The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has completed a probe into the beating of a jailed detainee by sheriff’s deputies in the booking area of the downtown Multnomah County Detention Center and has forwarded its findings to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, DC. The attorney general’s office is now likely to take […]
Matt Davis
Matt Davis was news editor of the Mercury from 2009 to May 2010.
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Kicker Cop Case Kicked
Internal Affairs Exonerates Officer
A Portland police officer who kicked a suspect in the street in front of multiple witnesses last October has been let off the hook by an internal affairs investigation. The officer, Jason Lobaugh, was seen by a group of people at a bus stop Tasering a young African American suspect, then kicking him once after […]
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Rent-a-Cops Run Wild!
More Complaints Against Private Police
Four more issues arose last week that are likely to further erode public confidence in Portland Patrol, Inc. (PPI)—the private rent-a-cop firm which contracts with the Portland Business Alliance (PBA) to conduct “order maintenance” in the downtown core. First: 47-year-old Robert Oliver was picking cans out of one of four trashcans at NW 11th and […]
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Jail Guards Run Wild!
Two More Arrestees File Jail Claims
Two more arrestees announced plans this week to sue the county, alleging they were beaten at the hands of sheriff’s deputies in the booking area of the Multnomah County Detention Center on SW 3rd. A similar suit has already been filed by Michael Evans—a former inmate whose in-jail beating was captured on video last September […]
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Premature Evacuation
Sit-Lie Comes Early for Rent-a-Cops
Rent-a-cops paid for by the Portland Business Alliance (PBA) were caught enforcing the city’s controversial new sit-lie ordinance two days before its official enforcement date last week—despite repeated assurances they would only conduct “community outreach” on the law, leaving its actual enforcement to the cops. Dale Hardway, a formerly homeless Portlander who now works in […]
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Remembering Chasse
Protests Mark One-Year Anniversary
Activists are planning protests outside Portland’s downtown Justice Center and at city hall on September 17 to mark the one-year anniversary of the controversial death in custody of James Chasse. Chasse, a schizophrenic chased through the Pearl District by Portland police after urinating in the street, was tackled to the ground opposite the Bluehour restaurant […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Jesus is Sneaky
Self Medicated‘s Award-Winning Propaganda
Self Medicated has won more than 30 awards, from grand jury prizes in Rome to “Best Spotlight Feature” in the Reno Film Festival. Okay—so some awards are better than others. But there’s no denying the film’s festival-circuit success—which we’ll get back to later. First-time writer, director, and producer Monty Lapica plays Andrew, a 17-year-old in […]
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Twilight Zones
Will Council Sunset Drug-Free Zones?
In exactly one month, the city’s controversial Drug- and Prostitution-Free Zones will expire, forcing city council to decide whether or not to renew them. And for the second time in two years, Mayor Tom Potter’s office has broken a key promise—the creation of an oversight committee to examine the law’s fairness. Under the Drug Free […]
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Really Fed Up
FBI to Interview Victim of Jail Beating
FBI agents are scheduled this week to interview the victim of an alleged jail beating caught on video at the Justice Center last September, according to the beaten man’s parents. Forty-year-old Michael Evans is shown in a video, taken at the Justice Center on SW 3rd, being allegedly assaulted by Multnomah County Sheriff’s deputies, who […]
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Kaer-Less Whisper
Union Says Mayor’s Cop-Firing is Political
Two weeks ago, Mayor Tom Potter upheld his decision to fire a cop who apparently broke departmental rules and shot the driver of a moving car, citing “poor judgment and decision-making.” But the head of the police union, Robert King, says the mayor’s decision was political, and is destined to be overturned. “The city’s decision […]
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“She Called Us the N-Word.”
Charged Words at Racial Profiling Committee
Mayor Tom Potter heard controversial community testimony at his racial profiling committee last week, when an African American high school girl told the group that her family had been stopped in their car the previous weekend by a female police officer—who allegedly used “the N-word.” It was the first time the committee has heard a […]
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Mayor Fires Cop
But Don’t Sue the City, Okay?
Last week, Mayor Tom Potter stood by his May decision to fire Portland Police Bureau Lieutenant Jeffrey Kaer for poor decision-making leading up to Kaer’s fatal shooting of 28-year-old Dennis Young in January 2006. But police oversight activists say the mayor’s language in firing Kaer is designed to avoid the city being sued, rather than […]