Local News
DOJ
Heart Saver
deaths of James Chasse, Aaron Campbell
and Keaton Otis. In September 2012, after
a 15-month investigation, it released a
report.
The report found that Portland Police
Bureau had a “pattern or practice” of violat-
ing the rights of people who have mental ill-
nesses, or who were thought to have a
mental illness. It found officers used exces-
sive force against those people.
The DOJ did not investigate racial bias or
profiling, but noted concerns raised by com-
munities of color. Thomas Perez, then the
DOJ’s chief investigator, and now Secretary
of Labor, told The Skanner News that the
reforms should protect people of color as
well as people with mental illness.
Proposed Settlement Drew Criticism
Behind closed doors, the city and the DOJ
hammered out a proposed settlement that
was unveiled in October 2012. Former
Mayor Sam Adams and Police Chief Mike
Reese agreed to make changes to improve
the bureau, but denied the DOJ findings
were correct.
The settlement agreement proposed creat-
ing a Behavioral Health Unit and expanding
the bureau’s crisis response teams. It made
changes to its use of force policy, added
yearly performance reviews for officers,
and created the positions of compliance
officer/ community liaison and compliance
coordinator. A 15-member committee
would be appointed to oversee the changes.
When council approved the agreement the
resolution added 32 staff positions to the
bureau, a mix of officers and civilians.
“What we were expecting was something
that clearly said, you can’t use more than
the least force necessary to accomplish the
task,” says Dan Handelman of Portland
Copwatch, who has been an observer and
police accountability activist for 20 years.
“What they said was you have to use less
force over the course of your career. But if
people right out of the police academy are
using more force than necessary, then the
training is wrong.”
Independent Police Review is ‘Not
Independent’
Critics say the agreement also fails to
reform an accountability structure the DOJ
called “byzantine” and “self-defeating.”
Some voiced dismay that one of Reese’s
first hires to the behavioral health unit was
Officer Bret Burton, one of three law
enforcement personnel involved in the
arrest that led up to James Chasse’s death in
custody.
And they say Mayor Hales dropped the
ball by pushing ahead with a new police
contract that does nothing to improve
accountability.
Proposals that would allow the Independ-
ent Police Review to compel officers to tes-
tify, for example, were withdrawn during a
Dec. 18 city council meeting after Police
Chief Reese opposed them and the mayor
said he wanted more time.
“When people are mistreated by a police
officer they don’t want a police officer to
investigate it, because they don’t trust it will
be investigated objectively,” Handelman
says.
PHOTO BY MASTER SGT. NICK CHOY, OREGON MILITARY DEPARTMENT PUBLIC AFFAIRS
continued from page 1
Oregon Army National Guard 1st Sgt. Jeremy McLoud shares a laugh with
Hillsboro Armory Maintenance Manager Paul Perone (right), and his fiance
Lorna Wolfington, outside the Hillsboro Auditorium, following a ceremony,
held Jan. 7, honoring McLoud and fellow Oregon Soldiers, Sgt. 1st Class
Jeremy Carver and Spc. Michael Cutone, with the Hillsboro Fire
Department’s Life-Saver Award. The three Oregon Soldiers sprang into
action Dec. 18, after Perone collapsed outside the Hillsboro Armory. The
soldiers administered CPR until emergency medical personnel arrived.
Doctors and EMS personnel credit the Soldiers with saving Perone’s life.
“The DOJ called for the Independent
Police Review to do a meaningful inde-
pendent investigation. The way it is now,
the IPR is not independent. It’s dependent
on a police commander to order the officer
to answer.”
Portland City Commissioners approved
those changes to the Independent Police
Review Jan. 8.
basic needs,” he says.
And he says, without action from voters
or the Legislature, Oregon’s minimum wage
could be stuck below $10 an hour until
2018.
“Unless inflation rises more rapidly than
expected, it will be about five years before
we hit $10 per hour,” Gettel says.
Other places with minimum wage hikes in
the works include:
New Jersey, $8.25,
California, $9 from July 1,
Washington, D.C., $9.50 from July 1 with
the goal of $11.50 by 2016.
Opponents say that raising the minimum
wage costs jobs.
Economist and former labor
Secretary Robert Reich calls
that idea “baloney.” States with
higher minimums don’t have
higher unemployment, he says
in a YouTube video on the sub-
ject. He says the kinds of jobs
we’re talking about tend to be
personal service jobs that can’t
be outsourced.
So what are the strongest
arguments against raising minimum wages.
Some opponents argue that the Earned
Income Tax credit is a far better bulwark
against child poverty because it is targeted
to the families who most need help.
Others argue that the number of mini-
mum wage workers is too small for a raise
to help the economy.
A documentary featuring Reich, now an
economics professor at Berkley, was
released last year. Inequality For All
detailed how wealth has become increasing-
ly concentrated in the hands of the few, gut-
ting the middle class, and hurting the
economy overall. It was just one of many
efforts by progressives to put economic jus-
tice at the center of American politics.
President Obama announced he plans to
focus on economic fairness for the remain-
der of his presidency. Boosting the mini-
mum wage is good for families, increases
social mobility and helps power up the
economy, he said in a speech Dec. 4.
“We know that there are airport workers,
and fast-food workers, and nurse assistants,
and retail salespeople who work their tails
off and are still living at or barely above
poverty,” he said. “And that’s why it’s well
past the time to raise a minimum wage that
in real terms right now is below where it
was when Harry Truman was in office.”
year out, it doesn’t matter what city you’re
in, if your team is playing, those resellers
are going to be out there,” Quinlan said.
“Some sell legitimate tickets; others will be
trying to sell bogus tickets, Xerox copies
even.”
Game tickets lack any special watermark
or hologram, making them easier to coun-
terfeit.
And if you do buy bad tickets there isn’t
much you can do about it, Quinlan says.
“If you buy from a scalper and it turns out
to be a bogus ticket, by the time you reach
the gate that guy’s gone.”
The Better Business Bureau has a short
list of guidelines for football fans heading to
a Seahawks game:
— Spot the fakes. Learn how real tickets
look and feel; watch for flimsy paper,
smeared ink and uneven margins. When in
doubt, walk away.
— Go with star players. Use reliable and
verifiable ticket sellers and resellers that
hold vendors responsible for ticket authen-
ticity.
— Avoid the sack. Never wire funds to
make purchases. Use credit cards online and
dispute the charges if tickets don’t arrive or
turn out to be fakes.
— Call a timeout. Avoid sellers that fail to
provide contact information or prefer to
conduct transactions privately. When buy-
ing tickets from local sellers, meet them in
well-lit public places and bring a friend.
For more go to www.bbb.org.
Read the rest of this story online at
www.theskanner.com
Wage
continued from page 1
port, because it is owned by the Port of
Seattle.
However, newly elected Seattle Mayor Ed
Murray has convened a task force to study
raising the city’s minimum wage to $15 an
hour. And one of his first acts as mayor was
to sign an executive order that sets $15 as
the minimum wage for city employees.
Jason Gettel, policy analyst with the Ore-
gon Center for Public Policy, said this
year’s increase means a full-
time minimum wage worker
in Oregon will take home an
extra $312 in 2014.
Yet the center’s figures
show the hike is not even
enough to lift many working
families above the federal
poverty level. A minimum
wage of $9.55 to lift a family
of three with one parent
working full-time out of poverty in 2014,
the center estimates.
“While the uptick in Oregon’s minimum
wage is welcome, it still leaves too many
working families unable to meet basic
needs,” Gettel said. “An even higher wage
floor would be good for workers and our
state.”
Gettel cautions that the federal poverty
level is an outdated standard, based on food
prices, that doesn’t mean families have
enough to pay for rent, childcare, trans-
portation and bills, never mind save for col-
lege or retirement.
“The official definition of poverty really
measures serious economic privation, not
‘...There are airport workers, and fast-
food workers, and nurse assistants,
and retail salespeople who work their
tails off and are still living at or barely
above poverty’
Tickets
continued from page 1
says. “Make sure the ink doesn’t smear.
“If it’s flimsy, if it looks any bit suspi-
cious, don’t spend any money on that and
just walk away.”
Tickets sold out within minutes for this
weekend’s playoff game – and that was
before fans knew they would face the New
Orleans Saints; the last time the two teams
squared off the crowd caused earthquakes.
“Fans are going to want a ticket to that
game and they are going to be trying to find
any deal possible. So it never fails, year in,
January 8, 2014 The Portland Skanner Page 3