Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Police union president announces ‘no confidence’ vote in Portland’s City Council

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/20...nion-vote-in-portlands-city-council.html

The executive board of the Portland police rank-and-file union voted “no confidence'' in Portland’s City Council, questioning why city commissioners aren’t condemning the violence, fires and damage to businesses occurring in the city at the hands of some demonstrators.


Officer Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association, on Wednesday repeated a criticism he has made in the last week that “a small number of people have hijacked'' important calls for social justice and racial equity and “used the cover of peaceful protests to burn and loot our City.”

Turner also at a news conference released an eight-point plan with suggestions on how to address changes that many police critics are demanding, though his ideas are called “Fund police reform” -- the opposite of a rallying cry among reformers to redistribute money from police budgets or abolish police departments entirely.


He said he has no confidence the City Council will stop the protest violence or support the sworn officers on the streets and guide the Police Bureau into a new era of policing that prioritizes community safety. Repairs for damage to public buildings is estimated in court documents to approach $300,000 and nearly $5 million in property damage to businesses.


“If City Council won’t stand up for Portland,‘' he said. “We will.”

The city’s response to the protests has evolved as the demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism enter their 42nd day following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. Thousands of people have gathered peacefully over the weeks but police say a small group has maintained a sustained effort to cause mayhem, including vandalizing buildings and throwing rocks, fireworks and other things at police.

City Council members have repeatedly condemned protesters who have engaged in violence during demonstrations, but have differed in addressing the police response to the crowds.

Mayor Ted Wheeler, who oversees the Police Bureau, has called the use of tear gas “ugly” but has backed using it sparingly, citing the police belief that there’s often not a more viable alternative to quickly move people from an area.

Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly have called on the bureau to stop using tear gas altogether and instead consider new tactics that better account for the safety of people who remain peaceful during demonstrations.


Hardesty in a response to Turner on Monday said addressing police violence must remain a key topic as protests continue locally and nationwide. On Wednesday, she said in a statement that the no confidence vote “is not an unusual tactic when the public tide turns against the PPA. We’re no longer allowing them to dominate the dialogue around policing and I will continue to work on change as the public demands and will not be intimidated by them.”

Wheeler, Eudaly and Commissioner Amanda Fritz all declined comment.

Turner said police response times to calls are suffering as the Police Bureau focuses on the protest coverage. “Portlanders are not as safe as they should be,” he said. “They’re not getting the service they should get.”

While he said City Hall isn’t calling the shots in the police response to protests, he said police supervisors are well-aware of the criticism coming from some in City Hall.

“Our hands are somewhat tied based on the political dynamics of Portland and they have been for years,” Turner said.

A judge has temporarily restricted Police Bureau use of tear gas and less-lethal weapons as crowd control measures unless lives or public safety are at stake.


Turner said he and Pastor J.W. Matt Hennessee plan to schedule quarterly roundtable discussions with police and community members and push for city funding to support what he called meaningful police reform.

Last month, the City Council passed a budget that reroutes more than $15 million from the Police Bureau to other city programs and initiatives and disbanded police units that work in schools, investigate gun violence and patrol the regional public transit system.

Turner spoke in favor of equipping officers with body-worn cameras, a step that U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon had raised six years ago when he first reviewed the city’s settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that called for myriad changes to police policies, training and oversight. The agreement followed a federal investigation that found police used excessive force against people with mental illness.

Though the city had set aside money the past several years to help fund a pilot body-camera program, it never got off the ground. Wheeler pulled the funding from the Police Bureau in next year’s approved budget.


Turner said the city should pursue federal funding for body cameras, noting that it will increase accountability and trust between police and the community. He also pointed out that it’s largely been videos that have captured police use of excessive force.

“Every incident we’re seeing nationwide is somehow captured on video,” Turner said, whether it’s from a dash-cam video or observer’s cellphone.

His “Fund police reform‘' plan calls for more crisis management teams that combine officers and social workers, a return to community-based policing where officers get to know people they’re serving, national reporting of police use of force and a database of officers terminated for misconduct and recruitment of new officers with college educations coming from diverse backgrounds.

He said he supports the continued use of a grand jury to review police shootings, not independent review by the state’s attorney general or another body.

Currently, there’s a hiring freeze in the Police Bureau, yet the bureau is anticipating a wave of retirements in August and again in January. While Turner plans to retire by the end of the year, he said his 23-year-old son has applied to be a public safety support specialist with the Police Bureau.

Now that be some funny schit right there.

A "Union" rep denouncing the Democrat politicians that they bought and paid for.

You can't make this schit up.

Turner will probably be relieved of his job .. hard to imagine anyone wanting to be an officer there..

They bought a lemon. Hope the rank and file wake up and realize their union sold them down the river. Time they defund the union.

Why are LEO paying Organized Crime to represent them in the first place.

Jack, sadly it’s about the only voice that local city cops have.

As Steve alluded to,,,watching them eat their own.

Meanwhile, Nero plays a mean fiddle.

This is funny as hell. Union money elected Democrats are now the Union enemy.

Sweet irony.

Local tyrants are easy to find.

Stevie Wonder saw this coming

It is but I'll guarantee you they're not smart enough to "Get it".

Oh boy.

They are now where many were in 1979 or 2016, and wherever Newton's Law becomes applicable.

This whole story is like watching that movie inception. There's irony 3-4 levels deep, all interacting. The greatest though is the statement about how if the City Council won't protect the people of Portland, the Police will. Would that be the very people who elected the City Council who abandoned those same people and the Police force?

They are getting exactly what they voted for. I'm so glad I'm out of that s=== hole state.

Stop it, you're making me dizzy.