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Rapping Back #68 The Rap Sheet is Dead? Long Live the Rap Sheet
For over 20 years, we have followed the exploits of the Portland Police Association by monitoring
their print, then online newsletter, the Rap Sheet. Since mid-December, there have been about
fifteen postings to the official Rap Sheet site,
This poses a bit of a challenge for our old-timey print newsletter, since the number of pieces posted
actually increased because of the nature of Facebook. However, we will continue to publish this
column so long as the PPA continues to provide new material for us to share, analyze, and satirize.
We culled through 65 posts from the last four months, and this is what we found:
The largest number of posts (24) were reposts of items from the Bureau itself, including a link to a
Buzzfeed article (February 24) that featured what the PPA called a "way too Portland" hand-
scrawled note on a PPB business card. The note read "Your passenger door was scuffed up a tiny
bit during the course of an arrest." There was a picture of Mounted Patrol officers carrying light
sabres (December 18), a kid wearing a Spider-man outfit who "helped" the downtown foot patrol
(February 18), and a hint at the second-most-frequent-topic, understaffing, in a post about the PPB
cutting its summer camp for kids. That piece prompted disgraced retiree cop Rob Blanck to post a
reply trash-talking programs like DARE and GREAT since the short time cops spend with youth
can't change their entire lives. Jim McCausland, the last credited Rap Sheet editor, wrote back
telling Blanck, essentially, to shut up, stay retired, and focus on the positive.
The 10 articles about not having enough officers on the force mostly focused on other cities: San
Diego (February 22), Commerce City, CO (February 21), Pittsburgh (February 19) , Phoenix
(February 17), Olympia (February 4), and Vancouver (January 26). Another article talked about
Utah prioritizing school resource officers while the PPB "is talking about cutting the program" here
(February 10). But the bonus piece was PPA President Daryl Turner quoting himself on
Oregonlive (December 15) about how the Bureau is shuffling officers around to fill gaps, in which
he said. "If you are short a player on a baseball team, you don't put a catcher in to play shortstop."
The rest of the pieces included five about the officer who was killed in Seaside (p. 7), four profiles
of officers from other media, and nine that connected or were identical to Rap Sheet posts.
Four more Facebook posts get us to the next topic.
PPA Survey Undercuts Its Stated Purpose--Trying to Scare Up More Cops
The biggest news the PPA managed to make, generating a large post on the Rap Sheet in
January and four Facebook pieces related to media coverage, was about a survey they conducted
(over Survey Monkey) under Turner's headline: "Our Bureau is broken and we need to fix it."
Obviously, the PPA is not saying there is too much violence, racism and no accountability. Rather,
Turner picks up on the theme we've noted in the last few issues, complaining there are not enough
officers on the streets, which leads to low morale. 97% of the 700 or so officers who responded
(about 82% of the PPA's membership) made that connection. They also said that staffing levels are
connected to crime rates-- which is not necessarily supported by any evidence other than the poll.
They could mean it's appropriate to cut police when you have a low crime rate, as we have in
Portland. This is clearly not Turner's point since a PPA-related website,
The biggest blunder of the PPA's public relations in this survey is a question about recommending
someone else take a job in Portland, and 80% said they would not do so. So, PPA, if your solution
is to go recruit more officers, how do you expect that to happen when the rank and file are telling
people not to come here?
Other points of interest: Despite representing only Sergeants, Detectives and Officers, Turner says
Chief O'Dea should listen to him because many in the command staff have also lost faith in his
leadership. He adds, "It's evident to the men and women who do the heavy lifting in the patrol,
investigative and support ranks that Chief O'Dea's leadership style does not allow for meaningful
input from the boots on the ground." The Rap Sheet post also says many officers are
looking for jobs elsewhere (which may be ok, since only about 30% of Portland Police live in
Portland-- PPR #66), and the Bureau is no longer seen as the "crown jewel" of Oregon law
enforcement. (However, who does get that regal title is not revealed.)
Going back to some favorite tropes, Turner exclaims that "gang" violence has spiked beyond record
levels, and "Insufficient staffing prevents us from proactively engaging with the public, proactively
preventing crime, and from investigating and solving crimes expeditiously."
The coverage of the survey, as noted on the PPA Facebook page, includes stories from KGW
(January 12), the Portland Tribune (January 13), and a promo and the audio link to Turner
appearing on OPB's "Think Out Loud" on January 14. In that follow up post, a comment from Jeff
Roorda refers to "Fergusonistan, the war on police" and mentions that Portland officers were
punished for their "First Amendment" support of Officer Darren Wilson (who killed Michael
Brown). This ignores that the officers were disciplined because they violated the Bureau's Conduct
Directive (p.7).
Police Unclear on the Concept: Civil Rights and Labor
The Rap Sheet seems to be trying to make up for the PPA's appropriation of the "Black
Lives Matter" slogan (when they put up billboards saying "Having Enough Police Matters"--
PPR #67) by touting civil rights. Turner thanked the members of the PPA for coming to a
"union" meeting along with a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. and the quote: "The labor
movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress." In
February, an article about Black History month was adorned with a picture of Nelson Mandela
saying "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background,
or his religion. People must learn to hate."
The Association intends to show solidarity with the civil rights and labor movements by mentioning
how MLK was supporting sanitation workers in 1968 when he was assassinated. "America's union
movement champions those who lack a voice in our society. Union members played a critical role in
the civil rights struggles of the past, and that involvement continues today." But it ignores that police
officers were involved in firehosing, beating, and unleashing dogs on civil rights marchers in the
50s and 60s, and beating and helping criminalize members of labor unions throughout the country's
history. Probably not the critical role they're trying to invoke here.
In March, they posted an article (from the Greeley CO Tribune via PoliceOne) about a proposed
bill (the "Blue Lives Matter Act") to classify the targeted killing of an officer a hate crime. The
article's author says the bill "comes at a time when many officers feel under attack from those who
blame all officers for the actions of a few." The Weld County Sheriff is quoted countering "what
makes the assault, or the murder, of a person of a specific background any more or less heinous
than someone who doesn't fit into one of those categories?" Maybe it should be noted that taking
on a state job is not the same as one's race, gender, religion, or sexual identity.
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The Portland Police Association does not set policy. However, some PPA leadership and officers
express negative attitudes toward citizens and civilian oversight in their newspaper. We worry these
ideas may spread throughout Portland's ranks. The Rap Sheet is at <www.PPARapSheet.org>; the PPA's website is <www.ppavigil.org>.
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May, 2016
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Portland Copwatch Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.
People's Police Report
#68 Table of Contents
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