MUCH OF THE CONTROVERSY over a recent list of police promotions centered on one officer who was handed his sergeant’s badge last Thursday, December 9: Leo Besner, the man who shot a despondent Raymond Gwerder in the back in 2005 and whose various acts of misconduct have cost the city nearly $1 million.
By the morning of the promotion ceremony, outcry over Besner’s advancement grew so loud that Mayor Sam Adams took the unusual step of weighing in on what normally would be considered a matter of discretion for a city bureau head, in this case Police Chief Mike Reese.
In a statement posted on his blog, Adams didn’t directly reference Besner’s history of run-ins—including menacing protesters and three African American men in a parking garage in 2007. Instead, he pushed for yearly reviews and called on the police bureau to reconsider how promotions are bestowed. Test scores currently determine who advances.
“The most recent round of promotions has raised policy questions to answer regarding lawsuit/tort claims,” Adams said, “and how they relate to the forthcoming police officer annual performance evaluations.”
That announcement came a day after the Mercury reported Adams’ promise to meet with former council candidate Jesse Cornett—Gwerder’s roommate at the time of his death—and hear concerns raised loudly not only by Cornett but also by Gwerder’s family, Portland Copwatch, and others.
But Besner also wasn’t the only cop with a curious record to win promotion.
Chris Davis, promoted to lieutenant, was one of two cops who watched Officer Jeffrey Bell kill José Mejía Poot in a psychiatric hospital in 2001. All three were placed on leave but cleared by a grand jury.
Then in 2007, Davis was one of two officers slapped alongside Besner for harassing Harold Hammick, Ri’Chard Booth, and Alex Clay in 2007. A judgment in that case cost the city $175,000, according to Portland Copwatch.
“The key to the case was that the officers didn’t realize there were independent witnesses until after they gave their depositions,” said Greg Kafoury, one of the prosecuting attorneys. Besner “was clearly the most out of line and clearly dominating the scene, but Davis was his superior at the scene.”
(Davis, for the record, also wrote a piece in the police union’s newsletter in February 2010, urging “sanity” and an end to posturing in what’s been a frayed relationship among the community, the police brass, and the union.)
Mark Friedman, promoted to sergeant, was one of three officers who shot and killed Vernon Allen, an African American man carrying a knife, in Old Town in 2005. While officers said Allen was lunging at them, some witnesses said he was far enough away that lethal force wasn’t necessary.
Friedman was present at another 2005 shooting involving a mentally ill, knife-wielding man. Friedman fired a bean-bag round at John Vitale, who was injured after another officer, Stacy Dunn, shot him.
At the promotion ceremony, Reese offered a vigorous defense of the promotions list—drawing from the muscular language of President Theodore Roosevelt to send a message to the rank and file. And critics.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better,” Reese said. “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again.”
Advocates and others lashed out at Reese afterward. Only a month before, Reese had angered the city’s main police union when he fired Officer Ron Frashour, the cop who shot and killed Aaron Campbell in January.
“The chief took a bunch of heat,” says Jason Kafoury, who helped his father prosecute the 2007 parking garage case, “and this is his chance to placate the people inside his ranks.”
The incentive for the way cops behave in this city is very clear: shoot, beat, or murder someone regardless of whether that person is non-threatening, non-violent, – & get paid leave (paid vacation). A year or two down the road, you may even get PROMOTED.
Everyone talks about reform, about holding these pigs accountable, over-sight, etc. Here’s the thing: simply FIRE cops for mis-conduct! And PROSECUTE cops on CRIMINAL charges where it involves the out-right murder of un-armed citizens (e.i. Aaron Cambell, James Chasse, etc. etc.). I thought we were facing a major budget crisis. So why keep employing a cop who costs soo much more trouble than his ass is worth? Much less promoting him, thus, giving him a larger salary. This doesn’t make any fucking sense, what so ever!
So let me get this straight…the city makes a business decision (and that’s exactly what it is), to settle a lawsuit in order to effectively dispose of a case; and we should hold the officer accountable for this?? The city routinely settles cases to avoid even the slimmest possibility of having to pay massive plaintiff attorney fees due to the changes in US code 1983. This is not news, in fact what would make a great story is chasing down the plaintiff attorney’s who do nothing but troll for “victims” they can trot out with legal standing for nothing more than the hope that the city will settle the case to avoid exposure. In these instances, the only true “winner” is the plaintiff’s attorney; who usually walks away with about half of whatever the city pays out. I won’t name any names, but if you bother to look, you will find that more than a few attorney’s make a living by routinely suing the city with any “good victim” they can find. I could buy the argument here if the city was promoting an officer who was found to have engaged in violating policy or the law, but that is not the case here. On another note…to the author of this article…it’s nice to see that you are keeping up the tradition established by previous editors at the Mercury by not allowing the facts from getting in the way of a good story; nice work. Did you bother to read any of the actual reports from any of the cases involved here…or did you just Google the names of the involved officers? In any case…I have wasted enough time trying to balance the weight of the scales here. Happy Holidays!
What is the actual policy on use of DEADLY force. I’ve been in the Portland area now nearly 3 years and it seems to me that an alarming number of police shootings have come under scrutiny, and far too often an unarmed suspect ends up dead. Of course a man wielding a knife is not totally without justification but too often its been a mentally challenged individual or worse a fleeing UNARMED suspect that ends up deceased
When I was in law enforcement (in the Service) we had the “Reasonable Man” approach to deadly force. meaning there really is only one reason to use deadly force… EMINENT LOSS OF LIFE! either to protect oneself or another from eminent danger. I mean everyone has heard the joke “don’t bring a knife to a gunfight”….There is a distinct advantage to having firearms, especially if the guys with the guns are trained. I didn’t read that the 60 year old guy was an expert in KNIFE THROWING so I’m wondering Are the Portland officers trained to control a situation without deadly force, as I see it if there is Two officers to one knife wielding perp and he cannot be controlled then call more officers to the scene!! Suicide by Police is becoming the Hallmark of the Portland Police Dept, better training is a start but SOME COMMON SENSE TRAINING IS A MUST.
Pigs are just pigs…..i’ve never met a nice one on PPB’s force until I met a female officer that was taping off the shooting scene last Sun. She actually smiled at me while interacting!