Our story last month about Portland Police Capt. Mark Kruger’s history of wearing Nazi memorabilia received a mention in today’s edition of the police-union newsletter.
Sgt. Scott Westerman, the union president, cites an email Sizer wrote supporting Kruger the day after the story came out. Westerman slams Sizer for failing to support the cops who arrested James Chasse Jr. in the same way — part of his larger piece on why police morale is suffering.
Here’s what Westerman had to say in today’s issue of the Rap Sheet (PDF):
Kruger told WW he owns Nazi-era German uniforms, built a memorial to dead World War II German soldiers, and was married near the site of Hitler’s Berghof but has no Nazi beliefs. We asked Westerman why he called the story unfair.
“The membership believes that you went after him with a vengeance,” Westerman said. “Why, when the media is portraying something in a specific light, is the chief not coming out for the rest of us? That is the point.”
(Photo courtesy of KATU)
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Tags: james chasse, Mark Kruger, Nazi, Portland, Scott Westerman
Westerman – “But one can’t help but wonder where was her public support for Officer Chris Humphries, Officer Brett Burton and Sargent Kyle Nice?”
Maybe Officer Humphries lost Sizer’s support after she factored-in the public (*your, Sizer’s, Humphries, Burton’s and Nice’s bosses…Chasse was your boss too!) outcry over James Chasse’s denial of medical services, with his right to that medical assistance being signed away by another, despite the fact he pleased for mercy and assistance, and the fact that the city had already settled another mistaken beating involving Humphries, a year prior to Chasse’s death.
Reports indicate that the city authorized $90,000 be paid to the victim of a mistaken beating in 2005 (a citizen mistaken for a suspect hit 30 times with a baton?). Ring a bell Westerman?
Question for you sir. Exactly how many mistakes of this magnitude do you believe a public servant should be entitled to? Humphries was provided with one. The next mistake resulted in Chasse’s life.
Burton and Nice. Both present with Humphries. Both did not intervene and follow policy by ensuring the victim received the medical assistance he pleaded for, and as a result of the assistance being denied him, the victim died. The medical examiner’s report indicated that Chasse WOULD HAVE SURVIVED HAD MEDICAL ASSISTANCE BEEN PROVIDED. So it wasn’t even the mistaken beating that killed Chasse….IT WAS THE INTENTIONAL AND COGNITIVE DENIAL OF MEDICAL ASSISTANCE THAT WAS CHASSE’S RIGHT AND THAT HE SCREAMED FOR THAT RESULTED IN THE LOSS OF CHASSE’S LIFE. Westerman, how was this not murder?
Take responsibility for what you are suggesting be further enabled here Westerman. Citizen beatings which result in injuries so significant our citizens die, and the then factor-in the medical assistance denied them. Medical assistance which the Medical Examiner indicates would have saved one of these victim’s lives. With those rights to medical assistance apparently being signed-away by Nice and/or Humphries. Holy hell.
Allow we, your employers, to step the hell in, and do our part to ensure our employees are never in a position to do this to anyone EVER again. Let us hold you all accountable. And please sir, take responsibility for the events that resulted in Mr. Chasse death, and the slice of humanity that was denied him, when he needed it most. When he screamed and pleaded for it.
As for the media portraying events in a particular light? You mean factually, which is in fact, unfavorable? You folks aren’t use to that, are you?
It would appear that the media and the public are no longer willing to accept local official and union “white-washing”. Events in this incident were so horrific there’s really no way to justify and/or sanitize what occurred here. In spite of your extremely INAPPROPRIATE suggestion and pressure that Sizer do so.
If there are any “functional” union represented employees at the Multnomah County PPD, I suggest that they call for your immediate resignation because it is you sir, and those like you, who enable these acts, acts that have publicly cast a pall over the entire force, and those responsible officers NOT involved in what occurred here, and not approving of it.
Take responsibility for the individual’s roles in events leading-up to Mr. Chasse’s death and what appears to be a rather long history of union represented acts, which should have raised HUGE RED FLAGS, that went intentionally ignored by officials, and resulted in where we all find ourselves today.
MAYBE in doing so, the PPD will be able to begin to restore the huge impact Mr. Chasse’s death, others like it, and union represented acts have had on the morale and respect of your employers, we the taxpayers. Have you forgotten about us?
And consider that we have not even seen the full investigation, because those documents continue to be witheld from us. This is a long way from over.
If officials, you and your union represented employees do not effectively address what occurred in these events, exactly how do you propose preventing it being from happening again in the future?
This one’s (and it sounds like others currently being litigated?) still on officials, you Westerman, the union and the union employees you represent. And so’s the next one, and the next one, and the one after that and so on, and so on.
Chasse never urinated in the street. Deposition of Portland Police Bureau Officer Christopher Humphreys reveals he never saw Chasse urinate on the sidewalk—an alleged detail of their encounter, which has been widely reported as a possible legal basis for the officers stopping Chasse. At most, Humphreys thought he saw Chasse urinating in his own pants because there was possibly a wet patch on his trousers, he said. But Chasse was causing no distress or alarm, Humphreys admitted.
Chasse’s broken ribs were most likely the result of kicks or a dropped knee. State medical examiner Karen Gunson, who performed Chasse’s autopsy, told attorneys for the Chasse family during depositions that some fractured ribs in Chasse’s back were unlikely to have been caused by his fall to the ground, but that a “knee in that particular area on the back of the neck” was a “better scenario.” Gunson found 48 separate abrasions or contusions on Chasse’s body, including 16 possible blows to the head. Chasse would most likely have lived if he had been given proper medical care, Gunson said.
So, it was not the accidental fall the officers allege occurred in the heat of the moment. *The officers statements contradict the witnesses recollections. *Humphries himself stated Chasse wasn’t causing distress or alarm.
It appears that the intentional denial of medical assistance /intervention for the victim that pleaded for it, cost Chasse his life.
Chasse screamed before going unconscious. Several witnesses described Chasse’s screams during his struggle with police. “He seemed like a scared animal,” said witness Melissa Jane Gaylord. Electrician Tony Lee Carter “thought [Chasse] was dead” for a period during which Chasse was unconscious on the sidewalk, following his beating.
Bike lawyer Mark Ginsberg, another witness, said: “I did hear Mr. Chasse yelling ‘mercy, mercy, mercy,’ and that was personally pretty disturbing to me.”
Hergert told lawyers she was directed by Nice to have Humphreys sign a medical release form on Chasse’s behalf.
“There was clear vocal mocking, the mocking of Mr. Chasse’s cries for help,” said eyewitness Randall Stuart, referring to emergency workers on the scene.
Later TriMet sergeant Terry O’Keefe supervising Humphreys and Sheriff’s Deputy Bret Burton that night, sent them a message on their in-car computers: “NICE WORK BOYS. GLAD U R OK N HE ISN’T.”
As a result of the sum total of events that appear to have occurred here, and the subsequent outcome of “no wrong-doing”, this fish appears rotten from the head, down.
Poor James. He didn’t stand a chance.