Portland police "leadership" on parade
A couple of interesting insights from a weekend of trigger-happy policing here in the Rose City. Today Fireman Randy's police chief was quick to point out that the knife-wielding guy who was shot dead yesterday at 82nd and Powell was a bad, bad dude -- but not mentally ill, oh no:
Portland Police Chief Mike Reese said a man shot and killed by police Sunday had 33 prior arrests.A homeless Vietnam-era guy twice threatens to kill a security guard for no apparent reason, and is squatting in the cold in an abandoned car wash, and he comes after the cops with a knife, but hey, there's "no evidence" he has any "mental issues."Reese said some of his prior arrests include robbery and burglary in Oregon and California. There is no evidence the man had any mental issues, Reese said.
And you wonder why we have the death penalty for mental illness in this town.
The dead guy must not have had any drugs on him or in him, or you can be sure the boys in blue would be telling us all about that, too.
Meanwhile, an alert reader reminds us who it was that wrongly reported that the New Year's shooting by a police traffic sergeant at the Club 915 murder scene was accidental. Yep, that was an utterance from the city's illustrious mayor himself:
Findings from an initial investigation into the shooting suggest that the Portland Police officer did not intend to fire his weapon and the officer's bullet did not hit anyone, Mayor Adams told us Saturday morning.Intentional lying, or just incompetence? It's often hard to tell. Competent truth-telling can usually be ruled out right away, however.
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Comments (15)
If you ask Reese and the rest of the brass and talking heads from the PPB, PTSD is a made up disease that never affects veterans. I mean a homeless Viet Nam vet, the cops did him a favor by putting him out of his misery. Forget death panels, killer cops are just angels of mercy.
As for where the Portland ******s are at today - covering each other no matter what they do, well we can all thank Stan Peters for that.
Posted by LucsAdvo | January 3, 2011 8:06 PM
Suicide by Cop is not limited to Portland. Its rampant across the US as is suicide in general, however the media only reports on those that play out in public.
By Death by Cop is a cheap ride home as all you need do is refuse to drop the knife.
Bingo, you finally get your name in the paper and folks will blame the Cop that shot you.
Posted by Abe | January 3, 2011 9:44 PM
"It was the victim's fault. The victim wanted it. It wasn't what you think". Oh, please.
Posted by dyspeptic | January 3, 2011 9:58 PM
A couple of comments might lend insight:
-In 1963 there were over 2000 mentally ill in the Oregon State Hosp. In 2011 there are under 700 even though the State has a larger population. (numbers are approx.) Why so few patients at the OSH now? Maybe the rest are in communities including on the street.
-I'm hoping the sergeant who fired a shot was actually trying to stop the guy from shooting the bouncer downtown. And I'd place a small bet he didn't hit anyone because he he was carefully avoiding "collateral damage." It would be so nice to hear again about a "good cop"
Posted by Don | January 4, 2011 12:26 AM
It's hard to figure out whether the sergeant shot before or after the murderer did. It will probably take a few more days for those involved to get their story straight.
Posted by Jack Bog | January 4, 2011 12:31 AM
Adams seems to posses an unfortunate combination of traits: an egocentric liar who doesn't think very quickly on his feet - if at all. The most incompetent thing, whether he was making the story up or just screwed it up, is that he couldn't fathom how an "accidental discharge" would rightly concern people and make the PPB look bad yet again. I mean, wouldn't a person with even a little bit of insight maybe hold off before blabbing something so potentially damaging to the city? Duh-oh!
Posted by Bartender | January 4, 2011 12:45 AM
I heard Mayor Creepy on Mark & Dave last night. He bragged that one of the changes he implemented since becoming police commissioner is to get information to the public quickly (thanks, Twitter) ... even if it is not accurate.
Yes he actually said that. I'd love to have the transcript.
Posted by Garage Wine | January 4, 2011 6:34 AM
The Mayor has such a strong "looking-good" personality trait, they when speaking with the media, he will say anything to appear he is on top of things. Couple that with a real inability to listen, you have a perfect storm. He's a pathalogical liar who believes himself. A form of mental illness - one of the predominant traits of a sociopath.
Posted by Mary | January 4, 2011 7:08 AM
Critical thinking needed.
"Portland Police Chief Mike Reese said a man shot and killed by police Sunday had 33 prior arrests.
"Reese said some of his prior arrests include robbery and burglary in Oregon and California. There is no evidence the man had any mental issues, Reese said."
Reese and the union somehow think that the foregoing justifies the cops actions, and the majority of sheeple in the metro area will nod, yawn, and go along with the never ending lies.
Of course, absolutely none, zero, da nada, of what Reese relates after the fact was known to the thugs on scene when PPB carried out its latest execution.
When are what passes for media in this city going to start paying attention to what is going on within the PPB?
Yeah, I know....never.
Posted by Nonny Mouse | January 4, 2011 8:59 AM
Don wrote:
"-In 1963 there were over 2000 mentally ill in the Oregon State Hosp. In 2011 there are under 700 even though the State has a larger population. (numbers are approx.) Why so few patients at the OSH now? Maybe the rest are in communities including on the street."
Need to remember that it was the "progressive" and "liberal" and generally "do gooder" groups, which, nation wide, pusshed in the 70s and 80s for massive downsizing in big state run custodial mental institutions. They did it through lots of law suits and lots of lobbying. The liberal impulse, combined with claims of major cost cutting by eliminating custodial institutions, resulted in dumping a lot of problems out into parts of society not equipped to handle those problems.
Moral: Be careful what you ask for, You may get it,
Posted by Nonny Mouse | January 4, 2011 9:06 AM
Mary says:
"The Mayor has such a strong "looking-good" personality trait, they when speaking with the media, he will say anything to appear he is on top of things. Couple that with a real inability to listen, you have a perfect storm."
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Great observation, spot on.
"He's a pathological liar who believes himself. A form of mental illness - one of the predominant traits of a sociopath."
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Wow! So very compact and accurate. Would somebody (anybody) who is honest and mentally sound please run against the Mayor, and just run ads that repeat the above over and over again? Oh, and please be bi- or gay, so as to negate the oh-so-tired homophobic smear.
Posted by Harry | January 4, 2011 9:37 AM
Couple of items.
When the ME releases the 60-year old man's name, we'll fact-check for ourselves about whether he had a diagnosis of mental illness.
What we know is the vast majority of persons killed by police officers over the last ten years had either mental illness in an acute stage or a either an untreated or undertreated addiction. These two qualities also probably define several other sets of persons - victims of violent crime, persons jailed, persons who are homeless, persons using ER services more than once a quarter, persons calling 911 more than once a quarter, persons seeking medical services from multiple public health clinics, persons on parole, persons estranged from their children, etc.
Adams and Reese have radically improved the access to immediate information from the PPB about a variety of public concerns - both important and trivial. The increasing number of press blurts is a good thing.
It's hard to measure the number of persons incarcerated at state hospitals even a decade ago with today. Care and feeding, state budgets, community services, public awareness, are intermixed variables. There is even some evidence showing the illnesses themselves change over time.
Posted by J Renaud | January 4, 2011 9:43 AM
When I tried desperately to get any kind of assistance for my mentally ill brother several years ago from our lip-service 'social services', I was actually told by a 'social worker' that in Multnomah County a mentally ill person is free to manage their own disease as they please.
That says it all, if you ask me.
Posted by jc | January 4, 2011 9:50 AM
Harry - provide me with reasonable campaign funding and some decent campaign advisors and I will run against Sambo, not that I'd stand a chance in hell, even if I meet your special qualifications. Hell, I even have a degree in Political Science and a full year at some big Eastern law school which is more qualifications than most of PDX's council.
Posted by LucsAdvo | January 4, 2011 7:45 PM
The State Hospital reduced their census in the 1980's, by having their traveling guards transport patients to Downtown Portland releasing them into flophouses. That is when the derelects began to populate south of Burnside, changing downtown.
Posted by From Where I Sit | January 5, 2011 10:29 PM