Police Chief Rosie Sizer and Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman gave a press conference today about the shooting death of Aaron Campbell. The Mercury received no notice whatsoever, even though we’re on the cops’ email blast list. I’ve got an email in to police spokeswoman Mary Wheat, and Saltzman’s chief of staff, Brendan Finn, asking if we were excluded deliberately. This is the second police press conference we have had no notice of. We flagged it last time, too.
Not that it seems being at the press conference would have been all that valuable. Helen Jung at the Oregonian:
In Friday’s tightly controlled press conference, a police spokesman abruptly cut off questions, including one asking Sizer about whether she had any concerns about Frashour’s use of force.
Ooooh. Questions!
Update, 3:21
Finn called back: “I didn’t set up the press conference,” he says. “We simply said that we would show up, and I apologize. No one is trying to sleight the Mercury or try to make sure that your readers’ concerns aren’t heard.”
Finn says the conference was arranged by backup PIO Greg Stewart. I’ve got a call in to him, too.
Update, 3:53
“I want to apologize, I really want to tell you that it’s nothing about the Mercury,” says backup PIO Greg Stewart. “I had a list of what I thought were the media contacts, and it turns out that I didn’t invite a load of other folks.”
“Mary was getting a root canal, and I was supposed to do this and I didn’t do it appropriately,” he says. “It’s not just you, I just got off the phone with the Associated Press—how the PIO forgets the Associated Press, that should have been a big red flag right there.”
Who else did he forget?
“I think I forgot one of the radio stations, and Associated Press, and you, I forgot the Tribune, but then they heard about it and called up before.”
“I feel particularly bad that you feel it was intentional,” he said. “It’s not like we didn’t just call people we don’t have…it was nothing about the Mercury.”
I thanked Stewart for his apology and said I really hope this is the last time we get left out of a press conference, especially on such an important issue.
maybe if u didnt write so many mean storys about them they would be ur friend and want u 2 hangout
Dear Portland Police Bureau: You can’t unhurt a feeling. (Or a fatal gunshot wound.)
If they were cutting off other “news” agencies asking such provocative questions as “Chief Sizer, what are your thoughts on Officer Frashour’s use of force?” then what makes you think they’re going to invite the Merc, where they might get asked, “Chief Sizer, do you like snatch?”
/rimshot
Thanks very much for coming out tonight, folks. Please remember to tip your waitresses.
“Mayor Sam Adams, who missed the first half of the press conference, has issued a statement strongly condemning the Portland Police Bureau for not using Twitter to announce the press conference or the snacks that would be served at the press conference.
Addressing a group of reporters after Chief Sizers remarks, the Mayor, while eating one of the delcious pastries provided by PPB spokesperson Mary Wheat, stated that ‘@PortlandPolice is a vital community serivce and I will convene a committee of handpicked community memebers to review the Police Bureau’s Use of Twitter Policies. We cannot let the community lose faith in our police bureau’s use of technology. Now what’s all this about a shooting?’ “
uh-oh! watch out! the copster’s world is now reeling out-of-control and they can’t “stage manage” it so well, and they’re running out of ideas…leaving them to resorting to BRUTE FORCE to quell dissenters and people who ask questions. travel together in pairs and ALWAYS have your cell phone charged up and ready to grab on film any of their “funny business” as they set about to get control over this situation. WATCH OUT!!!!!
Wow, that response from Greg Stewart is fucking comic gold. What a [COMMENT EDITED: UNNECESSARILY ABUSIVE LANGUAGE.]
Luckily for Greg Stewart, gross incompetance has never been grounds for losing a cushy City of Portland job. In fact, isn’t he due for a cost-of-living bump?
there ya go, Matt. acting like an adult, all civil and courteous, not jumping to conclusions. taking someone at his word, too. don’t you know, this is what’s gotten the Merc’s news dept where it is (ie, best in town).
and thanks for being classier than your anonymous commenters.
@ta: If you’d have heard me on the phone with Brendan Finn, I don’t know if you’d stick with your “acting like an adult” line. I was rather emotional and upset, I’m afraid. But I appreciate your praise.
That’s me in my profile pic. Anonymity on the Internet is for wimps.
Or for those with careers living in a very small community where ignorant people regularly misinterpret things if they happen to fall out of their narrow world-view.
I have a list of press contacts: They send them out to the neighborhood association people every 6 months or so: There is a big list of everyone from the O to the North Portland Skanner(sp?) all the TV stations, quite a few radio stations, and even some blogs like bikeportland. While I’d have to search for a few minutes to find the most recent one, (OK: 15 seconds, I just tried: “Press Contacts” is the subject line of the e-mail.) And I’m not a fucking paid PIO, I’m a volunteer who spends a couple hours a week attending some meetings.
(That is me in my picture too. I’m not anonymous so much as I don’t want blogtown to show up as the first hit on my name in Google. Especially when I use terms like “fucking paid PIO” and my picture is of me with a glass of beer.)
I think you meant to type “no one is trying to slight the Mercury.” “Sleight” makes no sense at all.
Don’t kid yourself. It was purposeful. And personal.
The city and the police are the real wimps here. Their widdle feelings were hurted by the Mercury for calling them out for being poor public servants. Boo hoo hoo.
P.S. If this happens again, we’ll all be calling on your behalf, Matt.
P.P.S. City and Police? Our public servants who work at the pleasure of us – your bosses – the citizens who pay your salaries? Yeah. Suck it up.
A TALE OF TWO (NORTHWEST) CITIES:
This week NYT reports the gold standard of behavioral health diagnostic manual (DSMR) is undergoing a controversial revision. Given the prevalence of a pattern of practices, perhaps its time to recognize a particularized subset of institutional PTSD: i.e. law enforcement induced trauma?
Seattle STRANGER http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/crime/
Bail request: “The facts of this case are of great concern given the gang-mentality of the all the defendants involved in which a female member of their group is sent to attack the victim and the rest of the defendants swarm in and grab the victim’s belongings. There are facts to believe that the attack was premeditated …”
Seattle STRANGER http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/crime/
On February 12 at AME Baptist church in the CD, Ms. Steward-Baker and her mother Letta Baker held news conference with her attorney James Bible (Also president of the Seattle-King NAACP http://www.sblegalteam.com )
King County Prosecutor’s Office filed Case NO: 10-022986. Assault 2nd degree RCW 9A .36.021, robbery 1st degree RCW 9A.56.200(1)(iii) and 9A.56.190 against Daysha Michele Henderson, DOB: 08/01/94, 5’ 5’’ 150 lb for the Thursday 01/28/10 5:13 pm Metro bus tunnel beating, arrested at: 232 5th Ave N (Club Diamond) She attends McClure Middle on lower Queen Anne Hill. resides at 10037 Waters Av S SEA WA 98146 (false) mother Angela Henderson.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office DAs Tuyen Lam and Julie E. Kline also filed robbery charges against four people allegedly involved in the beating of a girl on January 28. According to court records (.pdf),
Daysha Henderson,16 LaTroy Hayman, Tyrone Watson, and Dominique Whitaker allegedly robbed Aiesha Baker- Stewart, 15, while she was walking with a friend through the Westlake Mall-downtown Macy’s Seattle Transit Tunnel. The suspects range in age from 15 to 20 years. (Henderson arrested at all ages club lies on police charging papers gives false address of upper class Seward Park neighborhood.)
old.http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2010/02/10/1265850924-bus_tunnel_charges.pdf
The Steward-Baker are represented by prominent civil rights attorney Seattle attorney James Bible, Jbiblesblaw@gmail.com who graduated with honors from Seattle University School of Law. He successfully represented Seattle Youth Parole counselor Yvonne Gaston when SPD falsely charged her after harassing her young black male client following Gastons’ sponsored purchase of school clothes for him at Sears. “Yvette Gaston attempted to explain and reason with the officer over the phone. To her surprise she was met with an angry and aggressive tone. The officer told her that the young man was being “lippy” and that he was going to show him how we “operate things in the CD.”
“While the jury exonerated Gaston of all charges, she still has many emotional scars that are a direct result of the way in which she was treated by the police.”
On June 22, 2007, NAACP president James Bible, again, called for the resignation of SPD chief Gil Kerlikowske and the firings of officers Gregory Neubert and Michael Tietjen … “We have a leadership problem in Seattle. A crisis of character,” he said.
http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/06/i_just_dont_know_who_to_believe /
See also: James Bible, President of Seattle NAACP escorted out of Seattle Public School Board meeting as they vote on the closure of 5 schools.
In most cities the NAACP has ALWAYS been more activist than the Urban League. In contrast in Portland, where for decades, the leadership or stewardship vacuum has not called for the formal filing of U.S. Department of Justice civil rights complaint police misconduct.
Somebody COPWATCH? NAACP? students at Jefferson HS, PSU? Lewis and Clark Law School? Reed? Please invite and sponsor Seattle attorney James Bible and Yvonne Gaston to speak on in Portland for NOT ONE MORE.
Isn’t it the job of the press to get the story? Since when is the news supposed to announce itself and be all nicely formatted for the media? This is Merc whining at its classiest. Oh, and whining about not getting credit for stories is fun to read also! “We report, and we want you to know we try so very hard!”
Also, I notice there is NOTHING on the Gresham killings in Blogtown. FAR more interesting story in my mind.
Finally, Matt, Sarah, some of the semi-serious “reporters” on the staff: Perhaps it’s time to change your game. You are half-assing it at the Merc. While it’s amusing in many regards, don’t expect to be taken seriously when you have a head editor that is obviously a sex addict.
@unicode_idiot: Wow, so wrong in so many ways.
Press conferences: In general if someone wants to announce something to the media in a “press conference” they might better if they actually invite the press. Expecting the media to just dig that information out when the thing was only planned a few hours before it happened, is, unlikely to happen, (short of stationing the reporters in city hall, and yes, people have done that: The Oregonian actually has an office in the building, that they very rarely actually use. But the Oregonian is a much bigger newspaper than the Mercury.)
Gresham killings: It is called the “Portland Mercury” They normally don’t cover Gresham unless it somehow applies to Portland.
Reporters: Half the other reporters in town are laid off, even if Matt&Sarah wanted to leave, they couldn’t get a job elsewhere anyways, nobody is hiring. But in any case, Humpy is part of the charm of this place; I like my news with a side of snark. (And some of my best exes were sex addicts.)
“Wow, so wrong in so many ways.”
But you didn’t even list *one* way? You gave me an example where an actual news organization resolved exactly this issue. The article itself gave another example of another organization resolving the issue. Matthew’s bizzarro world!
They have covered issues state-wide numerous times, from the top of my head the homophone attack victims @ Lincoln City last year. I guess Dan Savage should stop linking articles and answering with “advice” since he covers out-of-state questions while he resides out-of-state?
Your third statement, finally, didn’t address my point. Don’t whine about being ignored when you aren’t a news organization. I enjoy the cutesy snarkness here also, but I harbor no question that this is a news organization that even begins to cover stories with as much depth as they deserve.