Portland police officers approach protesters on May 30, 2020. Mathieu Lewis-Rolland Between January 2016 and January 2020, Portland police officers used physical force and weapons to quell protests a total of 778 times. Between April 1 and June 30 of this year, however, Portland cops applied force against protesters 2,378 times. The amount of force […]
Cops
Posted inNews
Proposal to Cut $18 Million from Police Budget Fails Council Vote
An art installation erected in front of Portland City Hall during August protests reads “DEFUND” Tojo Andrianarivo City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s proposal to cut $18 million from the Portland Police Bureau’s (PPB) current $230 million budget has failed to collect the votes needed to advance. In a Thursday City Council meeting, only two commissioners—Hardesty […]
Posted inNews
Portland Protesters Break Windows, Law Enforcement Stoke Chaos in Post-Election March
Suzette Smith The day following the 2020 presidential election saw downtown Portland thrown into chaos after approximately 150 black clad protesters broke off from a rally in Waterfront Park to march through downtown, with some breaking windows along the way. The “Unified Command”—a term coined by Gov. Kate Brown to define the combined command of […]
Posted inNews
Ted Wheeler Wins Mayoral Race Against Iannarone
Ted Wheeler at a 2019 press conference in City Hall Alex Zielinski Editor’s note: This story has been updated. Mayor Ted Wheeler has been elected to a second term as Portland’s mayor. Wheeler maintained a lead of 6 percent over his opponent, urban policy consultant Sarah Iannarone, long into Tuesday evening. In total, Wheeler has […]
Posted inNews
Portland Will Remain Under Command of State and County Law Enforcement Until Friday
Mathieu Lewis-Rolland With the presidential race still undecided, Gov. Kate Brown has extended her Monday decision to place Oregon State Police (OSP) and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) in charge of public safety in Portland. In a Wednesday morning statement, Brown said that the two agencies will continue to lead the local law enforcement […]
Posted inNews
Photo Essay: Community Responds to the Killing of Kevin Peterson, Jr. by Washington Deputies
A shrine memorializing Kevin Peterson, Jr. in the parking lot where he was killed. Sean Bascom Kevin Peterson Jr., a 21-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by Clark County Sheriff deputies early Thursday evening in Hazel Dell, a small community a few miles north of Vancouver, Washington. The details of this case remain hazy, with […]
Posted inNews
Portland Will Be Controlled by State, County Cops on Election Day
OSP officers respond to a Portland protest in early September. Mathieu Lewis-Rolland Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is putting Portland in the hands of Oregon State Police (OSP) and Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) this week in preparation for election-related protests. “We’ve seen firsthand what happens when free expression is fueled by hate,” said Brown at […]
Posted inNews
Split on $18 Million in Police Cuts, Portland City Council Delays Budget Vote
Racial justice protesters stand in front of the Justice Center in June 2020. Steve Humphrey In a typical year, Portland City Council’s fall budget monitoring process is a low-stakes opportunity for commissioners to make minor adjustments to the city’s annual budget, which is approved in late June. But 2020 is no typical year. Nearly 500 […]
Posted inNews
Ex-Cop Pleads Not Guilty to Alleged Hit-and-Run
A PPB officer facing a crowd the evening of July 4, 2020. mATHIEU LEWIS-ROLLAND County deputies arrested a newly retired Portland police officer Thursday, after a grand jury accused the ex-cop of hitting a person with an unmarked police van on June 15. The incident took place just two months before the officer, Scott Groshong, […]
Posted inNews
Human Rights Group Finds Portland Police Violated UN Guidelines During Protests
NATHAN HOWARD / GETTY IMAGES Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), an organization that investigates the health consequences of human rights violations, generally focuses its lens on international atrocities—like the Syrian government intentionally bombing hospitals or the state-sanctioned murder of Rohingya people in Myanmar. But, after learning about how law enforcement officers in Portland were treating […]
Posted inNews
Portland Police Spent Nearly $8 Million on Protests in Two Months
Mathieu Lewis-Rolland The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) spent $7,517,276 responding to the first two months of Portland’s racial justice protests. While not a complete picture of the city’s costs for the past four months of demonstrations, records obtained by the Mercury of PPB protest-related expenses between June 1 and August 1 offer a snapshot of […]
Posted inCops
Hall Monitor: An Authorized Militia
Law enforcement officers approach protesters Saturday night. Mathieu Lewis-Rolland Hall Monitor is a regular column on issues related to Portland City Hall and its influence on the community it serves. — On Saturday morning, hundreds of law enforcement officers swarmed into Portland, sent to monitor a potentially violent rally organized by the Proud Boys, a […]