A little more than an hour ago, a mea culpa finally emerged from Police Chief Mike Reese—his response to widespread condemnation for his decision on Thursday to take a shot at Occupy Portland protesters by invoking a delayed response to rape call that Reese later learned actually happened 11 days prior.
It was not my intention to mislead people, especially around an incident as serious and sensitive as a reported sexual assault. I spoke about the incident without knowing all of the details and made assumptions that were not correct. I apologize; I should have gathered all of the information before discussing it publicly.
And, significantly, reeling from more criticism about the pepper-spraying of protesters who had been given conflicting directions during Thursday’s bank actions, the chief also charted a potential new course for the city’s handling of Occupy protest marches downtown: Nice and easy.
For example, today’s march in support of a single-payer health care system drew hundreds of people who did a nice job of keeping themselves off streets and rail tracks WITHOUT ANY HELP FROM RIOT POLICE. Or pepper-spray. (A huge march tomorrow—Meet the Occupation—will be another good test of the city’s newfound restraint.)
Yesterday, when I asked his spokesman, Lieutenant Robert King, if the chief regretted his statement, given that he made it without actually gathering any, let alone all, of the relevant facts, I was told no, and that the chief’s main point about the drain on police resources remained valid.
Clearly, though, the instant and continuing criticism from a broad and mainstream cross-section of Portlanders (especially with the chief deeply serious about making a mayoral run) had an effect. At least on someone.
The chief’s statement is after the cut.
In interviews with KGW and KPTV on Thursday afternoon, I stated that a call involving a rape victim had not been handled by officers for three hours due to police resources being tied up with Occupy Portland. The reality was more complex. I subsequently learned that the call I referred to occurred on November 6, and there were a variety of factors impacting police resources that day, including Occupy Portland. On Friday, the Portland Police Bureau released full details surrounding this incident and our response, which you can read here. (LINK TO: http://www.portlandonline.com/police/pbnotify.cfm?action=ViewContent&content_id=2618)
It was not my intention to mislead people, especially around an incident as serious and sensitive as a reported sexual assault. I spoke about the incident without knowing all of the details and made assumptions that were not correct. I apologize; I should have gathered all of the information before discussing it publicly.
The past six weeks have strained police resources. During this time many officers, sergeants, detectives, and command staff have worked long hours with little time off. We are working hard to provide the quality service the public has come to expect, but it is sometimes a struggle. I also know from talking personally to many of the protestors, that they too are tired from the unique challenges of this unprecedented movement.
This may be an opportunity for us to collectively take a pause and reassess the way the police and protestors have been approaching this situation, to find a uniquely Portland solution. Today, we tried something new. Our Incident Commander Mike Leloff met with protestors before a march and asked if they wanted a police escort. When they told him no, he asked that they self-police their event and obey the law; police would only respond if there were complaints. The march participants agreed, and the event proceeded without any problems, or a police presence.
This is a model of cooperation that we could build upon for future events, and I want to thank today’s marchers for making this possible. We all share a responsibility for public safety and respecting the rights of everyone in our community. I look forward to further dialogue with Mayor Sam Adams and Occupy Portland protestors about how we can maintain a safe and welcoming
community, while respecting the right to free speech.
Chief Reese deserves some credit for realizing that this wasn’t going to go away and that an apology was called for. I hope that the original statement was an honest mistake on his part. Even Portlanders who may not support all of the tactics of the Occupy movement will recoil against any smear campaigns which target free speech or legal protest.
Yeahh.. No. chief pantsonfire wouldnt have apologized for anything if local tv news had not caught it. I will go as far as to say he wouldnt have even if it made the media.. But only weeklies such as this or the ww. And seriously.. This is not the sort of mistake that can honestly occur. At best, he was being willfully ignorant and obtuse to smear anything he could all over occupy portland. At least the shit ended up in his own mouth.. This time
I think today Portland stepped back from the brink. Maybe it was the events at UC Davis, a pepper spraying far more out of line than ours. Maybe the Mayor’s vast experience in social media is rubbing off on Chief Reese. And maybe the organization behind the march for single payer health care finally awoke some of the listening cells in the “Occupy Movement’s” brains. I’ve seen precious little evidence that those neurons have been firing since mid-day Saturday last week.
So much remains to be done, though. The communities and organizations involved need to be very clear in their communications about such things as the call from the Oakland occupation for a shutdown of all West Coast ports on December 12th. That’s a rather complex thing to pull off and is fraught with major labor law implications. And some of us remain skeptical in the face of the “Let’s You And Him Fight” spewings in the blogosphere and in social media.
I have more hope tonight than I did after Thursday’s near-catastrophe. But hope is not a strategy, and listening is hard work. The ball is still in the Portland movement’s court, not in Michael Moore’s, Matt Taibibi’s, AdBusters’ or even Occupy Oakland’s. Disruption and chaos cannot work here. The police bureau needs to be gentler, to be sure, but they must remain firm.
‘occupy’ – if you had wanted to march for Universal Health Care a couple YEARS ago, when it might have made a difference, I would join you.
Liar. You would’ve been sitting at home being a taint stain on the internet. Just like there’s not a statute of limitations on desiring health care, there’s also not a statute of limitations on people being taint stains.
We needed Universal health care two years ago. And we need it today. Doing nothing has not worked, so we, the occupants, are taking it to the streets. If Freakieb feels hopeless, this is understandable. The cure is courage. Walk the talk. For now, the corporate media is forced to listen, the banking community is on notice, and our elected leaders are beginning to understand how tenuous their positions may be. We are taking back America. Join us.
So this damned pig Reese apologizes for telling that bold-faced LIE, engaging in direct fear-mongering tactics – in a shameful naked effort to try and “sway” public opinion against this unstoppable movement.
Well at least he had the decency to say he was sorry – which he is.
NOW, if he could just apologize for the murders of Aaron Campbell, James Chasse, Keaton Otis, and other citizens who have been murdered by Portland cops!