Shannon Hoffeditz’s team just finished writing a $500 ticket for a little old bartender. “That’s one of the hardest parts of our job,” says Hoffeditz, an inspector with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC). Eli, an 18-year-old minor decoy working for Hoffeditz, has just bought a beer in the Republic Café on NW 4th in […]
Matt Davis
Matt Davis was news editor of the Mercury from 2009 to May 2010.
Posted inNews
You Can’t Prove It
Racial Profiling Committee Hits Stalemate
The mayor’s racial profiling committee seems to be reaching a stalemate after the police union hired a statistical consultant who says there’s no proof cops are engaging in the practice. There has been much talk over issues such as whether racial profiling exists, but little action on what to do about it since the committee […]
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Blacklisted
Does City’s “Livability” List Have Racial Imbalance?
The city’s effective replacement for the now-defunct Drug-Free Zones (DFZs) appears to be targeting black people for harsher treatment by the judicial system—just as the DFZs did. Of the 408 people now on the city’s Neighborhood Livability Crime Enforcement Offender List (NLCEOL)—a list used to determine who is diverted into a city program that couples […]
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Behind Closed Doors
Cop Review Group Plots Future in Secret
Last Thursday, April 17, the city auditor’s office held a closed-door meeting with members of the cops’ Citizen Review Committee (CRC) to discuss the group’s future. The CRC is part of the city’s Independent Police Review (IPR) division, which was criticized in a consultant’s report recently for conducting too much of its business behind closed […]
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Broken Justice
Cops Cite Injured Bicyclist; Not Van Driver
Zajim Smajlovic, a Bosnian truck driver, was riding his bicycle home on SE Holgate one afternoon last October, returning from picking up some photos from Walgreens on SE 82nd. As usual, once he reached SE 78th, he turned left, using the crosswalk to get to the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street—an easier […]
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Turning the Tables
Citizen Issues Parking Ticket to Cop
A CITIZEN who watched a cop illegally park, then walk into an Asian restaurant to wait for his food, has issued the officer a series of citizen-initiated parking violations. Eric Bryant says he was sitting in the SanSai Japanese Grill on NW 21st and Hoyt on March 7 when he witnessed Officer Chadd Stensgaard pull […]
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In the Shadows
Watchdogging
Michael Glover speaks to his dog, Gidget, in a Native American dialect, so that no one else can control her. If someone comes near while he’s asleep, Gidget barks. “But she’s not just my watchdog,” he says. “She’s my friend.” Glover has been homeless in Portland since January 18, and like most people on the […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Adbusting Graffiti
Bomb It Mixes Paint and Politics
A globetrotting documentary on graffiti, Bomb It features interviews with all sorts of internationally renowned artists, from Cornbread, who claims to have begun the tagging movement in Philadelphia in 1967, to today’s crossover propagandists like Ron English, who are as happy tagging walls as they are painting cars or designing clothing. The film’s most engaging […]
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Pearl District Meth Bust
Cops Arrest Northwest Portland Condo Owner
THE COPS SAY they started hearing from some neighbors at the Pearl District’s Irving Street Lofts several months ago, after an unusually large number of visitors started showing up to unit 408. “We’re talking sometimes 70-80 visitors in a 24-hour period,” says Officer Mark Friedman, whose investigative work, along with the sharp eyes of some […]
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Dumping Ground
NE Neighborhood Becomes Scrap Car Lot
NEIGHBORS IN NORTHEAST PORTLAND are growing frustrated with a scrap salvage firm, calling itself All Service Towing, which has allegedly been parking dilapidated vehicles on their streets. The problem, which centers on All Service Towing’s grassy lot at 6034 NE Holladay, first started last July, says Bob Richardson, a software developer who lives around the […]
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Old Town Shuffle
New Tenants Move In, Poor People Move…Where?
Old Town is changing fast, with two major new tenants moving in at the west end of the Burnside Bridge, potentially kicking off a makeover for the entire neighborhood. But hold it! Such makeovers don’t always suit the poor or homeless, or those struggling to cope with mental health issues, for whom Old Town has […]
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Big Brother’s Little Brother
Cop Cites Videographer for Recording Investigation
A FREELANCE videographer plans to challenge the Portland Police Bureau in court after a cop confiscated his camera and cited him, in apparent retaliation for videotaping the cop as he searched a suspect in the street. Mike Tabor, 47, has been videotaping police activities for the last two years with his Sony Handycam, as a […]