“The late civil rights leader Dr.Martin Luther King said we are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation,” said the Reverend Doctor Leroy Haynes, vice president of the Albina Ministerial Alliance this morning. “James P Chasse junior, who died in police custody of blunt force trauma, cries out today from the grave for justice, justice for the weak, the voiceless, and the victims,” he continued. “We stand today giving voice to the cry for justice for James P Chasse, and others who were victims of excessive force by the Portland Police Bureau.”
“Our city administrators and leaders have demonstrated they lack the political will to enforce accountability on this issue,” said Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland. “We have more confidence that the officers will voluntarily resign than that the City will terminate their employment, and we hope they do.”
Four mental health advocates were joined by a host of community members this morning on SW Fifth to call for the resignation of Portland Police Bureau Sergeant Kyle Nice, Officer Christopher Humphreys and Officer Bret Burton. “It’s good that the Independent Police Review has ordered an outside review of the investigation into Chasse’s death,” said Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch, who also attended the press conference. “But where were they during the investigation?”
“We ask that these three men, who have probably contemplated their actions more than anyone, take on a new, positive, restorative role, and begin to repair the damage they did on September 17, 2006 by resigning from the Portland Police Bureau immediately,” said Renaud.
“For more than three years, our city has dissected, debated, and bemoaned what happened to James Chasse, but this discussion remains inconclusive and inadequate when no one has been held responsible for his death,” Renaud continued. “For the vast majority of our community, these actions and the bureau’s findings are unacceptable.”
Haynes called for more serious discipline for the officers who participated in the action, and the call for voluntary resignation of the officers.
“I want to ask Police Commissioner Saltzman, Mayor Sam Adams and city council, what are you going to do to repair the trust that’s been broken in our community?” said Beckie Child, board president of Mental Health America of Oregon. “People who have mental health issues already have a pretty significant fear of police officers. People are afraid of law enforcement officers, and the decision that Chief Sizer came to has done nothing to help that trust. Families who are concerned about their loved ones will not want to call the police.”
“He allegedly peed on the lawn,” Child continued. “And he’s dead because of that. I don’t understand how that makes any sense, and I don’t understand how we teach our children that they will be held accountable for their actions when we don’t hold the people in power accountable.”
“For people in the mental health community, success is living in the community,” said Bob Joondeph, Executive Director of Disability Rights of Oregon. “James Chasse was a success. He participated in treatment, but unfortunately for him he did not have the protection he needed.” “I’m here to talk about the pain that the mental health community has experienced as a result of what happened to James, and to ask for healing,” Joondeph continued. “Not only does the mental health community need healing, but the whole community, too.” “We are asking for the officers to look within themselves and do the right thing.”
“The officers themselves haven’t had the chance to do the right thing,” said Renaud. “They can simply resign and be heroes.”
I hope this gachacha court has some teeth behind them.
Matt, someone needs to start a very well-designed website to act as a clearinghouse for stories and images of police brutality in Oregon.
Once enough people inflammed about police brutality register with a database, it would be possible to mobilize them to work on a petition drive to put a corrective measure on the ballot.
Like a mandate that all officers wear a badge that says-
we don’t kill people unless it is completely obvious that we ourselves are about to be killled
we don’t arrest people just because they don’t act right
we do not beat our wives or taser our children.
Something like that.
Oh please, let me not forget,
“my union does not protect murderers”.
Does anyone actually think these three people will quit the police force? I don’t, but then, I’m fairly cynical.
I just read Anna Griffin’s outlandish suggestion that we make Sam Adams the police commissioner.
Sometimes journalists are like curious onlookers, watching an overflowing anthill whose members are desperately trying to drag something too big and heavy into the lair.
The curious onloooker decides, from a safe distance, to poke the whole mess with a stick to record what happens.
Sort of like making a statement that Adams should be in charge of the police. Anna couldn’t possibly be in such denial that she doesn’t recognize a massive conflict of interest when the commissioner of the police force stands accused of sex crimes by a credible witness. Just because Adams said he “didn’t remember” (hah!) any weird S*** going on in the bathroom with a minor, he got off without being charged. But let us just say that noone, but noone, believes him. And he should be the police commissioner??
Please excuse me while I go lie down for a bit.
WHAT is this town coming to?
@gonetorio: Why do you have to lay down? Do you get all hot just thinking about our Mayor boning some porn star? Cause I think that is what this town is coming to, people just can’t stand that he got some action and they didn’t.
I keep checking the blog, hoping, praying (or whatever us Portlanders do in times like these) that Matt will have posted a breaking news update with the announcement that they really, really quit. Or the city council was so moved by today’s testimony from the leaders of these awesome advocacy groups that they finally fired those guys.
But no updates yet. Big sigh. I know, I know. I wasn’t born yesterday.
They don’t GIVE us power. We have to TAKE it.
I was born yesterday.
There’s a great rant by Robert Anton Wilson floating out there in the tubes about how he defines himself as an angry optimist – he’s eternally frustrated because he knows how things could be so so much better.
These people, and hypomaniacs, transform the world. It takes a certain blindness to one’s own loopy determination to do something. Think of the artist, 99% of them on some sort of dole, each convinced their music or words or colors can set the world right. They’re utterly wrong of course but they’ll never know it. Not denial exactly, but a lack of insight. They hard into the night writing poems no one wants to read, singing songs silenced by shadows.
People who seek justice are the same way. They comes and go but the effort continues. Likely some now will throw in the towel and say the cops win, the bureaucrats win. But I think the truth is the medias will no longer give entire deference to the PPB spokespersons, and over time doubt becomes a fatal blow.
“But let us just say that noone, but noone, believes him. And he should be the police commissioner??”
I find your ability to speak for the entire city to be charming. You lost buddy…he’s not going to be recalled. Get over it.