Maybe Victoria Taft and Lars Larson could present us with the conservative solution to this issue?

Afterall, wasn't it Ronald Reagan that pushed the mainstreaming of the mentally ill by pursuing the closing of the government run facilities that generally incarcerated people like this as harmful to themselves and society?

Regardless, I'd still like to read their solution to this problem? I know at least one of the above has posted on this board, so in the interest of bi-partisanship, I think it would be of great value to see what they have to say. Seriously...

How quicky you forget the public outcry about the bad conditions of those government run facilities that generally incarcerated people like this.

He responded to the public outcry!

Shame on you!!! To link the tragedy of a person with mental illness, delusional and threatening to series of positive improvements for the general population of our city is so wrong, so lacking of compassion. This is a great problem of not funding mental health of ignoring people who can not take care of themselves. Portland is better then most at providing services, this problem needs to be addressed on a National and state level

Thank you, Jack, well stated.

With the advent of remotely readable UHIs, the police should be able to handle these events more efficiently.

The state has pulled back all forms of funding and beds for those in crisis, leaving families or the community to deal with the problem. When a person gets into crisis and becomes violent the cops are called. Hundreds if not thousands of these calls are resolved every year in police around the state, without injury or death to anyone. But odds are they will not all turn out well.

Previous Oregon facilities for the mentally ill were in deplorable condition. Can you imagine what could have been done with all the OHSU tram money if it had gone to say.. opening Wapato as a MH crisis center instead. I have no problem in challenging the priorities of public monies that have been spent on "positive improvements"

I've always contended that 99% of tax payers are for helping those people that are incapable of helping themselves due to mental illness or handicap. Unfortunately, there isn't enough money left over to do so after wasting it on a million things that 50% or fewer are interested in funding. There are thousands of faces of this mis-management of our money and this man is one of them. Walk around downtown and you'll see more.

"Four shots were fired, and the guy was struck and killed" is a weird way to describe a cop pumping four bullets, one after the other, right into someone's body. To use the passive voice in describing a police shooting like this is as manipulative as a lie.

At issue is whether the cops think there is any alternative to shooting to kill. Because lately it's clear they don't - they are unwilling to take even the slightest risk that, say, a guy with a box-cutter shot in the leg would somehow be able to continue attacking an officer armed with a .38, a tazer, a nightstick, and twenty buddies arriving in about thirty seconds.

The police reported that the man carried an X-acto knife with a 6-inch handle. This is apparently a more deadly version of the 5-inch handled X-acto knife I keep on my desk.
The more relevant measurement for these "weapons" is their 1-inch blade, but that doesn't sound so menacing.

Rescue stray cats and dogs (the Humane Society, et al), kill the crazy people. Even if they're just distraught (Aaron Campbell), kill them and keep us all safe. Why did I feel safer traveling in Jordan and Syria?

Fahrt mit der Strassenbahn!

The blade on a utility knife is about an inch long. It can't be thrown accurately, breaks easily and there's no haft on the handle to use with any effectiveness.

How many times have I walked into a bank, a hardware store, a restaurant, a park with one of those in my pocket after working around the home?

I will bet that was the 'weapon'.

To call the police in Portland 'pussies' would be too easy. To call them poorly trained and reactionary is a kinder word choice.

'Razor knife' my ass.

PG,

#1 - I wonder if the default is deadly force because the police don't want to appear like they were afraid.. Because the altenative I would think, is to back down, back off, run off or shoot with non-lethal weapons..? But the non-lethal weapons option if only applicable if there are two or more cops and one has the non-lethal drawn..

Coordinating which option will be launched first has to be very difficult in a situation that can change from in control to very deadly in seconds, for all involved..

#2 - I wonder if its an ego thing amongst cops that they don't want to in their minds and in front of their peers, to look like they were afraid or in a more derogatory term, but commonly used among men and woman, look like a pussy?

So they shoot'em and they make sure the person is killed because if they survive, they could play on the sympathies of a jury more than a dead person could...

Im just thinking out loud. Im trying to understand why deadly force seems to be the first choice of response...

Assassin de La Police!!!

Nique Ta Mere! flics de merde

quoi ca un cop de merde n'est pas capable de se battre avec un viellard de 58 ans
come on this is worse than amateur people getting together and acting as police....

Robert, take a close look at a patrol policeman on duty. They are so laden and festooned with weapons, communications equipment, armor and restraining devices that they can hardly move. Physical engagement with another person, even a quadriplegic, is pretty much out of the question. A Portland police officer is a walking tank. Shooting is pretty much all he or she is good for. Keep that firmly in mind when you call for help.

It is pathetic that people who did not witness the incident claim to know the details.... BTW the Med Examiners report stated death was attributed to a gunshot to the leg with the shell nicking the femoral artery and he bled out. The other GSW's were to the arms and shoulder.....

Over Seattle way things are handled differently:

Officers found the 35-year-old man standing at the front door of the business with a large sword in his hands, Lt. Sue Shultz said. He had multiple scrapes and cuts on his body.
officers also allegedly found several throwing knifes and other sharp weapons.
The male had been approaching customers and staff displaying and demonstrating his sword and throwing and knifes."

Outcome?

Concerned about their safety, police took the man to Harrison Memorial Hospital for evaluation. He remained at the hospital late Tuesday afternoon.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/archives/199230.asp

The ME's report is telling, in that the likelihood that the police shot to disable rather than kill was the goal.

Or, they were poor shots!

dman

According to the article you linked to, THE MAN DISARMED HIMSELF WITHOUT INCIDENT. You see the difference in the two situations?

so Rosie/Saltzman/Westerman/PPB/PPA are now spinning the tale that Jason Walters is a hero because he stopped the would-be X-acto Knife Killer dead in his tracks? What a team of idiots these sorry people are! If Jason Walters is really the heroic person they try to make him out to be, then he'll refuse to partake in this silliness and will donate his time and efforts to helping solve the "mental health crisis" that is besetting Portland while our elected and appointed so-called "officials" make craven fools of themselves. We shall see...what kind of a man he really is...???? (a toady for the idiots at City Hall & Central Precinct or a man of the people of Portland)

It's simple. We have no mental health care system. If a person is crazy, kill them. Seems like the old fashioned Insane Asylum would be more humane. This is why it was called asylum...

I think there's another key word in the Seattle example: "Officers."

I question the logic of having a policeman handle this call by himself.

The occifer probably believed the man also had a gun, and felt a life was in danger.

Catch-22. Do the police immediately available show up or wait?

Yes mp97303, I also see the difference between a hobby knife with at most an inch blade and this guys sword and throwing knives. So is this what its about, or should we argue about bullet foot pounds or quick draw parlor tricks?

Maybe this is all about something far beyond that.

A good read for you would be this article.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/big-bad-bully

Pay attention near the end when they talk about adulthood, and compare the behaviors with the PPD and the few on the force that certainly fit this profile.

Having worked at Multnomah County for a number of years, I agree with Gibby that mental health services have been decimated in this state.

The goal many years ago was to close the large, centralized facilities and move those needing treatment to smaller community-based facilities. Only problem was, the money kept getting cut and cut and cut. Over one hundred people were laid off from Multnomah County's Human Services department in July of 2003, along with funds for mental health contracts. Remember the debacle with Cascadia - along with their own, self-inflicted problems, they had merged with/absorbed a number of poorly-funded community agencies, and then funds continued to be cut.

We have no triage center in this community - many of those in jail have mental health issues - and many of those with mental health issues also have drug/alcohol issues. Ditto many of the homeless. Couple the lack of any sort of treatment with trigger-happy, untrained police and the outcome is not in doubt.

Anyone here watch "Lockup" on MSNBC? Almost every episode has a several minute segment with one of the investigative officers within the prison that will show a collection of collected shanks - many of which are pretty close to an X-Acto knife and have been successfully used on assualts on corrections officers. So I do not blame the officer for taking a defensive position on the weapon.

Could something have been done better? Could the officer have simply waited for backup? Did the man actually lunge or attempt to attack the officer? Were there bystanders whose safety was at immediate risk? I don't know that. I wasn't there. I'm not the officer waiting for backup dealing with a psycho man with a weapon in a confined area. I can't hold two weapons (pepper spray or taser, and gun) at the same time. I can't turn my back on this guy and there are civilians around.

This officer can't solve our mental health problems. He's responding to a high risk 9-1-1 call and needs to diffuse the situation NOW. He doesn't have a psychologist with him to talk this person down. He doesn't have anyone else but himself. And a psycho with a knife.

Unfortunately here in Portland, the investigative process will no longer focus on the facts. It will no longer look at the officer's choices. Of course, the grand jury is going to find that legally the officer had every right of self-defense, and was reasonable to believe he was in danger. And of course, the police critics are going to attack anyone and everyone who doesn't agree with them, even though they don't have the facts. All they care is that here's a homeless guy, here's a cop with a big gun, 'nuff said. It's time that officer involved shootings no longer be investigated by anyone in Portland, and a grand jury should be called from the furthest reaches of Oregon - people who do not live in the metro area - actually review the situation.