#DefundThePPD

"Nearly 600 officers—some from Portland and others who had ventured here from other cities—carried signs and wore matching navy-blue T-shirts that read: "I am Chris Humphreys. https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2020/06/24/for-nearly-80-years-the-portland-police-association-has-wielded-power-in-a-town-that-doesnt-like-cops-that-power-is-now-under-siege/

Humphreys was the Portland officer who shot the 12-year-old girl with the beanbag and was placed on paid leave pending an investigation of the shooting.

Three years earlier, he had been one of the officers who beat to death 42-year-old James Chasse, a man with schizophrenia."

"It was a vivid demonstration of the Portland police union's clout. That sway helps explain why only one Portland officer has ever faced criminal indictment for a shooting—

and in that case, the victim was white, even though Black Portlanders are far more likely to be the target of police bullets."

"Over and over again, the PPA has zealously protected the interests of its officer members.

For middle-class residents of the whitest city in America, the fact that those interests sometimes trampled on the rights of people of color, the mentally ill and the homeless was mostly an afterthought."

The story of James Chasse, the 145 lb gentle, mentally ill man who Humphreys helped beat to death, should never be forgotten https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-23444-sept-17-2006-police-beat-james-chasse-to-death.html

"The PPA is the longest continuously operating police union in the country. Since its founding in 1942, it's played hardball. Its current leader hasn't held back from releasing fiery statements about the state of the city, and calling out elected officials by name."

https://www.wweek.com/news/courts/2020/06/24/five-infamous-incidents-that-didnt-cost-portland-police-officers-their-jobs/