The city is in the midst of an internal investigation into the use of a far-right, anti-protester meme in a PPB training presentation.
According to the city, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) training presentation was created at some point in 2018, but was re-discovered by a PPB employee in September 2021 while reviewing records requested through a lawsuit against the city. The entire presentation appears to be training for crowd control tactics, those used by PPB in response to public demonstrations. Those tactics, used against Portlanders during 2020 racial justice protests, are the central focus of several lawsuits against the city.
The city chose to make the presentation public Friday, since it was slated to be shared in a court filing from lawyers representing he nonprofit Don’t Shoot Portland in a lawsuit against the city later in the day.
The image, which is on the presentation’s final slide, depicts an armored person in a black helmet punching another person (who appears to be a lot less armored) in the head. The image is layered with text, which reads:
“And the Lord said…
Woe be unto you, dirty hippy;
Four thou stinketh of patchouli and BO;
For thou talk of Marx, yet know him not;
For thou hast bills, yet have not paid;
For thou hast dreadlocks and white skin.And so I shall send among you,
My humble servants with hat, and with bat;
That they may christen your heads with hickory;
And anoint your faces with pepper spray.And once thou hast been cuffed and stuffed;
Once thou has been stitched and bandaged;
Perhaps thou shall learn,
I’m tired of your shit.Amen.”
According to the website Know Your Meme, this image has been called the “Prayer of the Alt-Knight” and is attributed to a far-right activist named Kyle Chapman (also known as “Based Stickman”). Chapman is the founder of a group called the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as the “tactical defense arm” of the Proud Boys.
It’s no secret that some in Oregon law enforcement are sympathetic to far-right groups. Analysis by OPB last year found that more than two dozen current and former law enforcement officers in Oregon were members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group that played a prominent role on the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. And, in 2019, text messages obtained by the Mercury found that a Portland police lieutenant had helped Joey Gibson, the leader of right-wing Washington group Patriot Prayer, avoid counter-protesters during a 2018 rally in Portland.
The internal affairs investigation into the use of this image in city training opened in September 2021 and is still ongoing. Retired PPB officer Bob Day lead the bureau’s training division in 2018, when the training presentation was allegedly made. It’s still unclear who created this slideshow and how frequently it had been shared in trainings.
Mayor Ted Wheeler, who also serves as Portland’s police commissioner, reacted to the image in a media statement sent Friday.
“I am disgusted that this offensive content was added to a training presentation for our police officers,” Wheeler said. “As soon as I was made aware of the incident, I reached out to Chief Lovell, who shared my deep concern and assured me that a thorough and complete investigation was underway.”
In a separate statement PPB Chief Chuck Lovell said, “The message on the training presentation slide was contrary to PPB’s values and what we are trying to achieve as an organization.”
“I want to make it clear that the content of this message is not representative of the Portland Police Bureau,” Lovell said, “and it is disappointing to all of us who work so hard to earn the community’s trust.”
This is pretty stupid of them; we’re all tired of PPB’s shit, also!
I don’t understand the Portland Mercury’s hestitance is calling these people Terrorists. As in “right-wing terrorist material celebrating violence included in Portland Police Training presentation”
Remember a few years back when the PPB actively collaborated with Oath Keepers in arresting portlanders exercising free speech rights. https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-police-chief-citizen-assisted-arrests/
Or more recently when they actively collaborated in targeting portlanders with the proud boys / patriot prayer who have ties to roger stone. https://www.wweek.com/news/2018/03/07/right-wing-provocateur-roger-stone-asked-proud-boys-for-protection-at-dorchester-conference-last-weekend/
Or more recently when they actively collaborated with right wing gang members transported weapons across statelines with the intent of attacking portlanders which Wheeler, the ppb, and other law enforcement entities conspired to make the decision that the attacks on portlanders were a success to celebrate https://www.portland.gov/omf/news/2021/8/23/mayors-statement-about-sundays-violent-demonstrations
or about the the amount of known oath keepers involved in oregon law enforcement? https://www.opb.org/article/2021/10/15/dozens-of-oregon-law-enforcement-officers-joined-far-right-oath-keepers-militia/
They also missed a chance to tie this story into the fact that the leader of the Oath Keepers was just charged with FUCKING SEDITION!
The PPB is clearly a lawless rogue organization, more aligned with the right wing terrorists that tried to overthrow our government than the democratic constituency they are sworn and paid to serve.
Juan Chavez should continue his cooperation with the FBI on this matters and others.
It’s long time for federal law enforcement (which would have jurisdiction over interstate crimes among others) to display some form of basic competence and do their job.
Apparently, the worst thing about it is that it casts the rest of the PPB in a bad light—not that cops were receiving that as guidance before going out armed against Portland citizens? Mapps is such a disappointment.
Yep, that’s been apparent for some time now. The interesting thing is if you conspired and collabarated in a crime, even if it was a crime of negligence, it’s no longer an attorney-client relationship. Particularly if it is a crime-fraud relationship.
The Oregonian goes even further quoting Chavez (who is merely one of many Portland lawyers involved in these types of cases) as saying the ending slide “strongly suggests that the campaign of police violence that began on May 29, 2020, was motivated by the goal of silencing advocates for police reform, defunding, and abolition.”
It’s certainly in a tricky position. I wonder if there is any public documentation of him collaborating with the PPB to silence critics calling out corruption or his relationship with Portland Police Intelligence.
I think he has enough dirt to be able to cut a sweet sweet deal and avoid jail time. Then again, he’d certainly be an example to make on how we can hold ourselves to high standards.
It’s clear, the Feds can no longer afford to play in the shadows, it’s time for them to step up and attempt to justify why they callously allowed Portland and Portlanders to be subject to continous attacks on their safety and the rule of law.
There are only so many cards left and we can figure out which are being held by who.
I’m buying stock in popcorn.
Mapps isn’t that bad. He recognizes the reality that we are moving towards a european model of policing rather than an abolitionist wild west style of policing.
If abolitionist are serious about their cause, they would be introducing non-governmental solutions to reducing crime. But they’ve proven time and time again, they aren’t seeking the abolition of policing, but the abolition of accountability. Just look at their own relationship with the police. Many of the self-proclaimed leaders of the Portland Police Abolition movement, have been documented as informants with relationships to Portland Police Intelligence, actively participating in the coordination of extralegal actions and violence against their portland neighbors, not dissimilar at all to the PPB’s actions with right-wing extremists.
The PPB are in the middle of a tornado, it’s time for the feds to step in and clean things up.
All while Blumenauer’s silence only grows.
How charming….. black humour never does any harm right? 🤦♂️
“KOIN 6 News also spoke to attorney Akin Blitz for a different take. He was once a police officer and has represented police agencies — helping in areas of policy, police labor relations and other issues like discipline.
Blitz doesn’t believe the message was “to beat up protesters”. He believes, “likely, what the trainer was trying to do was to inject a little black cop humor in a town where officers are frustrated and the police bureau doesn’t get a lot of support…to end the training with a little bit of levity.””
Well, if the PPB are known for anything, it’s collaborating with -winged “activists” to make light of war crimes.
This wasn’t an employee happy hour event. This wasn’t a company picnic. This wasn’t their personal, artistic, or religious expression. This wasn’t any type of online activism. This wasn’t calling out corrupt actors and behaviors. This wasn’t highlighting flaws in our system. This wasn’t demonstrating dangerous conflicts of interests. This wasn’t an expression by anyone with professional experience in and around the performing arts.
This was an event convened and composed by experienced Law Enforcement professionals.
This was government employees producing and disseminating terrorist propaganda and recruiting material as part of an official government function that sworn officers were required to attend and compensated for their attendance.
https://www.opb.org/article/2020/12/22/hawazen-sameer-mothafar-oregon-islamic-state-arrested/
We are focusing too much on this one terrible slide and washing out the rest of the heinous material in the PPT. Not to mention we do not know what words and actions accompanied these slides.
“Good” Officers are running out of time to speak up and clear their name. As more becomes revealed, it’s going to be increasingly difficult for anyone associated with the PPB to be hired in Law Enforcement anywhere, without speaking out they are too much of a liability.
It’s possible some may be able to become medics or fire fighters or other types of first responders, but the house cleaning is coming, and there are going to be hundreds of officers effectively banned from law enforcement for life. Let’s hope they raise the minimum wage, because it’s going to be difficult for these soon to be former officers to support their families and make their house payments as it looks right now.
“I want to make it clear that the content of this message is not representative of the Portland Police Bureau.”
–Chuck Lovell, PPB Chief
“When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
–Maya Angelou
Was this during the union’s work slowdown meeting?
“In my opinion, people need to know who they’re working with” – Teressa Raiford
Ha, working so hard to earn the community’s trust. And yet this is exactly the sort of behavior they demonstrated during the protests in 2020. This is par for the course, not an outlier.