Citizen Groups Announce Protest at City Hall of Secretive Police Contract

Groups say they will stay overnight at City Hall if necessary in order to delay vote on unpopular police contract.

Don’t Shoot Portland, along with many groups, will be holding a protest today at Portland City Hall. They plan to begin at 3 PM and pledge to stay throughout the entire night in order to have their voices heard. They are targeting Wednesday’s [tomorrow, Oct 12th]City Council meeting, where a vote regarding the unpopular police contract in on the agenda.

We believe we will stop the police contract from going through. We believe the public is on our side. We believe we are on the right side of history. Tomorrow, this battle will begin to come to an end. It is our duty to fight. It is our duty to win. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Has Rip City become #LockDownCity?

In response to the civic activism by Portland residents, Lame Duck Mayor Charlie Hales office has begun yet another lockdown at city hall. Portland City Hall was lockdown earlier today. This has been a recurring tactic of the Mayor’s office and according to many groups has only served to alienate the Mayor from civic leaders. Last week, the Mayor excluded many community members from city council and there were two arrests. The meeting was then moved to the following day where public access was limited. Groups are in the process of filing a lawsuit against the mayor’s office and the city for the actions, claiming abuse of power and violations of the city charter. Today, city employees received an email stating:

“You have probably heard that a protest is planned at City Hall from 3 pm tomorrow through Wednesday. It is the City’s intent to conduct business as usual. Unless something changes, City Hall will remain open. However, we do ask that, beginning at noon tomorrow, City Hall office doors should be locked until otherwise advised.”

We support the opinions of elected Auditor, Mary Hull Caballero, and the city’s Independent Police Review Director Constantin Severe in condemning the current contract. — Don’t Shoot Portland

Don’t Shoot Portland states that “locking the public out of our own building and then calling it business as usual is outrageous.” Don’t Shoot Portland and a host of other civic groups have expressed support for the opinions of elected Auditor, Mary Hull Caballero, and the city’s Independent Police Review Director Constantin Severe who have condemned the current contract. They claim the contract lack accountability, it leans consistently in favor of the police instead of the citizens while giving too much leeway to cpolice in terms of body camera footage and was fast tracked in an unethical manner.

…crime is down across the board. And the loss of officers in Portland has not led to an increase in crime.

Hales has argued that the contract needs to be pushed through due ot a shortage of officers but many are quick to point out that crime is down across the board. And the loss of officers in Portland has not led to an increase in crime.