Sharon Hren, 52, says she walked into Macy’s during their grand re-opening day last month, and walked out with a broken arm thanks to security guards. On October 26, Hren, a petite woman who suffered a brain injury in the early ’90s, stopped by the store at 5 pm, accompanied by her blue Doberman, Katie. […]
Matt Davis
Matt Davis was news editor of the Mercury from 2009 to May 2010.
Posted inNews
In Security
Downtown Armed Guard’s Murky Background
An armed private security guard patrolling downtown Portland is still working for Securitas, despite the security firm saying in October it would probably fire him for allegedly threatening a public citizen. It has also emerged that the security guard, 34-year-old Michael Joseph Anglin, was caught fleeing a nine-year-old DUI warrant by a Portland Police Bureau […]
Posted inNews
Sisters of Mercy
All the Proceeds of this Year’s Charity Auction Go to… SISTERS OF THE ROAD! And Here’s Why!
If you’ve lived in Portland for more than six months, chances are you will have heard somebody mention Sisters of the Road. Now here’s why you should give ’em your money. Sisters, as it’s also known, is more than just a café serving inexpensive meals to the homeless. Started by idealists in 1979 with the […]
Posted inNews
Julia Wild West House
Homeless Day-Access Center’s Drug Problem
The day-access center designated by the City of Portland in August as a safe haven for those pushed off the streets by its new sit-lie ordinance has been struggling with a burgeoning drug problem. Over recent weeks, used needles have been found sporadically in the Julia West House’s bathrooms on SW 13th and Alder—along with […]
Posted inNews
Sisters of Mercy
All the Proceeds of this Year’s Charity Auction Go to… SISTERS OF THE ROAD! And Here’s Why!
If you’ve lived in Portland for more than six months, chances are you will have heard somebody mention Sisters of the Road. Now here’s why you should give ’em your money. Sisters, as it’s also known, is more than just a café serving inexpensive meals to the homeless. Started by idealists in 1979 with the […]
Posted inNews
Where Are the Cops?
Sluggish Recruitment Puts Public at Risk
Twice last week, the Portland Police Bureau claimed that a lack of manpower makes it hard to meet basic law enforcement needs in the city. But it seems the city’s ongoing failure to recruit cops is what’s really putting both the public and officers at risk. On Tuesday, November 20, Captain Vince Jarmer of the […]
Posted inNews
Spinning Wheeler
County Chair to Talk Mental Health
County Chair Ted Wheeler has accepted an invitation by mental health activists to attend a public meeting to discuss his apparent failure, so far, to prioritize a sub-acute facility for the mentally ill in Portland. Wheeler told the Mercury at the end of last month he might not secure funding for such a facility—where police […]
Posted inNews
The Chasse Files
Pre-Trial Hearings in the Cop-Related Death of James Chasse Jr. Get Heated
It is arguably Portland’s most controversial cop lawsuit ever. And even though it will be almost two years before a jury is scheduled to sit down and rule on the case, the pre-trial hearings are already heated, with both sides accusing the other of trying to prejudice a fair trial. Civil rights attorney Tom Steenson, […]
Posted inNews
Damage Control
City Shells out $500,000 for Police Sniper Victim
The City of Portland is likely to pay a record $500,000 to the family of Raymond Gwerder this week—a man shot in the back without warning by a police sniper while he was on the phone to a hostage negotiator in November 2005. The news broke in a press release sent out last Thursday, November […]
Posted inNews
Revisionism
“Mistakes Were Made” in Eye-Stabbing Case
A grand jury hearing is scheduled this Wednesday, November 14, to decide whether Eric Nash—a former inmate at the Multnomah County Detention Center on SW 3rd—should be criminally indicted for allegedly stabbing his cellmate, Michael Evans, in the eye with a pencil last month. Nash, a 21-year-old from Dallas, Oregon, has four felony convictions and […]
Posted inNews
Even Less Room at the Inn
Homeless Center Needs More Than Cash
A temporary homeless shelter established by the mayor’s Street Access for Everyone (SAFE) committee is on track to go $25,200 over budget by next June—thanks to higher than expected demand for its services. Cops and private security officers have been directing homeless people who are sitting and lying on downtown’s sidewalks to the Julia West […]
Posted inNews
Emergency Response
Mayor Responds to Questions on Chasse Case
Mayor Tom Potter responded in writing on Monday, November 5, to a list of 28 “unanswered questions” given to his communications director outside city hall on the one-year anniversary of the death of James Philip Chasse Jr. two months ago. The questions, collated by the Mental Health Association of Portland (MHA) and delivered on September […]