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  Well, for one, it's not just about Aaron Campbell. James Chasse Jr., Kendra James, James Jahar Perez, Jose Mejia, Lloyd Stevenson and many many more have been killed by the police because the police can get away with murder. And the many people harassed by police every day, because that is actually what they spend most of their time doing. (Calbruce Jamal Green, Delease Carter).

  Their jobs are not actually as dangerous as they would have you believe (the deaths per 100,00 are equal to non-farm gardeners and most police deaths are due to traffic accidents, not 'dangerous criminals') and they use their massive PR to convince people that they NEED to kill. But they don't.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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I would also like people to question the labeling, by the PPA, specifically in their current contract and in other venues, of the public knowledge of discipline and investigations of officers as "embarassing". That is not their real concern. While on some level, they may be personally worried about "embarassment", the real issue is that they do not want transparency, they do not want the public to know about the times they use force and shouldn't, they do not want the public to be aware of what the police are actually doing. It helps them to get away with being abusive, it helps build their power, it helps maintain the myth that they are constantly 'in danger', if the public has to work to know a little bit about what's going on.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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"marital discord"? Do you mean the high incidence of domestic violence as perpetuated by officers?

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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- The union is adamant that the public not be able to witness the contract negotiations with the city.

-The police do not want transparency in investigations.

The police do not want the public to be able to dictate their actions, they do not want the public to have access to information about their decisions or action. 

That alone should be concerning.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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I think that this is an important one discuss further. While the judge may have made the wrong decision in this instance, and its entirely probable that it is the status quo decision, there are plenty of instances when police are called to domestic violence calls and only assault both parties and make the situation worse. The real issue is that none of the systems we actually use work for preventing and stopping abuse. There need to be REAL ALTERNATIVES for people facing domestic violence and other forms of abuse. Just because the police are one of the only avenues currently for addressing problems doesn't mean that that SHOULD be the case and that we can't advocate for more and better solutions. And maybe the funding needs to be taken away from Police institutions to pay for real services to assist people in need. 

posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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he was unarmed when he was shot in the back after having a police dog sent to take him down.

posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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I have done some research on this. It is not readily accessible information and takes a lot of time and research. Usually when doing this, I have gotten frustrated and not continued past a certain point. It is a long term project that I want to work on, but is seemingly intentionally difficult.

posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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I guess my first thoughts are about the fact that this is another piece of straw in the pile. Please check out this article from today Mercury about a young man with an IQ of 55 who was tased on a TriMet bus last month, then had his seziure meds taken away and there seems to be no actual reason for a police interaction AT ALL : http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/i-just-want-to-go-homeandquot/Content?oid=2159541

And think about the 12 year old girl recently bean-bagged by Humphreys, and Kendra James, and James Chasse and the $175,000 settlement for harassing 3 men in a parking garage on St. Patrick's Day. And think about all the other incidents that you know about that I don't have time to write about. I really want this conversation to be about more than this one incident, but about the fact that this is a common occurence.

posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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