Street roots
Aug. 1, 2014
Portland police, D O J settlement fails on multiple fronts
BY JENNY WESTBERG
AND JASON RENAUD
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T S
F
■ 'ih e Mental Health Association of
Portland remains firm on Department
J L of Justice v. City of Portland. The
position elucidated in this column has been
our unvarying stance since the outset of the
lawsuit, and, barring sudden, cataclysmic
changes descending from the sky, it’s the
same we’ll hold tomorrow and the day after.
The suit is the result of the U.S. /
Department of Justice’s 2012 civil rights
investigation of the Portland Police Bureau.
Investigators found officers routinely used
excessive force, including Tasers, on
persons with mental illness.
In collaboration with the DOJ, then-mayor
Sam Adams, a lame duck with one foot out
the door, quickly drew up a settlement .
agreement, created a new tax on landline
phone transmissions to pay for
implementation, got City Council to agree to
it, and took a better job.
Federal Judge Michael Simon, wondering
if the agreement was fair, asked for ;
community input Aside from the DOJ, the
city and their vetted advocates, Simon heard
sophisticated opposition to the agreement
on many valid points. Testimony was given
at several hearings ever the months, and
the case is still not finalized. Soon Simon
will hâve to decide - fair or not fair? Trial or
no trial? '
Here is what we know — the people are
pissed.
Here is what we believe.
Police officers were the-ones who
slapped, punched, kicked, Tased and shot
people without sufficient reason. But the
city administers the police bureau. They c
have final authority, and that means they
bear full responsibility. Every repeated
Tasering, every fist slammed into a face,
every act of police violence is, at root, an act
by the city.
The City of Portland is at fault for the
discrimination at the heart of police
violence, and for the Violence itself. The city
is at fault both in the lawsuit and in the
long, painful bleeding of our persons and
our rights. They are to blame for sitting on
their hands; for watching, calmly, the
wrongs being committed against us; for
shutting their ears and ignoring our pleas
for a small measure of justice.
I Their inaction became their agreement to
the steady erosion of our civil rights, affixing
an official city seal on the casual
diminishment we face every day, defining us
- people with mental illnesses and/or
addictions - as lesser citizens.
Currently, the parties to the suit have |
bickered their way into another revision of
the settlement agreement — which,
incidentally, gives us nothing — despite the
fact persons with mental illness are the
whole reason the DOJ came to town in the
first place, and despite the DOJ’s finding we
were the targets of wrongful usq of force by
police. Somehow the investigation and legal
proceedings were appropriated by those
with more clout. And everyone has more
clout than we, the poor, the addicted, the
inconveniently mad.
The settlement agreement is a frail and
insufficient ¡solution, too quickly agreed
upon by self serving parties seeking political
credibility. Little of the agreement benefits
us - remember us? the persons actually
harm ed?- although it’s we who are, or may
other provision of substance that touches
be, in mental health crisis, we who are at
upon mental health.
imminent risk of injury and death by cop.
Aspirational? Really?
But there was one thing in the agreement
Well, we all have aspirations - fame,
we wanted and needed, which actually could
fortune, a ruby-studded yacht on Neptune -
save lives, and might have saved our friends
and we know they’re never going to happen.
now dead. Sam Adams wrote it into the
“Aspirational” means it’s something hoped
original draft: a walk-
for. But in this case, it
in and dropoff center
means we got the
for people in crisis.
shaft — again. It
The
city
has
sm
iidf
ed
the
If police had
means when crisis
promise of a crisis center
somewhere to take a
happens, we can get
person in crisis, if
Into a blur of non-reality.
all the help v e can
people had a place to Now, tlie part of the
squeeze out of our
go when they’re
own vain hopes, an
Bepartsaent
Basile©
entering a state of
unbuilt “aspiration,”
crisis, there would be S ettfei«i«t Agreement
less crisis
assuring ns It would happen and the city’s broken
promises.
management expelled has been verbally amended
Judge Simon will,
from the barrel of a
by the defendant —»the city H at some point, have to
gun. A crisis center
make a decision: is
w hich h e lp fu lly redefined
would keep more of
us alive long enough
the crisis, cesiter clear out of the agreement fair,
and if npt, should he
to, perhaps, recover.
eastence»
hold a trial? Our
And it would relieve
position remains the
police of a duty they
same - the
are ill-qualified for and
agreement is neither fair, reasonable, nor
have a history of bungling so badly that
adequate. The one right and just decision by
someone dies. It’s just a good idea all
around — and there it was, in the
Simon would be to declare the agreement
agreement, plain as day.
unfair and order public mediation of a new
It’s still in the agreement. But the city
agreement - this time, with all harmed
has smudged the promise of a crisis center
parties at the table.
into a blur of non-reality. Now, the part of
Including people with mental illness.
the agreement assuring us it would happen
has been verbally amended by the defendant Jenny Westberg and Jason Renaud are board
members o f The M ental Health Association
— the city — which helpfully redefined, the
o f Portland. M H A P is Oregon’s independent
crisis center clear put of existence. You see,
advocate fo r persons with menial illness and
it’s “aspirational” - so says Mayor Charlie
addiction.
Hales, who will not implement it, nor any
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