HOMELESSNESS <<Many of Portland’s least fortunate live in tents pitched on sidewalks or in aging campers parked in small convoys behind grocery stores. High housing costs and financial adversity are the primary root causes behind the burgeoning population on the streets; only about one in three people who are homeless in Portland report having a …
Author Archives: Hauler
3/31/2023 News Roundup
SWATTING <<U.S. authorities on Thursday said they arrested a Washington state man who made more than 20 “swatting” calls around the country and in Canada, prompting real emergency responses to his fake reports of bombs, shootings or other threats. Ashton Connor Garcia, 20, of Bremerton, used voice-over-internet technology to conceal his identity as he placed …
3/30/2023 News Roundup
THE FASH <<Dan Tooze spent most of the day on Aug. 22, 2021, sporting a Proud Boys T-shirt and body armor. Like many in the group, Tooze was armed — a wooden baton in hand and a pistol on his belt. He was in Portland’s Parkrose neighborhood for a rally held by the violent, extremist …
3/25/2023 News Roundup
COPS AND QUEERS <<The announcement last month that Portland had earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2022 municipality equity index raised a few eyebrows. For one thing, the index claims the city’s police force has something it doesn’t: an LGBTQ+ advisory council. It shuttered in January 2022. The Human Rights Campaign gave …
3/23/2023 News Roundup
GANG SQUAD/GUN SQUAD <<In 2018, the City Auditor’s Office issued a pair of reports on Portland Bureau’s Gang Enforcement Team. The team has since been disbanded, replaced first by the short-lived Gun Violence Reduction Team and then the Enhanced Community Safety and Focused Intervention Teams, which still exist. That shouldn’t free the bureau from addressing …
3/19/2023 News Roundup
PPB EMPLOYEE ARRESTED <<An administrative employee for the Portland Police Bureau is facing criminal charges for allegedly hindering the prosecution of her husband on manslaughter charges. In a statement Friday, the bureau said police have arrested 38-year-old Bruce Chirre for the 2021 killing of Jack Dekker in Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood. Chirre faces charges of …
3/11/2023 News Roundup
SHOOTING <<A grand jury has ruled that Roseburg police officers were justified in using deadly force when they shot and killed a man at an overnight warming shelter last week. Douglas County District Attorney Rick Wesenberg said state police first spotted the 20-year-old Grants Pass man walking on the shoulder of I-5 near Roseburg on …
3/10/2023 News Roundup
HOMELESSNESS <<Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has confirmed that the first of six planned large-scale sanctioned homeless camping sites will be located in inner Southeast Portland on a vacant lot near Powell Boulevard and 13th Avenue. Wheeler detailed the site selection at a news conference Thursday morning, and he also announced that the city has partnered …
3/9/2023 News Roundup Part 2
RACIAL PROFILING <<Jordan Dinwiddie, Eberechi Onyenze, Ramone Palmore, Nathaniel Poe and Larry Wright say they were discriminated against for shopping while Black.>> Dinwiddie is one of more than a dozen clients on whose behalf the Kafoury & McDougal law firm is filing lawsuits in Multnomah County Circuit Court in the coming weeks. The lawsuits name …
3/9/2023 News Roundup Part 1
3/9/2023 News Roundup NORMANDALE <<The man accused of shooting five people, killing one, near Portland’s Normandale Park last year pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and other charges on Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Benjamin Smith, 44, faces the potential of life in prison. He’ll be sentenced on April 18. Victims will get to make …