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Rapping Back #83
Portland Copwatch member Dan Handelman analyzes Police "Union" social media (formerly the "Rap Sheet" newsletter) for the People's Police Report

Police Back Political Bias, Push Baloney Plentifully

To put it mildly, the Portland Police Association (PPA) has been in a full court press to demand the City hire more cops and bring back the controversial gun investigations team that was dissolved in July 2020. In addition to the more specific political hit job (now former-) PPA President Brian Hunzeker did on Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty (see article in this issue), the rank-and-file "union" used their prominent voice in local media and on their Facebook page to perpetuate myths about how defunding police has led to increased crime rates. We looked at the postings to that page (facebook.com/PortlandPoliceAssociation) and their website (PPAvigil.org) from mid-December to mid-April and found 15 of 45 stories (33%) related to police funding, with most also mentioning the dismantling of the Gun Violence Reduction Team (GVRT). The second largest group is about crime in general, acting as a bolster to the re-funding theme-- 7 of 45 stories, or 16%. There were five articles each (11%) in three other categories: lobbying their constituents to contact the state legislature on law enforcement bills (including twice around a bill related to the new Portland oversight system--see article in this issue), protests, and various bluewashed "Officer Friendly" articles. The PPA also encouraged people to sign up to watch contract negotiations (see PPA Contract article in this issue), weighed in on an officer- involved shooting in December (see the Shootings article in this issue), argued for the implementation of body cameras, and surprisingly suppressed their usual hyperbole in talking about officers who died while on duty in 2020 (see article this issue). Interestingly, there was a gap in posts from when Hunzeker resigned on March 16 until April 4, with the first commentary of any kind coming from former PPA Presdent, now "Executive Director" Daryl Turner weighing in about the GVRT issue on April 13. Turner also weighed in on the George Floyd verdict on April 20, repeating that Officer Chauvin's actions were "unacceptable" (PPR #81) and pledging to help the profession's "evolution."

Bringing Back the Gang Enforcement--er, Gun Violence Team Yet Again

In 2018, the Gang Enforcement Team was re-branded as the Gun Violence Reduction Team in an effort to downplay that Team's over-policing of Portland's relatively small Black community (PPR #78). In the midst of the racial justice protests after George Floyd's death last year, the City voted to de-fund the GVRT, ending its run as of July 1. Prior to that time, gun violence was on the rise, as was true for many cities dealing with the consequences of COVID. But that hasn't stopped the PPA (and their state-violence-supporting allies in the business and media communities) from arguing that the continued uptick in shootings is directly related to defunding the GVRT.

Before resigning, Hunzeker quoted his own appearances on news channels complaining about the problem. On January 9, it was a KATU-2 story where Hunzeker said "I'm on board with reimagining [policing], but if I was a contractor, I wouldn't go into a job without half of my tools." If he means the GVRT is a "tool," you also wouldn't use tools which disproportionately injured your coworkers of color. You don't go to build a house with a wrecking ball. He talked to KATU again on January 27, saying the PPB only has 620 officers, not enough presence to deter criminals. The news station mentions the GVRT in the second paragraph.

Other officers weigh in, with Officer Charles Asheim, formerly of GVRT (who shot at a suspect near gas pumps and missed in 2015--PPR #65), defending the GVRT's record where over 50% of people they pulled over were African American in a city with a 6% Black population (January 31, also KATU). Addressing GVRT being accused of racism, Asheim said that is "not true and offensive." The police learned very little from last year's uprising.

Hunzeker made an argument for the City to revisit the retire-rehire program in an interview with KOIN on February 2. He failed to mention that Sgt. Gregg Lewis, who was fired, rehired and allowed to retire after making a racially insensitive "joke" after Quanice Hayes was killed (PPR #77) was a product of the retire-rehire program. Hunzeker repeated this idea in a February 5 Facebook post titled "Shuffling officers isn't problem solving," complaining that 99 officers and Sergeants were moved from specialty units to patrol. He argued to keep the K-9 unit intact because police dogs can "quickly de-escalate with a bark." That's not what some would call de-escalation. To be fair, he calls to invest money both in more police and in social services (something Turner echoed in his April 13 post), but he characterizes them as "alternative social services" as if the police are the "regular" ones.

Hunzeker's February 19 post links to another KATU story in which Deputy Chief Davis says the Bureau couldn't create the detective-based Community Safety Team at the time they disbanded GVRT due to a lack of resources. However, the budget was exactly the same at that time, and in fact that was before many officers retired from the force, so this is flawed logic of another kind.

On December 18, Hunzeker thanked DA Mike "Schmitt [sic-it's Schmidt]" for recognizing the people killed by gunfire in 2020. However, Hunzeker uses the same piece to take aim at elected officials who made a "politically motivated decision with devastating effects," claiming directly that increased gun violence correlates with disbanding the GVRT. On February 19, he said the PPA supported the City's third iteration of the Gang Team, now called the Enhanced Community Safety Team and housed in the Detectives unit. But he added a little dig at Commissioner Hardesty for saying the data don't prove a causal relationship between a rise in gun crime and the disbanding of the GVRT-- even though he presents no evidence to prove that connection (see article in this issue).

In a strange twist, considering how reluctant the PPA has been to accept that they need to make changes agreed to by the City and the US Department of Justice, their February 11 post cites the DOJ's report saying the City failed to maintain compliance with the Agreement (see DOJ article in this issue). The piece suggests the DOJ said the City has to affirm their commitment to funding in order to staff the Bureau to address the pandemic and protests. The Agreement says the City has to adequately fund the Bureau for patrol and supervision, which other than having enough supervisors to conduct force investigations, we believe, does not mean hiring more officers.

Addressing Crime by Twisting Facts

Most of the stories about crime involve the rise in civilian-on-civilian shootings, but several point to issues like vandalism, fatal car crashes and, yes, staffing levels needed to address crime. The PPA wrote they were "heartbroken" to read about the 55 homicides in Portland in 2020 (on Oregonlive January 5), without mentioning that one of those killed was Israel Berry, shot by a Gresham officer (PPR #81). We were originally inspired by their comment saying the PPA supports a common sense approach to end violence and hold criminals accountable-- but realized they are talking about community members, not cops. There are more references to shootings posted January 12 (a KGW story about five in one weekend) and January 28 (seven in one night-- "let that sink in"-- with a link to a PPB news release).

In terms of property damage, there was vandalism in the Jade District mostly against Asian American businesses. PPA calls not to end racism but rather to fund more police, saying "property damage causes real harm" and linking to a KPTV (Fox)-12 story on February 25.

Looking at traffic deaths, on February 9 Hunzeker says he spent 14 years in the Traffic Division and was upset those officers were moved to general patrol a few days earlier. He posts a link to bicycle advocate Jonathan Maus' blog which urges Portland to transform traffic safety. Maybe he didn't notice that article focused almost exclusively on the Bureau of Transportation and does not in any way say there should be more officers.

A KATU story posted March 3 shows staffing around the USA in similar sized cities, listing Portland as having 824 officers (not 620 as Hunzeker claimed earlier), with Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Memphis and El Paso having from 300 to almost 2500 more officers. What the story leaves out is that of those six cities, Portland by far has the lowest violent crime rate per capita: 302 per 100,000 vs 333 (El Paso/1175 officers), 461 (OK City/1143 officers), 526 (Vegas/3300 officers), 571 (Nashville/1370 officers) and 1943 (Memphis/2055 officers).

Condemning Violence From Inside the Police's Glass House

After a roving protest on New Year's eve which led to property damage, the PPA applauded Mayor Wheeler for calling out "abhorrent, violent behavior" (January 2). And no, not the police behavior at protests throughout 2020. On March 1, Hunzeker quoted himself from a KOIN news story condemning another vandalism-infused protest which the police claim they were unable to address because of the shootings that were going on.

As with the above topics, these posts include calls to bolster PPA coffers (hire more officers), with the first noting there were record crime rates but the lowest number of officers in 25 years, and the latter saying there weren't enough resources to combat the "outrageous demonstration."

Lobbying to Stop Holding Officers Accountable

Reposting information from the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs (ORCOPS), of which the PPA is the most prominent member group, the "union" called on its followers to flood state legislators with emails opposing four police accountability-related bills. Not surprisingly, the one that got double attention was SB 621, which seeks to allow Portland (or any city thereafter) to institute a review system without negotiating details through collective bargaining. The second post on March 6 claims hundreds of emails were generated from the January 14 one. They also went after HB 2931 on mandatory medical exams for people who are arrested, and HB 2932, which creates a state database of police use of force (January 24). They also oppose HB 2931 which they say "opens the door to cronyism" by "eliminating protections," but what it really does is limit the ability of arbitrators to overturn reasonable discipline decisions made by municipalities (February 12). (Note: the original draft of this bill improved upon the one passed in 2020 that we wrote about in PPR #81).

Incidentally, the PPA also reposted ORCOPS' December 22 solidarity message for the officers who secured the Oregon Capitol when it was breached. Lobbyist Mike Selvaggio added: "At the same time, some lawmakers continued to propose legislation that would endanger the personal safety of those officers and their families, as well as hold them personally liable for frivolous lawsuits."

Curious Why Police Officers Want Body Cams More than the Public?

On February 9, Hunzeker posted a KGW-8 story about why Portland doesn't have body cameras for its officers with the headline "Curious why Portland has no body cams?" and expressing PPA's support for them. The KGW reporter explicitly says both that body cameras won't solve racial injustice and that it's unclear whether they alter officer behavior. Unfortunately, this is as close as the piece gets to interviewing opponents of the cameras, who worry they will be used more to prosecute community members (especially people of color) than to hold cops accountable. Maybe this is why they could find so many officers for the story praising the financial boondoggle that body cameras are, especially the Chief in Sherwood who only has 20 officers he needs to equip.

The Portland Police Association does not set policy. However, some PPA leadership, officers, and guest authors express negative attitudes toward citizens and civilian oversight in their postings. We worry these ideas may spread through the rank-and-file.

May, 2021
Also in PPR #83

Portland Copwatch
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Portland, OR 97242
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e-mail: copwatch@portlandcopwatch.org

Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.

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