory cop showed up and he seemed to readily listen to the friends 'n' others (who were willing to tell the truth) and verbally reprimanded the idiot cop and telling him take off the handcuffs and then the supervisory step him up and talked to my son using "ration, reason, and intelligence" to handle the matter. He was called away elsewhere via radio, but told the idiot cop to see to it that my son was taken to the hospital, though my son was saying he was OK (more embarrassed and certainly after being so grossly mishandled by such idiot cop was wanting as far away from them as possible...wanting no more of their "help") so he could get away from this idiot he was now terribly afraid of. Once the supervisory cop had driven away, this idiot cop just picked my son up
from the pavement and walked him to the backseat of the squad car and put him back seat and closed door and just drove off--not waiting for ETM/ambulance as he was told to do by his own supervisory--to drive him to the ER at a nearby hospital. My son's friend's were quick to get to their cars and followed--driving as fast as the cop did, which was over the speed limits--to get there soon after. My son was put in ER and later another room, and later on in the night the same errand idiot cop that provoked all this totally unnecessary "near death-by-cop incident" came by to check on him, as he was worried about it escalating beyond his and his pals ability to control.

When I became aware of what had happened, I took measures to get my son transferred to another hospital for their physician's observations and input. He was later put under the care of a Neurological Specialist who dealt with people suffering such GM seizures arising from intense pain and in the course of his treatment, we spent well over $ 28,600 in medical expenses to get him back to where he was before this deplorable incident.

Having lived here long enough to know better, I did initially call the PPB Central Precinct to get the report, etc. etc. with intent to lodge complaints, and got the worst imaginable run-a-round from the rudest people I've yet to encounter from a bureaucracy. I was persistent in my follow-ups and eventually made contact with a Sgt. Kyle Nice, who began playing the infamous "good cop--bad cop" routine with him playing the "good cop" as he sought to defend his longtime pal (the idiot cop) and cause me to spin my wheels with my efforts to hold someone accountable. Imagine my S-H-O-C-K when barely a few weeks later I read where this same "good cop" was one of the horrible men who stomp James Chasse to death...because one of these idiot's though he was peeing on the
sidewalk?

My son and I got in touch with an attorney and have been plodding alone in the background quietly waiting to take our strike at these idiots, and you can bet it'll be a good one.

There, cop-apologist, does that sufficiently answer your question????
17
I cannot decide whether I ought to admire all of the certain judgments being made regarding this story, or fear them.

On the one hand, as someone who himself suffers from a socially debilitating mental illness, I think it is fair to propose that various incidents between the Portland Police Bureau and the public in the last decade demonstrate a lack of understanding of and training for situations where psychological instability is a factor; that is as true for education, business, religion, and families as it seems to be for the police, so I don't appreciate the accusations that they are somehow uniquely deficient in this area.

On the other hand, if I was an officer and on the scene, and I knew that: 1. The gentleman involved had a documented history of aggression against his family, his neighbors, and the police; 2. The gentleman was armed and suicidal according to his own aunt; 3. The gentleman spent two hours with the three children present, which must have been interpreted at least as potentially volatile and at most as a hostage situation; 4. The gentleman, still presumably armed, won't show his hands to the police, shouts at them to shoot him, then after being hit with non-lethal rounds runs for cover; I have to ask myself: may I have shot him?

And if my answer is yes, does that mean that I harbor racist sentiment, or fancy myself godlike, or am particularly prone to aggression and violence? I simply do not understand how something that may be a violation of policy, an error in judgment, a breakdown of communication, or a clash of personalities must also be an example of institutional corruption. How can we criticize the Portland Police Bureau for dehumanizing the public when our very criticism is designed to rob them of their humanity, making them into a faceless evil to combat with our grandiose, self-congratulatory judgment?

One thing I do know for certain; I hope that none of you who are so certain and unrelenting in your harsh judgment ever yourselves become police officers; a little authority and a gun and you'd be just as dangerous as you imagine your foes to be.
18
Bad Robot certainly tells a story that rings all too true. Portland Police have shown a tendency to use force as a first resort, with a shocking lack of perception or reason. And I'm glad I have no personal horror stories regarding the PPB. But to try to answer filthy hip's question from an objective perspective, just like it would be wildly inaccurate and unfair to say all Catholic priests are chimos and rapists it also isn't fair to paint every portland police officer as blood-thirsty racist killers looking to get their murder on. The vast majority are honest people trying to do a good job.

But the fact remains that a police sniper shot an unarmed, non-threatening civilian in the back and killed him. That is the complete opposite of how this is supposed to work. Cops are allegedly trained to use deadly force upon imminent threat. Of course that leaves a wide range of second to second interpretation, but there needs to be accountability after the fact. This was preventable. And all we've gotten is a lot of lip service and hand wringing. The PPB have shown themselves to be cowardly bull shit artists who hide behind their too powerful union. It's pathetic and inspires no faith. So what do we do? Hope it gets better?
19
Rafer Alston, I don't intend this question to be rhetorical, as I myself don't know how I'd answer yet. As I understand it, Campbell claimed to be in possession of a firearm, his aunt claimed he was armed, and his girlfriend was a witness to his being armed; may the police treat him as an armed suspect for the rest of the encounter until it is proven otherwise, or ought they verify with their own eyes that he has a weapon in his grasp or within reach on his person before they proceed as though he were armed?
20
A TRUE OR FALSE 'COP' QUIZ

1. If you have dark skin, a mental Disorder, are low income, do not speak fluent English or do not shave, you may as well wear a target on your back because there is no legal consequence should an officer choose to kill you.

2. When an on-duty Cop kills an unarmed citizen, it is a result of a failed department policy. It is not an act of violence or incompetence.

3. Police are less capable of error than other humans because . . . traditions are only questioned by addicts and terrorists.

4. The law only applies to those who have no power to enforce it.

5. Justice is blind as a bat with night vision.

6. It is foolish to assume that it is likely a coincidence that rich, affluent, people do not often end up dead as a result of police contact.


1.T
2.F
3.F
4.T
5.T
6.F
21
Pdxstudent, please note an important, nay, critical point you appear to have missed:

"The gentleman, still presumably armed, won't show his hands to the police, shouts at them to shoot him, then after being hit with non-lethal rounds runs for cover; I have to ask myself: may I have shot him?"

The man came out with his hands LOCKED BEHIND HIS HEAD WALKING BACKWARDS.
When he failed to obey orders to put his hands in the air above his head, the beanbag man, contrary to PPB use-of-force policy, began shooting, and the rest is history.

Along with being mauled by the dog as he lay dying. Thankfully, a hit to the vena cava is generally a 60 second or less death.
22
When I moved here several years ago i was horrified to see racial profiling and harrassment of minorities by the Portland Police. I am a white 60 year old woman who knows this kind of racism only stops when white people are willing to stop and observe the police in action.So I stopped once and when asked why i wasn't moving along i replied that i was just "out for a walk and observing activities in the neighborhood". They then proceeded to check my I.D. , ask me if i wanted to go to jail and told to "move along now because we know where you live". This Police Department are crazy white Aryan brothers. This City must do something about them before they kill again.
23
If any of you were cops we would be in big trouble. I think we should create a list of all the people that hate the cops so much, then publish a list of their addresses. Police would no longer be allowed to respond to calls from these people. I wonder how quickly you would be begging for police protection again? Probably right after the 10th time you were robbed that week.

If you all think being a cop is so safe and easy why don't you become a cop? Then you could always use your words to solve every problem and never resort to violence right?. The police never have to deal with violent, irrational people so it would be a breeze. Then we would never have these "problems" with police violence. Oh but if you are white don't even bother trying to become a cop because you are of course a racist who would beat every black person you see.
24
as many of us have been posting for year's now, the bitter truth is that PPB is full of BROTHERHOOD OF THE STRONG members and Rosie damned well knows it and is and has been afraid to take them on, as she is like her husband when he was Sheriff of Multnomah County and had a lot of bad press because of these woeful turds (BOTS members), who couldn't (or wouldn't) deal with them. Their "solution" is to ignore any and all inquiries and questionings when it comes to these bastards (BOTS members) with full knowledge that in Portland, if "issues" are ignored long enough, they'll drop down the Rabbit Hole so far as to become forgotten in due time.

YOU WILL NOT SOLVE PPB'S ROGUE COP PROBLEMS TILL YOU DIG DEEP INTO THEIR BROTHERHOOD OF THE STRONG FACTION (not all PPB cop's are BOTS rogues, just a small minority that are source of all the bad press...they've been investigated by a Citizen's Investigative Team and are well known as to who they are and their backgrounds, etc. etc.)
25
Cast of characters in the Campbell case, as i [so-far] understand it:

Characters in Aaron Campbell case:


Aaron Campbell - victim

Marva Campbell Davis - Campbells' mother

Scott Westerman - head ov the Portland Police Union

Rosie Sizer - Portland Police Cheif. Once testified against Frashour in 2006 tasering case.

Officer Ronald Frashour - shot Campbell in back using AR-15 (monified M-16) assault rifle. Also tasered/arrested Frank Waterhouse for video-taping a 2006 skrapyard seach.

Dan Saltzman - Portland Police Commissioner

Sam Adams - Portland mayor - handed police bureau over-sight duties to Saltzman upon election in 2009 [a role which has always been held by the mayor up until then].

Timothy Douglass - Campbells' father

Sgt. Liani Reyna - cop on the scene that night - did not call SERT team when she should've.

Officer James Quackenbush - cop who texted/talked to Campbell by phone. Campbell told Quackenbush he did not intend to harm himself or anyone else.

Rev. Jesse Jackson - Civil Rights leader who came to Portland on Feb.16th in response to Aaron's murder.

Officer Jeffery Ellias - sicced police dog on Campbell.

Officer Ryan Lewton - shot Campbell with beanbag rounds, right before Campbell was killed.

Adrienna Jones - Campbells' girlfriend & mother ov 2 ov his 3 children.

Det. Mary Wheat - police Spokeswoman & spin-doctor

Capt. Bob Day & Lt. Derek Rodrigues - two more cops on the scene that night.

Timothy Douglass Jr. - Campbells' younger brother, who died from heart failure earlier that day.

Tom Steenson - lawyer hired to represent Campbell family in pending lawsuit against city. Steenson already is suing the city on behave ov the family ov James Chasse Jr.

Judge Jean Maurer (Mult. Co. Cir. Court) - released transcripts ov grand jury testimony on Feb.18th on Campbell murder - apparently unprecidented.

Kenny Boyer - neibour/witness who testified to grand jury that killing wasn't justified. Prosecutor Glen Banfield attempted to discredit Boyer for this.

Don Rees & Glen Banfield - deputy district attorneys who questioned witnesses on behalf ov city/cops. Biased against Campbell, witnesses.

Philip Joseph Mann - grand jury witness & close friend ov Campbell family.

26
I understand that being a police officer is a potentially dangerous career. I understand that being a police officer may be more stressful than other careers. However, every police officer chooses to be a police officer, citizens do not choose to be citizens, they just are. Police officers have the ability and equipment to take away a citizen's rights, freedoms and life. Citizens have no authority over police officers and are at their mercy. I think given these conditions, it is a mistake to give police officers extra leniency, or special consideration, or the benefit of the doubt. Quite the contrary, I think police officers should be held to a higher standard than your average citizen, not a lower standard. Any police officer that kills an unarmed citizen under any circumstances should be fired immediately, and never be given such an enormously responsible position again. I understand mistakes, but one can not undo a death, so it is a mistake that needs to be selected against. Given the complexities of the situation, the only way to select against such mistakes is, similar to natural selection and evolution, remove officers who make such grave mistakes from the force. By such a selection process, eventually we will have a police force that does not make such mistakes.
27
Clearly,there's a pattern of police abuse in Portland that goes back years. Grand juries are an obvious scam; the most recent one's "recommendations" don't mean jack shit, since they unanimously decided NOT to indict Frashour for murder.
Bottom fucking line is this:
There is NO reason to shoot a clearly un-armed person in the back!
There is NO reason to chase down & beat someone to death!
There is NO reason to Shoot someone in the head when they are clearly are not a threat!
I'm just eluding to only afew of anumber of murders by cops that've happened in [recent] years. It seems like a cop is far more likely to be fired for petty "misconduct" issues rather than if they murder citizens!
28
We hear about the hardships that befall police officers in an attempt to gain sympathy. Sympathy is a good, useful human quality, except when it is used in an attempt to shift attention away from the actions, responsibility and general mindset of an officer involved in something like this. In the old west, shooting a man in the back was NEVER considered justified---today, the only time I see it mentioned as being justified is prisoner escape attempts and fleeing felons when protecting the public from serious harm or death----this situation seems to fit none of those situations. It cannot be right to kill someone because you THINK he MIGHT have mental issues, much less shooting him in the back for it.
29
@GetReal-

Okay, I will agree, we'll collect a list of all the posters at BlogTown, with our names and addresses [As if they don't already have a list.].

But let's also make public a list of the names and addresses of every cop, judge and prosecutor too...and let's then return to the days of old you seem to admire so much.

You remember those good old days, when brown skinned people knew their place, and when somebody did ya wrong you settled the matter at 'High Noon' in the public square - didn't matter if it was the Sheriff or one of his hired thugs-

I suppose your lack of sleep (posting at 3:05 a.m.) is effecting your better judgement. And who says having the cops respond to an emergency is the best choice. Come bye my place at 3:05 a.m. and try to rip me off, and we'll see how that works out for you, 'GetLost'-
30
@getreal

Your comment shows EXACTLY what is wrong with the mindset at PPB, which has been responsible for all the unjustified killings of citizens.

The mindset is: we police are above the law, and essentially can do whatever we want.
31
I am going to posit a central thoery: "Our police should be doing some more killing."

My sister is a mental fuck up. She has done no one any good. She has physically abused my mother to the point of knocking out my mother's molars in a punch down. My sister should be shot. Many inbred retarded whack jobs should be shot. Thanks to clueless liberals, humans that are as dangerous as rabid wolves will never be culled. I am a clue filled liberal who says that birth control is the answer. Retroactive Birth Control! Not just good for humanity, it's good for the earth!

Please wait...

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