The volunteer committee tasked with reviewing Portland citizens’ complaints about the cops has one job: to examine police misconduct through an independent, outside lens. Or, as Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty recently described, a “regular-person perspective.” A police misconduct case currently before Portland City Council, however, has raised concerns that this unique police accountability body is […]
Opinion
Posted inNews
Oregon Prosecutors Continue to Fight Criminal Justice Reform With Fearmongering
ALLISON KEREK Youth criminal justice reform is shaping up to be one of the most contentious issues in this year’s Oregon legislative session. Just in the last two weeks, Senate Bill 1008—a bill that would create a more humane, forgiving criminal justice system for Oregon minors—has been the topic of a heated House Judiciary Committee […]
Posted inNews
Hall Monitor: Shaking the Status Quo
Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s first three months in City Hall have been definitively successful. In February, Hardesty called on the city to sever its relationship with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), a group accused of unfairly targeting people of color. Three out of five city commissioners agreed with her. Weeks later, Hardesty revised […]
Posted inNews
Hall Monitor: New Guy
Everything about Mayor Ted Wheeler’s latest hire seems painfully deliberate. On April 2, Wheeler announced he’d hired former Portland police commander Robert King to serve as his newest senior policy advisor on public safety. Judging by King’s past—and Wheeler’s present—the appointment is as much a public relations strategy as it is a pragmatic hire. King […]
Posted inNews
City Employees Harassed Because of Their Employer Can Now Get the City’s Legal Protection
{{ image:1 }} In January, Commissioner Chloe Eudaly was chased and filmed through downtown Portland by a so-called “citizen journalist,” who shouted conspiracy theories at Eudaly as she walked six blocks to a meeting. It wasn’t the first time Eudaly had been publicly harrassed by this specific man—but she wanted it to be the last. […]
Posted inPolitics
Beto Brings Warmth, But He Does Not Spark Joy
This is not the B.O. you were looking for.
Posted inNews
Hall Monitor: The Care and Keeping of Cops
It’s becoming harder and harder for Portland to attract—and retain—new police officers. In a recent analysis of the police bureau’s finances by the City Budget Office (CBO), city economists say that the headline-grabbing problems plaguing the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) can all be traced back to this one issue. As an example, the CBO points […]
Posted inPortland
Wife of Ristretto Roasters Owner Writes Outraged Op-Ed Against “Outrage Culture”
Yet another victim of “outrage culture.” ALLVISIONN / iStock / Getty Images Plus Nancy Rommelmann is either someone who can’t help shooting herself (and her husband’s business) in the foot—or is purposefully doing so. The wife of Ristretto Roasters owner Din Johnson, Rommelmann has attracted a lot of attention for her YouTube series #MeNeither (which […]
Posted inNews
Hall Monitor: Portland’s Roots
In January, Portland made history by welcoming its first African American woman to city council. By February, that victory seemed like a distant memory. Rather than a celebration of past achievements, Portland’s Black History Month acted as a reminder of how deep Portland’s racist roots reach. It’s worth a recap. On February 1, a group […]
Posted inNews
Hall Monitor: A Few Loud Men
Every city government has its council meeting mainstays. In my old stomping grounds of San Antonio, it was an old white guy in a cowboy hat who’d merrily bark at the majority-minority city council about government overreach. In Portland, it’s a cadre of housing advocates and police critics (including one guy whose legal name is […]
Posted inNews
Will the City’s Second Swing at Citizen-led Police Oversight Be Any Different From Last Time?
Will the city’s second swing at citizen-led police oversight be any different from its first attempt?
The last time Portland officials created a committee to improve police interactions with the public, it blew up it their face. It wasn’t entirely the city’s fault. Portland was ordered to assemble a Community Oversight Advisory Board, or COAB, by a federal judge as part of the city’s 2014 settlement agreement with the US Department […]
Posted inNews
Hall Monitor: Communication Breakdown
Maybe it’s just bad timing. It’s almost too easy to pin the sudden shift in Mayor Ted Wheeler’s communications strategy on Eileen Park, the former KOIN reporter recently hired to lead Wheeler’s communications department. Perhaps Wheeler was just waiting for a new communications director to help him unleash a new social media strategy—one that’s both […]