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No Solidarity with Police Union
Time to kick cops out
of Labor Movement
by
K ristian W illiams
On Nov. 24, more than six hun­
dred supporters o f the Portland
Police Association gathered in de­
fense o f one embattled officer,
Christopher Humphreys.
H um phreys had been su s­
pended. with pay, pending inves­
tigation o f an incident in
which he had fired a less-
lethal shotgun at an unarmed
12-year-old girl. At the time
o f the incident, he was already
facing discipline for his role in the
beating death of a mentally ill man
named James Chasse.
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The
cops
marched, not in uni­
form, but in t-shirts
and carrying signs
reading "I Am Chris
Humphreys." Such a
display should dis­
pel any illu sio n s
about what the po­
lice want or what the
one cop in the city uses force
more often than Humphreys.
Cops often complain that it is
unfair to judge the entire Police
Bureau by its most dysfunctional
officers. But when push comes to
shove, and shoving comes to beat­
ing, and beating comes to shoot­
ing -- the Police Association al­
ways lines up to defend the most
The Police Association
always lines up to defend the
most brutal practices and the
most bigoted cops.
PPA stands for.
Humphreys' notable career has
been punctuated by continuous
violence. In addition to these high-
profile cases, in 2005 he struck an
unresisting suspect more than 30
times; it turned out to be a case of
mistaken identity. A year later, he
was implicated in the beating o f a
black college student (whom a jury
later acquitted). Based on police
records, it is estimated that only
brutal practices and the most big­
oted cops.
The last time the PPA mobi­
lized a rally in support o f sus­
pended officers it was because
racist cops were harassing black
business owners by repeatedly
leaving dead possums on their
doorsteps.
The interests the Police Asso­
ciation defends are the interests
the police defend. Cops are the
hired guns of capitalism and the
protectors o f white supremacy;
they stand for a system of power
that exploits workers, excludes the
poor, and leaves people of color
at the bottom o f the social pyra­
mid.
Police "unions" do not, and
cannot, represent the interests o f
the working class, because police
are not workers like other work­
ers. They are part of the apparatus
by which worker organizing is
suppressed. Here at the 10th anni­
versary of the World Trade Orga­
nization protests, we should also
remember the long and inglorious
history o f police attacks on the
labor movement — red squad infil­
tration, raids on union halls, and
assaults on picket lines.
The labor movement owes the
police nothing — not solidarity,
not support, not our silence. The
only thing workers owe cops is a
good hard kick in the ass.
Kristian Williams is a member
o f the National Writers Union and
Rose City Copwatch He is the
author o f Our Enemies in Blue
Police and Power in America,
and American Methods: Torture
and the Logic o f Domination.