It’s not incredibly rare in this town for a cop to deploy a Taser. Officers hit eight suspects with more than one cycle of the debilitating device from July through September alone, according to a recent report.
Far rarer is a press release to explain a Tasering incident, which is what hit Portland’s collective media inboxes this afternoon. The release details a brief standoff Friday morning at the Pearl District Whole Foods, after a man with “significant mental health issues” grabbed an unspecific number of knives and refused to leave.
The reason for the release, apparently, is this (partly NSFW) video, which a breakfasting witness posted to YouTube.
The footage is pertinent given recent scrutiny over the Portland Police Bureau’s dealings with people suffering mental illness. Just two weeks ago, bigwigs gathered in Portland City Hall to announce an agreement with the city’s top police union over federally mandated reforms spurred by cops’ inadequate handling of these encounters.
It’s pretty clear officers in this instance gave the suspect ample warning and opportunity to de-escalate the situation (not that that necessarily matters when a person’s in crisis)—and also that they were ready to use far more force than a Taser. It appears at least two officers have their handguns out, and a third has a bean bag shotgun.
Cops say they’ve had past run-ins with the man, including an incident where he was wearing a tactical vest and holstered replica pistol. In all, an officer hit the suspect with four cycles of the Taser— “due to his continuing struggle, his swatting and grabbing at the Taser probes and putting his hands underneath his body,” according to the press release. He was charged with menacing and second-degree disorderly conduct.
More from the release after jump.
Officers talking with the man knew his name and used it as they slowly and calmly gave him clear and repeated instructions to put down the knives. The man refused to drop the knives as officer continuously repeated commands to put them on the ground. Concerned for the safety of other customers and for man himself, officers told the man several times that he may be Tased if he did not drop the knives.
Officers talked with the man for several minutes before the sergeant deployed the Taser, which caused the man to drop the knives and fall to the ground. As officers were attempting to get control of the man, he rolled around on the ground and struggling with officers. Due to his continuing struggle, his swatting and grabbing at the Taser probes and putting his hands underneath his body, three additional Taser cycles were needed to safely gain control of the man and put him into handcuffs.
During the struggle, the man suffered a bloody nose while on the ground. Medical personnel responded to the scene, checked his injury, then cleared him for police transport. Officers walked the man out to a waiting patrol car where he again briefly struggled with officers before being placed into the car.
Officers learned from store employees that they witnessed the man shoplifting prior to him grabbing knives from a display rack inside the store and telling store employees that he was not going to leave after being asked to by employees.
And in case you wanted to know more about the gentleman whose breakfast was so unceremoniously ruined, he’s also posted this video.
The commentary on the video is asinine. “Thanks for doing it in the supermarket”. The fuck? Were they supposed to wait until the knife wielding man went to his next errand at the Gap? What an asshole.
Goddamn the guy narrating this video is such a dipshit.
If you have to watch this video, mute it.
I love that this guy taking the video is so anti government but is on disability and lives off the government. Must be nice to retire in your fifties and have time to eat oatmeal weekday mornings at a Whole foods while taking asinine videos and spouting radical rhetoric while I slave away paying for his stupid ass.
I thought this might have been about the tazing that happened last night on 26th and Clinton. In that case, the person in question was (you guessed it) a young skinny white kid at a SE bar. At least 3 patrol cars were called to take down, taze and arrest some stumbly belligerent drunk who either needed a cab home or a night in the drunk tank. I’m not sure of the details or the altercation that took place (I was there, I just choose not to watch these things) but I’m pretty sure there were no knives or weapons of any kind in the altercation.
God, the narrator on the video is such an enormous asshole. Must be nice to antagonize the cops from the second floor. “You ruined my breakfast, by the way… They could have taken him outside… This is a supermarket!” OH, sure, just as long as you don’t have to see it. Invoke James Chasse in one breath, insist on keeping your hot breakfast bar clean in the next. Got it.
I totally understand where the angry guy is coming from. Every time I look at the prices in a Whole Foods deli I have to immediately stifle the urge to grab sharpened metal objects and menace people.
“$8.00 for a fucking sandwich and you’re not even going to put it on a plate with a pickle spear? Fffffffffuuuuuuuu”
The fact that this guy recorded the cops the whole time and at no point ever swung his camera over towards the guy with the knife was really annoying. Seriously, this video was crap.
I thought PPB and the city didn’t comment when there is pending litigation?
The video taker is a jerk. The police spoke in more measured tones than I have ever seen Portland police employ. Still, the police seemed to tire of the event and tased him just to be doing something. Repeated tasing? There were a lot of police in evidence. Perhaps learning a hold, other than the now banned LLoyd B Stevenson sleeper hold, is in order. Or just, each grab a limb and get the cuffs on him.
The reality is that the vocal minority anti-cop-at-all-costs people in this city who, like the narrator in this video, feel police are just itching to kill anyone who gets in their way clearly don’t actually believe that. This group feels very safe openly and rudely criticizing police even to the point of antagonizing them. They fear no repercussions. Actually oppressed people have no voice. People actually living in a police state don’t openly criticize police.