Three Portland Police Officers Tell the World: "I Am Darren Wilson"

Portland Mercury:

On the eve of news from the grand jury considering criminal charges in the summertime police shooting of unarmed Ferguson teen Michael Brown, at least three Portland police officers over the weekend declared their sympathies for the officer at the center of that investigation. Officers Rich Storm, Rob Blanck, and Kris Barber each changed their profile pictures on Facebook to an image of a Portland police badge wrapped in a rubber bracelet that says "I am Darren Wilson." One of those officers—Storm—was a principal agent in case materials supplied when the federal Department of Justice in 2012 found Portland police officers had not only engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force against people with mental illness—but also at times needlessly escalated encounters requiring force and that they'd also been notably struggling to build trust with the city's African American community. In 2011, Storm punched an unarmed Spanish-speaking man several times in the face—after the man had tried kicking Storm, but also after Storm had thrown the man to the ground. The DOJ questioned why this had to happen.

Police accountability activists, including some planning to rally whenever the Ferguson decision is announced, began sharing the photos on social media late Saturday, contacting reporters at local papers, including me. Some have since compiled their own scathing writeup, and the images have been making their way around Twitter this morning, asking the police bureau whether its leadership thinks "black lives" "matter" or not. Many of the racial justice issues underlying the rage and rallying in Ferguson also are present, to varying degrees, in Portland. One of the officers, in comments under their public profile pictures, said a few have been buying the rubber bracelets for five dollars apiece. So far, I've only found—just like the activists—three officers. That's notable in a bureau with nearly 1,000 officers. Incoming police chief Larry O'Dea told reporters last month, during the press conference when his hiring was announced, that he saw improving the bureau's relationship with minority communities as a top priority. O'Dea—who's regularly sat with the city's Community and Police Relations Committee, a forum for sensitive topics like racial profiling—has made improving relations with the city's minority communities a major focus. He's also said he wants the bureau, and its largely white male command staff, to look more like the community it serves. Tellingly, he invoked Ferguson, Missouri, in making his point. He said the bad blood there is about "way more than what happened that night," when police shot an unarmed black teenager. It's about a fraught relationship between cops and community members that he says he wants to keep mending here, too. Sergeant Pete Simpson, spokesperson for the bureau, tells me he's looking into the issue. I'll update with a comment. UPDATE 10:52 AM: Storm has changed his profile picture to a trippy portrait of "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski (h/t to Jefferson Smith and Katy Lesowski Smith's pug, George Bailey). In the comments under Storm's new avatar, Blanck notes the recent change—and Storm tells him "a direct order is a direct order."

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