Of course they do. Cops need to be defunded back to the stone age. One car. One siren. A baton, a uniform, and a taser. If they can't do their jobs with these items, they can't do their jobs. Cops who kill need to be fired, prosecuted, and imprisoned for taking a life. Every time. No exceptions.

This country has defunded everything else back to the stone age, so the cops can be, too. Defund them. Demilitarize them. Force them to live where they work and force them to work for basic working class pay (which will depend on where they live). If none of this appeals to them, get rid of them altogether. They do not prevent crime, they do not solve crime (only 2% of major crimes are solved), they eat a trillion dollar budget nationwide annually, and they murder people continuously for no reason. They exist to protect wealthy white people's property (on the taxpayer's dime). Enough. Get rid of them.

Wealthy white people can pay people to protect their property and all of the money once used to pay the cops can be funneled into supporting communities, providing desperately needed mental health and crisis care, funding schools, and helping people in very concrete ways - paid for with taxpayer funds to benefit taxpayers.

As someone who moved from downtown Portland five years ago to find more affordable housing, I'm glad that Christina's comments represent a tiny minority of Portland's citizens. Police do far more than solve crimes. Without them, who would arrive at accident scenes, control traffic, write citations for traffic violations, affect arrests when necessary, take care of the meth lab in the duplex next door, etc.

This wrong and myopic view that all police do is murder people needs to stop.

The PPB is full of neo-nazi assholes and Wheeler is ineffective at controlling them.

"This wrong and myopic view that all police do is murder people needs to stop..."

Perhaps if cops'd just stop murdering people -- and other cops, reporting the ones who DO -- would go a Long Ways toward a much more Appreciative, less-Terrified populace.