UPDATED with comments from Portland Police Bureau, below the break
November 25, 2009: A Pioneer Courthouse Square private security guard is caught on video, apparently hitting a kid over the head with his own skateboard. Here’s a refresher:
Police records relating to the incident show that Portland police officers decided, after consultation with the private security guards, not to write up a police report on the incident because the report would “not be in a favorable light” for the guards.
Pioneer Courthouse Square is patrolled by guards from Pacific Patrol Services, who are contracted by Pioneer Courthouse Square, Inc., which leases the land from the Portland Parks Bureau. A day after the Mercury blogged about the incident (including the above video), Parks commissioner Nick Fish released a statement saying the case would be referred to the district attorney. “Because it is currently under investigation,” said Fish, “I cannot comment further on this matter.”
Now, in August 2010, the district attorney still has not completed a grand jury process to decide whether or not to indict the private security guards: Dimitriy Kolombet, 20; Nicholas Jones, 22; and Jason Allen, 23. A month ago, the tentative grand jury date was cancelled because a witness for the guards [correction, 8/6: juror was ill]. More information, and police reports, after the jump.
After the altercation, the skateboarders (described as a group of 5-6 “street kids” in a subsequent police report) fled the scene, and [correction, 8/6: were shown on video peacefully conversing with the guards and then walking away.] Kolombet and Jones summoned two Portland police officers and told them their version of events: that Kolombet was hit by one of the kids on the left ear, and that Jones had a camera knocked out of his hand with a skateboard, and retaliated by punching its bearer in the side of the head. Allen said he came later and tried to break up the fight.
The police reports that exist for the incident were written after the fact: Officer David Abrahamson wrote a report on the day before Christmas; Officer Israel Holsti wrote his recollection of the event on January 9. This was only after the Mercury, television stations, Fish, Transworld Skateboarding, and other outlets had publicized the incident. One of the skateboarders and his lawyer met with police about the incident in late December, trying to get an investigation started. They requested police reports on January 4 (five days before Holsti’s report was written), and received them on February 2.
So what did the city cops do at the scene? Abrahamson spoke by cell phone with the security guards’ manager: “I told [Supervisor Michelle] Timfichuk that if the skateboarder had not engaged into mutual combat, I would have most likely arrested her security officer for assault,” he wrote in his December police report. In his notebook, he wrote: “It seems that the security guards overreacted and might be at fault of being the aggressor.”
He also spoke with another supervisor:
I spoke with Hartshorn (a supervisor) privately, who is the shift supervisor for Pioneer Square Security. I informed Hartshorn of the incident and told him per Officer Holsti’s and my interviews, I believed his security officer had acted unprofessionally. I told Hartshorn since the altercation was a mutual combat and because we did not have a victim, I was not required to write an investigative report…
Eventually, the officers agreed with the supervisors not to file a report:
I also told Timfichuk if I were to write a report it would most likely not be in a favorable light for Pioneer Square Security. Timfichuk said she would appreciate if I did not write a report at this time and stated Pioneer Square Security would handle the incident in-house.
Update 8/6 8:20 am: Corrected some factual mistakes (struck out parts above).
Update 8/6 12:52 pm: Police bureau spokesperson Kelli Sheffer called to clarify some of the bureau’s policies regarding reports. An “investigative report,” which the officer voluntarily did not write, would indicate the start of an investigation. A “special report,” what you see above, can be written at any time as a record of an officer’s account of a situation. In this case, the guards were claiming to the the victims (Fish’s statement said that one guard suffered “minor injuries”), but it appeared to the officers that they were the aggressors. Since the possible victims (skateboarders) were not on the scene, any investigative report would have claimed the guards as victims but depicted them to be aggressors. Nevertheless, anyone claiming to be a victim has the option to file a report: “Sometimes people want to press the issue, and say, ‘I want to be the victim.’ We can technically list them as the victim, but the officer is going to write an investigative narrative that shows what the investigation reveals,” says Sheffer.
When one of the skateboarders approached police in December, they had another possible “victim,” so they opened an investigation, and most likely got these special reports written as evidence. Because the case is still going through the Grand Jury process, the police bureau refuses to comment on this specific case. Sheffer did say, however, that there is a second round of investigative reports that are not yet publicly available. These documents have not been released to the Mercury‘s sources.
We have calls out to Pacific Patrol Services. Here are the police reports (download a PDF here):
Seriously? Scribd? Just host the thing locally so we can download it.
What, you don’t like Scribd? It’s kinda my new thing. Like how Matt was all pushing those obnoxious Twitter feeds for a month. I’ll add a download link.
Why not just set the Scribd to allow downloading?
So you put your own words in bold at the top, saying that they didn’t file a report because it would put the guards in an unfavorable light. But the actual quote says they didn’t file one because it was mutual combat and they hadn’t found the victim, yet. Doesn’t that seem like slanted reporting to you?
@Reymont: No, go reread the quotes. The officer wasn’t required to file a report, (but could have,) because it was mutually combative and they didn’t have a victim. But the security supervisor asked the officer not to file the report because it would put the security guard in a bad light, (since security guards aren’t supposed to in “mutually combative” fights in the first place.)
Remember that police normally write reports about almost anything. Janelle C Jefferes, (sp?) for instance filed a report because some people posted a link to her facebook page from this blog. So when someone asked for a report to not be filed, that is pretty clearly news.
Who cares? Is there the slightest doubt in anyone’s mind that these skateboarders were a bunch of little shits? Didn’t think so.
rent-a-cop hits kid, kid hits rent-a-cop… or vis-a-versa…. no injuries…. I understand that the author is outraged about this…but who cares? kids ride skateboards to irritate rent-a-cops (thats why I did) and rent-a-cops shave their heads for aerodynamics so they have a better shot at catching the kids on skateboards! Its the circle of life for chris-sakes!
@Matthew D – The article states “Portland police officers decided, after consultation with the private security guards, not to write up a police report on the incident because the report would “not be in a favorable light” for the guards.”
But that’s not true, according to the rest of the article. That’s NOT why they didn’t file a report. They didn’t file a report because it was mutual combat and they hadn’t found the other victim, yet.
You and the author would love to attribute that decision to some dastardly private motivation that supports your fear of authority, but the officer says it very clearly: they didn’t file a report for those two reasons. Reporting your fears as fact (and bolding them) is lying.
screw the story, that video was pretty awesome for an amateur. you could feel the adrenaline from your computer screen.
I hate-respect you so much, Blabby.
Reymont – it says the cops didn’t ‘arrest’ the guard because of the mutual combat/no victim issue, it sounds like they gave the security company the option of not having a report filed since it would likely look bad for the company.
@Reymont: Here is a quote from the officer himself: “Timfichuk said she would appreciate if I did not write a report at this time and stated Pioneer Square Security would handle the incident in-house.”
That sure sounds like security firm told him not to write the report. You are right, the officer was not required to write the report and as such the officer didn’t do anything “wrong” by not writing the report, however, the officer makes pretty clear how he felt about the incident at the time, including writing in his notebook: “It seems that the security guards overreacted and might be at fault of being the aggressor.”
If the officer would have written it up or not if he hadn’t talk to the guard’s supervisors, we’ll never know, but as I said, police officers write a lot of reports all the time even though they aren’t required to write them. However, in this case he was clearly asked to not write one, which is exactly what the headline says.
Cops might not care for skateboarding gutter punks, but they don’t tend to have any love for slack-jawed rent-a-cops either. Cops probably didn’t file a report because it’s work, not because they’re trying to protect guys who try to do their jobs for minimum wage.
Funny, you see all kinds of ‘mutual combat’ cases down at the courthouse. The DA doens’t have any problem charging that in many cases. Some defense lawyers are going to love being able to argue mutual combat when some cop tases someone and the guy fights back and gets charged with Resist Arrest.
@Blabby & @rufus92: No arguments there, they aren’t any better than people from Damascus.
http://www.oregonlive.com/happy-valley/ind…
Totally frightening to know that the age range of these rent-a-cops is 20-23.
“Janelle C Jefferes”
Awww gee, that takes me back…
Pacific Patrols is the biggest joke company I have ever witnessed. They hire a lot of socially incompetent people and their management is mostly concerned about how many new BMWs the owner has, rather than the welfare and training of their officers. It is sad that such an important place in Portland is policed by such a poor excuse for a security firm.
This problem is easy to solve. Incident equals mandatory drug testing. It will get rid of the Roids in security officers and the police force.
One thing about this is that the “street kids” are for the most part the same age as the security guards, have steady jobs, and have never lived on the streets. Being “mutual combat”, if the so called “street kids” would have been the ones to swing the skateboard at the security guard then a report would have no doubt been written.
We need a law that prosecutes DAs for covering up abuses of police/security guards/brutes that hey have idealogical or political allegiances to. Make it a felony.
What people don’t seem notice or talk about in these comments was that this happened ALMOST A YEAR AGO and they still haven’t even finished the grand jury, Now I know they have started one, I was there. I testified about a month or two ago. (how long does a grand jury take?) I am the guy with the long hair in the video. I had a front row seat to what happened. The guards were harassing these kids even after they had left the square, continuing to take pictures, In that special report I am W1 (They Redacted my name.)
I know they got a few things of what I said wrong, which is not surprising considering that they wrote the report about a month after it happened. I am just wondering when they are going to get around to actually getting this grand jury thing done. I mean really? Almost a whole year? Are they waiting for people to give up? Whats the deal here?
Analyze the situation based on the information above: Security had most likely been telling them to get their boards off the sidewalk. There is a law that says no boards on the sidewalk but as we all know, kids don’t listen especially to what they call “rent a cop that has no authority”. I’m guessing the security was taking pictures as PROOF of what these kids were doing so that if something were to come up there would be NO doubt what these boarders were doing. Now the kid that through the first punch is the aggressor NOT the security guard for doing his job and defending himself… Professional or not, if someone is going to throw a punch at me, you better guarantee they will get one back..
@tsarge1985: except that the guard was working illegally at the time so not really fair to say he was “doing his job,” and, according to the reports, he told the police that night that he threw the first punch, not the kid.
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…
@tsarge1985: Umm read the report, and listen to somebody that WAS THERE, the guard threw the first punch.
And when I saw the kids the guard was following them taking pictures even after they had left the square. It was harassment plain and simple. The kid pushed the guards camera down and the guard reacted by punching the kid in the face. Before you make comments, be sure to get your facts straight.
When that kid decks the mercenary in the face is when he becomes my hero. I have completely had enough of privately paid corporate policy enforcers abusing their fake authority.