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Human Rights Commission Caught in Political Shuffle
Despite the lofty goals of the Equity office, to combine efforts around diversity hiring, disability and immigration rights advocacy with human rights, the move appears to target what little teeth the HRC has. At the February 23 meeting, Fritz suggested the HRC could gain more independence from Council by becoming a non-profit similar to neighborhood coalitions. This was likely a slap- down for their letter condemning the Sit/Lie ordinance (PPR #52). She also plans to move the office downtown, while OHR's current home is in North Portland--as recommended by the 2008 report. There has been no vote on this transition, the 2011-12 budget is still in formation, yet the deck chairs are already being shuffled. Meanwhile, the CPRC left off review of the Bureau's Racial Profiling Plan after just one of five chapters (PPR #52). Instead, they let the City make presentations about Tasers and Use of Force without discus-sing why people of color have so much more force used against them. In January, Deputy City Attorney David Woboril asked for input on Use of Force policies. Woboril requested CPRC think about a man dashing from a stolen car and climbing over a fence while running from police. Should officers be able to use a Taser? This scenario was designed to narrow the options given to the Committee. If the man was not armed, there is no justification to use a Taser. If he had a weapon, isn't it more likely he would use it once cornered by police? Couldn't they investigate him based on their visual contact and evidence in the car? But Woboril doesn't want questions asked, he wants the CPRC to let the police expand their Taser policy beyond what is allowed by recent court decisions (PPR #50). Woboril misled the CPRC, reporting that the 1095 reported uses of force in 2007 include police "control holds." One citizen Committee member found that number surprising, as he'd been jacked up a few times himself. When Portland Copwatch wrote Woboril that force statistics only include control holds causing injury, he admitted the error but said it "produces only minutely different results in the characteriza-tion of use of force." He defended the error by noting a 2005 report including all control holds changed the rate from 0.27% to 0.36%. "I appreciate your effort to flyspeck the City's information and my presentation." We responded that including all control holds, incidents per day jump from three to six: "When you use the term 'flyspeck' to describe the concern that your numbers are off by nearly 50% ... that leads to community distrust of police and of city management. If water bureau employees were engaging in physical violence six times a day against citizens of Portland it would shock the conscience." Disturbingly, CPRC cancelled its February meeting to head to Camp Withycombe for police training, with less than a quorum attending to avoid public meetings laws. CPRC's agenda indicated the effort would lack dissenting voices, listing an "interactive scenario based training on force tools"--the Bureau continues to avoid the word "weapons."
At two meetings in March, the CPRC took stock of their two years of activity, thanked Johnson for her work, and discussed future agenda items. Chair Hector Lopez left the brainstorming to Assistant Chief Larry O'Dea, who emphasized recruiting and retention of diverse candidates, outreach, and communication. Thus, the Committee is heading toward a police-driven agenda, regardless of the Council's actions. Further evidence the Committee may not challenge the Bureau came when they announced CPRC community member Darryl Kelley applied and is passing the tests to become a Portland officer. |
May, 2011
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Chief: 5 shootings "unacceptable" |
In April, CPRC adopted a report about Use of Force with some good recommendations, including
having officers report when they point Tasers at people, but others that defend the status quo.