Saltzman calls for discipline in Chasse case
After three years of stonewalling, the City of Portland is actually proposing that the two officers involved in the senseless killing of James Chasse be suspended for a couple of weeks. Apparently the reason is going to be failing to get him to the hospital, not for literally beating the living daylights out of him and lying repeatedly about what happened.
This admission of wrongdoing comes as the family of the victim prepares for a March trial in a lawsuit that seems likely to cost the taxpayers millions.
The news that Commissioner Dan Saltzman is showing some spine after a decade of slumber on the City Council is making headlines, but the fact that it has taken the city three years to get to this point is quite telling. If the police here mistreat you, justice will be delayed at best, and more likely denied.
Of course, the police union is "disgusted" that even relatively mild discipline is being proposed. That goes along well with its other character, "disgusting."
| Posted at 2:39 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (10)
The only appropriate discipline for these officers is dismissal.
Posted by none | November 4, 2009 3:01 PM
Look at this illustration, http://mayoclinic.com/images/image_popup/r7_brokenribs.jpg
Now imagine 23 more breaks.
And your punishment is loosing one of 26 paychecks?
Posted by Bad Brad | November 4, 2009 3:03 PM
Dismissal followed by criminal prosecution for, at minimum, manslaughter.
Posted by George Anonymuncule Seldes | November 4, 2009 4:40 PM
The more mismanaged the city is the better the lawyers like it. They're the only ones who gain anything out of this.
Posted by Britt Storkson | November 4, 2009 4:49 PM
Recall Saltzman! These "officers are murderers.
Posted by sprinkboy | November 4, 2009 6:16 PM
Beyond all comprehension, that the argument would even revolve around ambulances, vital signs, and nursing assessments.
When are we, as a society, going to say: enough is enough. Stop killing people. Learn Aikido. Employ more stable people, women, trapeze artists, animal lovers, hypnotists, whatever it takes, to just please, please, for the love of God, stop killing people.
Posted by gaye harris | November 4, 2009 7:47 PM
That's not spine. Saltzman is showboating and pre-emptively fronting for something that's obviously been in the works lately and soon coming out. How sick. And Saltzman trumpets a two-week vacation for those thugs? How ghoulish. And to top it off, the only thing Saltzman s those 2 killers did wrong was not escorting their poor pulverized victim to the hospital? Saltzman's twisted.
And as for these quotes:
At an afternoon news conference outside City Hall's entrance off Southwest Fourth Avenue, Westerman called Saltzman's proposal "political posturing."
"These officers are being unfairly disicplined [sic] for purely political reasons,'' Westerman said.
The only political posture Saltzman's move demonstrates is one where his head is sucked up his a**. And tell us, Sgt. Westerman, what was so fair about what those two police officers did to cause poor Mr. Chasse's horrible painful death? Get some integrity PPD!
Saltzman's just a petty enabler.
Posted by Mojo | November 4, 2009 9:22 PM
Soccer stadium enabler and 3 years late to this. Way to go Dan! Love the legacy.
He'll get re-elected. This is Portland.
Posted by Steve | November 5, 2009 7:32 AM
This is much too little, much too late.
Still anything that makes the police union/street-gang feel "disgusted" must be a good thing. Let's endeavor to disgust them on a daily basis.
Posted by Snards | November 5, 2009 10:30 AM
Stomp fragile, innocent, harmless kid to a pulp = no problem! Forget to mention to triage person that he'd been stomped = oops + wrist slap. Nauseating. Oh, yeah, they're being punished (really?) for "not acting as para-medics." Really?
Posted by dyspeptic | November 6, 2009 2:10 AM