This whole thing just reeks, the police officers who killed him should be paying the price, not the taxpayers. This guy's family obviously didnt care enough to get him off the street and get the medical help he needed in the first place, and now they want to make money off it?

Chasse's family was involved in his life and engaged in his care. Don't be a parrot, read the case before you squawk.

I've watched this roll out for a couple of years now. According to the family's medical examination, Chasse would have survived his brutal beating if officers had taken him directly to an ER. Cleared by the EMTs, they followed procedure and took him to jail. American Medical Response bears great responsibility here, in addition to the city.

The lesson learned: cops do what they're told.

Someone told the cops to beat him to death?

cops do what they're told.

B.S.

Cops do whatever they want because they are above the law. Here in Portland, anyway.

Jon - The cops are above the law because they and the DA's office are in a massive circle jerk. The DA gives the cops immunity from prosecution if they are on duty and murder citizens... or if they are on duty and grossly violate civil rights (possums anyone?) .. or pretty much any other b.s. cops do. Wanna be a killer and get away with it. Get a PDX uniform and badge. Wanna get harrassed? File a complaint against one of the bastards.
And the cops will lie and fabricate evidence to help DAs get convictions... wait does this sound like LA? Only they PDX pigs keep on keeping on. And some stories never make the news.. like shooting old lady hostages to death.

It's sad, but accidents happen and when they do they are often sad.

Police officers are human and do make mistakes. But the mistakes in Portland have been too frequent--and too often fatal to citizens who have committed only a minor infraction or are innocent. I believe Chief Rosie Sizer has been to Israel to learn from them. Maybe that was a part of how all this happened.

Rights and responsibility must always be kept together. The police officer(s) involved here should pay some part of this claim award, even if it's small. Their actions were obviously outrageous.

accidents happen

Officer Humphreys has too many accidents of this nature.

The police officer(s) involved here should pay some part of this claim award, even if it's small

Although I've been part of the loud chorus of people calling for justice in the Chasse case, I don't agree that holding public employees financially accountable for awards, even partially, is a good idea. It's just a very bad precedent. The city and county must be accountable for the actions of their employees, even if they act extremely badly.

What should happen, though, is that the jobs of those guilty should be at risk, up to and including termination and banishment for life in that line of work. I say "should" because - as LucsAdvo so eloquently explained above - this will never happen in Portland with the present cast of characters in power.

A Multnomah County grand jury has unanimously decided that Portland and Multnomah County police officers were not criminally responsible for the in-custody death of James Chasse Jr., the District Attorney's office said Tuesday.

The grand jury, whose mission was to determine whether anyone was criminally liable for Chasse’s death, heard testimony for five days from 30 witnesses, including an expert witness suggested by Chasse's family.

So I guess the fine citizens of Multnomah county are involved in the conspiracy as well.

The number one thing the grand jury saw was probably the Coroner's report ruling the death accidental _based_on_her_judgement_of-the_cop's_intent_. What the grand jury was probably NOT told is that Oregon law specifically forbids a coroner from speculating about intent or anything other than the documentable and independently verifiable evidence of the deceased.

Even the grand jury doesn't get to speculate about intent. That is what trials are for.

The list of things that stink to high heaven in this are long, long, long.

This is precisely why the AG's office needs a civil rights investigator and prosecutor. The DA for the County has an inherent conflict of interest in conducting a fair, impartial investigation.

It's interesting how quickly our DA ducked out of the mayoral teen sex scandal, but when something far more serious comes up, on which he has a bigger conflict, he charges right in and gets the no-bill for the killer cop.

This is depressing. I hope the Chasse family takes everyone involved to the cleaners. Hopefully the trial lawyers will be able to punish the city, the PD and everyone else involved for failing to hold these roguish officers accountable.

Portland really seems to be the worst city in so many ways... From the city leaders, to the police system, to the unemployment rate, number of homeless people, paucity of high income earners and job creators, real estate downturn, bad roads, poor schools, and the list goes on.

Get out before Rome falls.

According to the family's medical examination, Chasse would have survived his brutal beating if officers had taken him directly to an ER.

They really should have taken him to a crisis triage center, basically an ER for people with mental health crises, but the entire program was cut into nonexistence several years ago. My mom used to work for the Metro Crisis call center and remembers when the whole program was eliminated. It used to be full-featured, boxes of food everywhere, beds, group homes for patients that could live semi-supported (like Chasse), but it's all gone now. I think they have a new scaled-down crisis hotline center, but it's probably bare bones. Does Project Respond even exist anymore? They're probably hanging by a thread right now. Really sad, many people that benefit from these services are able to live perfectly normal, successful lives if they just get the meds and community support that they need. Particularly unfathomable that the city is promoting dual multi-million dollar tax-subsidized sports stadiums while these programs just wither away.

Depolicing is the logical result when officers fear losing their jobs over escalation of force protocols.

Ever wonder why "Clean and Safe" cops or Tri-Met security guards don't confront the roving bands of homeless teens when they are intimidating and threatening others? I do.

Yesterday, during rush hour, Mrs. Tee got stopped for making an illegal turn on the bus mall and the PPB officer towed her car for lack of a current insurance card. When she stepped off the curb to ask the tow truck operator which lot he would take it to, the officer threw her up against the wall (bruising both arms), cuffed her and placed her under arrest for interfering with a police officer.

So I guess the depolicing argument isn't quite yet valid, based on purely anecdotal evidence. Anybody know a good attorney for an excessive force lawsuit?

I'm guessing the arresting officer has done this kind of thing before, if my wife's version of the story is remotely true.