PORTLAND, Ore. — Today, the ACLU of Oregon, Imagine Black, Communication Workers of America Local 7901, Don’t Shoot PDX, and thirteen additional organizations sent a collective letter to the City of Portland’s leadership — including the Mayor, Police Chief, City Administrator, and City Council — denouncing what appears to be attempted intimidation tactics by Portland police towards elected leaders who have prioritized police accountability.
Although Police Chief Bob Day stated that multiple police officers showed up at events by Councilor Sameer Kanal and Angelita Morillo to engage in community relations functions at his request, there is deep concern that the real purpose of the police visits was attempted intimidation. The concerns are based on:
- Reports that the officers did not engage at the two councilors’ events the way they usually do when doing community relations;
- The first of the police “visits” happened within five days and the second within nine days after Councilors Kanal and Morillo participated in a Community and Public Safety Committee meeting, at which meeting and afterwards Portland police union President Aaron Schmautz expressed vitriol towards Councilor Kanal over his police accountability-related efforts;
- Other city councilors did not experience similar police visits, and Councilors Kanal and Morillo have been particularly vocal about police accountability;
- When Councilor Morillo asked the police at her event who had sent them, they referred to a lieutenant but refused to provide the name; and
- Because Portland police have a long history of engaging in politically-motivated actions to protect their perceived interests, as well as actions of retaliation against elected leaders.
“Retaliation and intimidation by the police against anyone – including elected leaders – bolsters fascism, not democracy, and weakens the rule of law,” said Sandy Chung, executive director of ACLU of Oregon. “The ACLU of Oregon will continue acting as a guardian against abuses by the government and police, and we ask Portland City leadership to do everything in their power to investigate, address, and prevent any form of intimidation and retaliation by police.”
Portland police’s long pattern of direct and indirect involvement in tactics of retaliation, intimidation, and politically-motivated action – that we know of – includes:
- In March 2021, multiple Portland police officers were involved in releasing false information against then Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty when she was leading police accountability efforts.
- In June 2021, after a grand jury returned an indictment against a Portland police officer, accusing him of striking a protester in the head with a baton consistent with video evidence, all 50 members of Portland police’s rapid response force resigned from that unit.
- During the 2020 racial justice protests, Portland police punished protestors, journalists, and legal observers with repeated physical violence, which resulted in the City agreeing to millions of dollars in lawsuit settlement payments to people injured by police.
- Former District Attorney Mike Schmidt said his home address was shared maliciously in 2020, possibly by a Portland police officer, after he announced he would not prosecute all the protesters arrested by police. Also, after officers repeatedly told residents that Schmidt would not prosecute various crimes, then-Chief Chuck Lovell had to tell them to stop that conduct.
- In 2017, Portland police aided West Linn police in the wrongful arrest of a Black man in a disturbing case of retaliation and racism.
- Investigative journalists have reported that the Portland Police Bureau appears to engage in significant and expensive “copaganda” public relations to shape public perception consistent with their political purposes and interests.
- It was reported in 2023 that a Portland police officer put political goals for police ahead of public safety in the traffic enforcement messaging that he used with the public.
“When we were protesting for the government to stop their violence against Black people, Portland police responded by unleashing violence against us — night after night,” said Joy Alise Davis, President and Executive Director of Imagine Black. “Portland police tried to intimidate protestors off the streets, and now it looks like they are trying to intimidate city councilors from doing their jobs representing the people. Imagine Black joins the organizations on this letter to make sure the City and police know that we are watching, and we will always seek accountability when police engage in any type of misconduct, violence, and intimidation.”
The organizations that signed onto the collective letter include:
- ACLU of Oregon
- APANO Communities United Fund + APANO Action Fund
- Basic Rights Oregon
- Breach Collective
- Cascadia Magical Activists
- Communities and Postal Workers United
- Communication Workers of America Local 7901
- Consolidated Oregon Indivisible Network (COIN)
- Dandelion House Catholic Worker
- Don’t Shoot Portland
- Extinction Rebellion PDX
- Imagine Black
- Next Up Action Fund
- Portland Democratic Socialists of America
- Showing Up for Racial Justice PDX
- Urban League of Portland
- Unite Oregon
“It is unacceptable for the police union president and armed, uniformed officers to respond to Councilors Kanal and Morillo’s reasonable efforts at police accountability with baseless accusations of being anti-labor and attempts at intimidation,” said Nick Caleb, an elected officer at Communication Workers of America Local 7901. “For years, Portlanders have consistently advocated for police reform and voted in local representatives to enact it. These recent police union tactics are out of bounds and must cease.”
“It is my experience that when you demand accountability for police brutality and state-sanctioned violence, the intimidation and police harassment is not limited. Different forms of violence are carried out in many settings — during school board meetings, at parks during public gatherings, via mandated attendance at most funerals, and even in spaces that bring us joy such as community events and museums,” said Teressa Raiford, founder of Don’t Shoot PDX. “When Black people are invited anywhere there tends to be a need for policing. It’s just too much and it has to end now.”
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About ACLU of Oregon: The ACLU of Oregon is an affiliate of the national ACLU which has affiliates in 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. The ACLU of Oregon is a nonpartisan, nonprofit membership organization with more than 45,000 members and donor supporters statewide. The organization works in the courts, in the state legislature and local governments, and in communities to defend and advance our democracy, civil liberties, and civil rights under the U.S. and Oregon constitutions and the laws of the United States and Oregon.
