STREET RESPONSE <<At least one Portland Street Response worker has resigned since Portland Fire Chief Sara Boone announced a controversial change to the city’s mental health crisis response team last week. On April 11, Boone announced the team must respond to homeless sweeps to assist campers when asked by city contractors or leaders at Portland …
Tag Archives: homelessness
4/14/2023 News Roundup
STATE COPS <<Governor Tina Kotek has directed Oregon State Police to assist the Portland Police Bureau to push back against increasingly frequent instances of street racing and street takeovers in the city.>> <<Street takeovers and street racing have become an increasingly frequent and visible problem in Portland in recent years, drawing concerns about the disruptive …
4/13/2023 News Roundup
ARMED CAMPUS COPS <<There’s mixed reaction from the community after Portland State University’s announced that they’re rearming campus police. The decision to disarm campus officers came after years of protest that really picked up after the death of Jason Washington at the hands of PSU police.>> <<Jason’s death had re-energized protests calling to disarm PSU …
4/1/2023 News Roundup
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 …
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 …
3/19/2023 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 …
3/3/2023 News Roundup
RIOT COPS <<A yearlong investigation into how an image glorifying violence against protesters made it into Portland police training materials has finally produced results—and more questions. Last week, the city suspended Portland Police Sgt. Jeff McDaniel for 10 days without pay after concluding he was “more likely than not” responsible for inserting the meme, which …