They could have gotten rid of Kaer, if they would have handled it properly. Instead of firing him they should have pressed charges. He would have filed a stress claim, and would be collecting his disability checks now. Granted, taxpayers would still be footing the bill. But at least there would be one less trigger happy cop out there.

The good guy (cityhall), bad guy (Police & their union) routine sure does the political job. Anytime the public questions police behavior, the mayor (or cityhall) can throw the police-person under the "bad press" bus only to have the policeman union and system reinstate him/her. It seems to play a political role adequately.

In this case, Potter went overboard. Maybe on purpose. But 30 days off seems an awfully light slap for playing Dirty Harry and then shooting into a moving car, which was supposed to be a big no-no.

I wrote an editorial for the Oregonian in which I explained why the city would lose the arbitration on this case and incur substantial costs to tax payers in the process. These issues are determined by sets of rational rules not the bias of anti police Portland residents. Politicians routinely try to sacrifice police officers to assuage the offended sensibilities of citizens who have had their consciences inflamed by a routinely anti police media. These same politicians continue to allow police to be trained in the rational concepts developed by the courts over two centuries of cases because they realize if the anti police crowd ever gets its way the politicians will have no way to protect the citizenry. 34 years of police service taught me one thing. The easiest thing for officers to do is just let every criminal run off. Unfortunately all over America police are making that decision rather then suffer the fate of Lt. Kaer and his family. The good officers are still putting themselves in harms way for you jerks. Now the thing police fear more than criminals is politicians, journalists and the anti-police citizens who want to immasculate the police so they can smoke dope in peace.

I hope when you wrote your editorial, which I didn't read, you let them edit and spell-check it.

Kaer was fired by the mayor, who is a former police chief. He is hardly some anti-cop zealot.

PPB rules clearly forbid several things Kaer did, especially firing into a moving car. Everyone admits what he did was wrong -- the only question was the penalty. Like I say, 30 days for an unjustified killing is pretty cheap.

BTW, please don't call people names on this blog any more -- it makes you seem like a very small man.

Jack, is referring to the President as "the Chimp" still OK?

why of course Richard/s, it's subject to Executive Privilege.

Jack,
Yes I did get editing help. Former police chiefs who are mayors are no longer cops but politicians. I hope you get help reading. No one found the actual shooting wrong. Not the grand jury and not the arbitrator. They both found spurious violations of procedure leading up to the shooting. Using this standard to fire police officers would result in officers being required to act perfectly in the subjective eyes of their managers and political masters. Obviously this would cause any rational police officer to never do anything. If you don't like being called a jerk don't write jerky uninformed anti-police drivel on your blog

He does look exactly like a chimp, especially when that tiny mind of his is overwhelmed. Sometimes he looks like a chimp attempting to play pinball when he gets excited and starts to manhandle the lectern.

It ain't calling names if it's true, is it ?

I'm just sayin...