Are Portland’s gang enforcement police officers legitimately targeting gang members, or sweeping up young black men for “doing fifty-five in a fifty-four,” as Jay Z and criminal defender Chris O’Connor assert? Much has been reported in the Mercury about how the police bureau’s gang enforcement efforts might bring about racial profiling. But I decided to head down to the courthouse yesterday to see how the various issues played out on street level.
O’Connor’s claim of racial profiling came Thursday, September 10, during a motion-to-suppress-evidence hearing involving his client, Robert James. James, an African American, 26 years old, was stopped in June for allegedly rolling through a stop sign on his bike in North Portland around at 17th and Killingsworth. Arresting Officer Cody Berne—who is a member of the police bureau’s Hotspot Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), which focuses on gang activity—testified Thursday that he turned on the overhead lights and chirped his siren at James, who stopped and waited on his bike. Berne approached James and asked him if he was carrying any weapons.
Here’s where it gets a little fuzzy. According to Officer Berne, James said he didn’t have any weapons, and offered the officer the right to search him. James testified that Officer Berne asked to frisk him. Either way, James testified that he really didn’t feel like he had a choice in the matter.
“You can’t just tell an officer ‘no, you can’t search me,’” he said.
Officer Berne said he patted James down, and that he felt a “bindle” of drugs in his pocket, but that he didn’t make an issue over the alleged bindle at first, instead asking James for his ID and taking it back to his patrol car to check if James had an arrest record. James did, for armed robbery. Officer Berne said he then returned to James and asked him about the drugs in his pocket, at which point James ran. When Berne finally caught up with him, the drugs were gone, Berne said. James was arrested for escape and traffic violation.
O’Connor argued yesterday that stopping James was a “pretense stop,” one that was racially motivated. He also said James was never officially detained, and that he was under no obligation to stay in the area of the officer or consent to any search.
For his part yesterday, Officer Berne was poised and calm, if seemingly a bit rehearsed, espousing that his goal was “to make sure no 14-year-old kid is walking around with a gun,” and other harmonious goals. But under pressure from O’Connor, Berne acknowledged that race is “a factor I’d consider” in deciding who to pull over.
Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Jerry B. Hodson readily admitted to being rusty on search-and-seizure protocol, but assured both legal teams that he’d read up on the cases and statutes they cited. Hodson said he would make a decision about the motion to suppress on Monday morning, September 14.
The Mercury also has a call in to Sergeant Don Livingston, who oversees Berne. We’ll keep tracking this story, and give you updates as we get them.
I would like to see the whole “a factor I’d consider” quote.
And remember these kind of stops when the neighbors start complaining that cops didn’t do enough to prevent the next gang shooting.
It sounds like that attorney pulled out the race card quickly, and you foolishly took his bait.
I know it’s not “P.C.” to be for racial profiling, but in order for the cop to do his job race has to be factored in, just like age and how someone is dressed and how they wear their hair.
You show me old Jewish ladies with beehive hair-dos who are slinging drugs and holding up convenience stores, then I might say that racial profiling doesn’t help fight crime. Until then it’s a necessary evil of the cops job.
Yes, to you it’s a “necessary evil,” but to people with a clue about the rights of Americans, it is called “unconstitutional.” We put the most important ones in this thing called the Bill of Rights to deter this kind of fascist action regardless of its support by little Eichmanns commenting on blogs.
…is the Mercury now reporting on everything that Chris O’Connor does? Please keep us all updated on when Mr. O’Connor will be holding his picnic to protest an officer’s right to stop & frisk…
Legal “pretext” stop – Check
High drug/gang area – Check
Stopped ex-con with violent history carrying drugs – Check
Sounds like good police work. This wasn’t a young kid coming back from football practice.
What people WON’T say because they are afraid to, is why the little angels are frisked in the first place. Hint: The WHY is not because of their race.
Well, perhaps if we would end this ridiculously failed “war on drugs”, this would be less of an issue.
Good on that officer for admitting the truth that race can play a part when he decides who to stop. That there is an honest cop, and he shouldn’t be criticized for telling the truth.
Objective reality tells us that race may be one factor officers should consider when deciding who to pull over. This is reasonable. However, it is a fine line between considering race as one, minor factor and making it the predominant factor. That is the difference between intelligent, well-trained law enforcement and bigoted a-hole police.
Well said, MonkeyBeat. You can add the band of militant Presbyterians that are going around flying planes into office buildings to the list of groups who somehow escape the wrath of racist police.
From the Oregonian article in february on the Chief’s racial profiling report:
“The chief acknowledges that Police Bureau data from 2007 show that people of color are searched more often than whites when stopped, although the minority drivers who are searched tend to possess contraband at lower rates than white drivers who are searched.”
D-
I don’t have the exact question that O’Connor posed to Officer Berne during yesterday’s hearing, but it was something to the effect of asking whether or not he takes race into account while on patrol.
Berne’s quote, in its entirety: “It is a factor I’d consider.”
Uh oh – the news intern responded to a comments troll…here we go.
Deport Sean Breslin? Want to jump in here?
Since when is Presbyterian and Jewish a race? And how do you identify these people from a distance? I want to know.
Plus, what, white people stopped committing crimes when I wasn’t paying attention? I’m willing to bet that if you pulled over every white middle class college student you came across you’d find a fair number of pipes and a fair amount of white drugs. There’s plenty of white folks driving drunk or just dangerously.
If the cop pulled over a squirrely looking white guy at the same corner with the same results we wouldn’t be having this discussion. That too is profiling, and race comes into play with all profiling. However the profile is not based on race alone.
Take the race of the suspect out of this story and the actions of the cop would be the same. The officer’s only mistake(?) was being honest that race can be a factor in deciding a course of action.
Let the man do his freakin’ job, and quit nit-picking over everything he says.
As the Merc often points out, the Portland police are more than happy to pull over white dudes for running stop signs.
No, see, in that scenario, looking squirrely (squirrely lookingness?) is the factor, not race. There’s no such thing as squirrelyness profiling. That is generally speaking, what cops are supposed to do.
Nothing like the Mercury to trivialize an important goal–keeping 14 year olds from carrying guns. There’s something wrong with society when a kid is armed on the street, and society is more than happy to look the other way. Editorial posing as reporting. Journalism at its finest!
How convenient that you have the officer’s direct quote and not the question. Also, kudos to you for opening your story with a reference to a song with a chorus surrounding the line “I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one.” Now that, Mr. Breslin, is classy reporting.
The bias in this article is unquestionable. I understand that the Mercury is an intensely liberal paper, but try and maintain some level of journalistic integrity and report the story in it’s entirety. You also seem to be making a summary judgment of the PPB on the basis of six words surrounding one case. But I guess that’s a representative sample for the Mercury.
Based on the fact that this is one white ass town, and I seriously doubt your publication boasts very many african american readers (not a lot black hipsters and emo musicians ya know) this is a bit ironic. While a subject like this should be reported on, your zeal’s a bit misplaced
Rather ironic too that Sean uses a line from 99 Problems considering in the song Jay-Z admits he was carrying drugs.
Awesome, Breslin, you are so street you quote JZ. Hey you left out the part where he wants to “strong arm a hoe.”
Next time leave out the misogynistic song lyrics and you might not lose half your intended audience.
Unreal: Thanks for your thoughts. Just wanted to clarify: O’Connor quoted Jay Z during his arguments in court. That’s why I included it in the article.