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Police Union Plans No-Confidence Vote on Saltzman and Sizer

James Pitkin — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:13:58 +0000

The Portland Police Association today announced plans to hold a no-confidence vote next week on Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Chief Rosie Sizer after the two leaders yesterday disciplined Officer Chris Humphreys.

The union board representing rank-and-file officers today unanimously agreed to put the no-confidence vote to its 900 members, according to a news release (PDF).

“Leadership of the Police Bureau at the hands of Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Chief Sizer has failed Officer Chris Humphreys and our entire membership,” the news release quotes Sgt. Scott Westerman (see photo), the union president, as saying.

“The events of the last few weeks have shown that Dan Saltzman cares more about politics than he does for the lives and families of police officers,” the Westerman quote continues. “Likewise, Chief Sizer’s failure to stand by the officers of this bureau when they have done absolutely nothing wrong and are being used as political pawns is deplorable.”

Humphreys was involved in a Nov. 14 incident on an East Portland MAX platform where Humphreys shot a 12-year-old girl with a beanbag gun. The girl was resisting arrest and tussling with another officer, Aaron Dauchy.

The cops also plan a rally to support Humphreys and collect ballots in the no-confidence vote on Tuesday, according to the news release. The date and time of the rally will be announced Monday.

Rather than listing the PPA office as a contact, the news release gives a phone number for Shannon Berg with Gallatin Public Affairs, a PR firm the union hired earlier this fall. For what it’s worth, the firm’s roster includes former Mayor Vera Katz.

Four Inspiring Women Pick Up Their Skidmore Prize Honors

Brittany Rogers — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:01:06 +0000

Four women doing incredible work in local non-profits each got a $4,000 check today as part of this year’s Skidmore Prize ceremony hosted by City Club of Portland at the Governor Hotel.

The prize winners (from left to right in the photo above) are Fowzia Abdulle, an advocate and case manager at Bradley Angle House’s Healing Roots center; lawyer Jennifer Gilmore of Child Centered Solutions; Amy Sacks, executive director of the Pixie Project and Brandi Tuck, executive director of Goose Hollow Family Shelter.

Each works at a nonprofit featured in WW’s annual Give!Guide, which is in its sixth year of raising money for local nonprofits through Dec. 31. (This year’s effort has raised more than $70,000 so far for 79 nonprofits.)

The Skidmore Prize, funded by Momentum Marketing Intelligence, is open to people 35 and younger who work at a nonprofit. The hope is that the money helps the recipients to keep doing their work, and that the attention will inspire other young people to get involved in their communities.

“This is an amazing honor,” Gilmore said of receiving an award for what she calls the “best worst-paying job ever.”

The four award-winners were introduced by WW Publisher Richard Meeker and praised by City Commissioner Nick Fish.

The winners told the audience that the $4,000 will come in handy. Abdulle plans to use the money for her course work at Portland State University; Sacks will split the prize money with her four employees; Tuck intends to buy a car for the shelter’s use; and Gilmore will put the money toward repaying law-school loans.

Asked during an audience question-and-answer period what people can do to help, Tuck’s answer was simple: “Definitely think about volunteering … Getting out there and giving your time.”

(Photos by Tom Martinez)

What Marysville K-8 School’s Last Inspection Report Did Not Say

Beth Slovic — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:57:02 +0000

This week’s education story,“Fire Drilled,” recounts the details of a long-simmering dispute inside Portland Public Schools’ electronics shop.

To summarize: Some of the fire-alarm technicians in the department had concerns about the kinds of inspections PPS was conducting on fire alarms at its schools. Until October 2008, PPS performed only what’s known as a “function test” on alarms. “Function tests” demonstrate if alarms work but don’t necessarily show how well they would work in the event of a fire, says Patrick Silver, a fire-alarm technician who retired in September after 21 years at the district.

(PPS, as the owner of its schools, is responsible for testing the alarms; the Portland Fire Marshal’s Office is responsible for making sure PPS has tested its alarms. An expired agreement between the fire marshal and PPS is what allowed PPS to use only the function test for so many years.)

As noted in Wednesday’s story, the last fire-alarm inspection at Marysville K-8 School (which caught fire Nov. 10) was one of these function tests, which on April 30, 2008 looked like this:

Note the bottom of the report, which reads:

This does not certify that the fire alarm system is:

fully functional
code compliant
that any devices other than those listed above have been tested
the devices listed above provide proper coverage
the devices are installed as per code and the manufacturer’s instructions

In October 2008, PPS moved to a more thorough form of inspection. Here’s an example. But the school district has not inspected all of its schools under these new guidelines yet; the district says it’s about 60 days behind schedule.

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Humphreys’ Use of Force: Watch the Video

James Pitkin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:20:34 +0000

You’ve probably heard by now that Portland Police Officer Christopher Humphreys — the cop who took James Chasse Jr. to the ground the day Chasse died in police custody in 2006 — has been placed on administrative leave.

Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman made the decision Thursday to take Humphreys off duty pending an Internal Affairs investigation of an incident last Saturday night, when Humphreys fired a beanbag round at close range on a 12-year-old girl on an East Portland MAX platform.

Sgt. Scott Westerman, head of the police union, has argued that Humphreys’ use of the beanbag round was justified and instantly put a stop to the girl’s violent behavior toward Officer Aaron Dauchy. The girl, who has not been named by authorities, allegedly punched Dauchy in the face before scuffling with him on the MAX platform.

Westerman believes that any reasonable person who watches the video will conclude that Humphreys’ use of force was appropriate and exactly what Portland citizens expect of their police. What do you think? The actions starts around 1:10.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Fabulous Life of Mayor Sam Adams

Beth Slovic — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:26:13 +0000

Mayor Sam Adams will be on vacation all next week. But his last day of work this week is a particularly busy one.

Friday’s agenda includes “desk work,” “Facebook next steps” and the “reindeer nose-lighting ceremony.” On his last day of work before vacation, Adams is also scheduled to attend the groundbreaking ceremony on the Resource Access Center and consider the East Portland “action plan.”

Bill Simmons Greeted Like a Rock Star at Book Signing

Jonathan Crowl — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:45:34 +0000

Bill Simmons may not be bigger than the Beatles. But for pro basketball fans, he’s pretty damn close.

The ESPN sportswriter was at the Borders Bookstore in Beaverton on Thursday night to sign copies of The Book of Basketball, his tome on pro hoops. The suburban parking lot was full 45 minutes beforehand, and people were literally sprinting through the parking lot into the bookstore after they got off the bus.

Simmons appeared shortly before 7 pm wearing a black hoodie and a shirt featuring the mug of Jeff Bebe, lead signer of the fictional band Stillwater from the movie Almost Famous, which Simmons has praised as his favorite flick of the past decade. Simmons talked with the crowd for a few minutes prior to the signing and delivered the same pop culture-savvy sports commentary that’s made him so popular. Some of the juicier nuggets:

-Simmons attended the Trail Blazers’ game versus Detroit on Wednesday . He polled the Borders crowd about the Blazers’ three-guard system. Simmons felt the Blazers should play the best five regardless of their position.
-He also praised Portland for being the only city in the NBA that doesn’t play hip hop music during the team introductions. “Ballroom Blitz?” he asked. “Do they do that for every game?”
-He apologized for low-balling the Blazers in his season predictions, where he forecast the team would finish 41-41 when many predict they’ll win more than 50 games. “There’s a team every year [that underperforms],” Simmons said. “It was between Portland and New Orleans.”
-All baby-toting fans were encouraged to cut in front of the line for an autograph. “I’ve been there, I know what that’s like,” he said.

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Prominent Portland Developer Shot in Mexico

Nigel Jaquiss — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:21:55 +0000

Developer Thorndike “Dike” Dame was shot in the head and seriously wounded while fishing in Mexico over the weekend, WW has learned.

Dame —along with his business partner, Homer Williams— has been heavily involved over the past two decades in high-profile developments in the Pearl District, South Waterfront, and in California and Arizona.

A keen fisherman, the 72-year-old Dame traveled to Lake Huites in the Mexican state of Sinaloa early this month for a 10-day bass fishing trip with another Portland man, Chip Laizure. Laizure says the first seven days of fishing at the lake—which is a four-hour drive from the nearest airport—were uneventful.

Laizure says that all changed at about 3:30 pm on Nov. 14. The two Portlanders and their guide were fishing from a bass boat when Laizure heard an unusual sound and one he’ll never forget—a high-caliber bullet ripping through Dame’s cheek.

“The first announcement of anything going on was hearing the bullet strike Dike’s face,” Laizure says.

Only as Dame fell to the deck of of the bass boat, did Laizure hear the sound of the actual gunshot. As he tried to figure out what was happening, he then noticed a small boat nearby, speeding toward his boat.

“These guys are racing towards us and yelling ‘kneel down’ and ‘get our hands up.’ They board the boat and rob us,” Laizure recalled. “Meanwhile, Dike is bleeding and gasping for air. We tried to position his head so to keep his airway open.”

Two Mexican men boarded the bass boat, one holding a pistol and one holding a rifle with a large magazine attached. After stripping the Americans and their guide of valuables, the robbers demanded to be taken to the remote end of the lake, about 15 minutes away. Laizure says he thought he, Dame and the guide were dead men.

“I pretty much felt like that was going to be the end,” Laizure says. “I felt I wasn’t going to see my wife and children ever again.”

Laizure says as he tried to think of a way to save his skin, he asked the robbers if he could use his hat to put pressure on Dame’s wound. (He says the bullet entered Dame’s left cheek, tearing a three- or four-inch wound, exited his right jaw and then went back into his right shoulder).

The robbers allowed him to tend to Dame. Laizure says that gesture signaled to him and his guide that they might not be killed after all. They took the robbers to the end of the lake, where Laizure says the two jumped off the boat and disappeared into a jungle.

That left the fishing party more than half an hour from their lodge, with Dame losing blood rapidly. They sped back to the dock and loaded Dame into the back of a pickup for a drive to the nearest clinic, an hour and a half away over poorly-maintained dirt roads.

Dame had brought a satellite phone with him from Portland. And Laizure asked lodge personnel to try to locate an ambulance to meet them as they drove toward a clinic in the town of Choix. As they drove, Laizure tried unsuccessfully to reach his wife in Portland in the hope that she could help identify medical and logistical resources. When that failed, Dame by then barely conscious, was able to show Laizure the cell phone number for Homer Williams by touching his fingers to the keypad.

Laizure called Williams, who notified Dame’s family and began frantically trying to make arrangements to get help.

Laizure and Dame arrived in Choix after dark. They located an ambulance but it was not functional. They found a clinic, where staff bandaged Dame’s wound and started him on IV fluids.

The men then continued to the nearest city with a hospital, Los Mochis. On better roads now, they sped toward help with a cook from the lodge holding the IV line and Laizure keeping pressure on the gunshot wound.

“It was cold in the back of the pick-up so I tried to hold a blanket on Dike,” Laizure says.

At the town of El Forte, an ambulance met them and transported Dame to Fatima Hospital in the city of Los Mochis. They arrived there at about 9 pm, nearly six hours after Dame got shot. “If you saw all the blood he lost in the boat and in the truck, you would not believe it,” Laizure says.

“He spent the next couple of hours in surgery and they were able to stablize him,” Laizure adds.

In the intensive care unit, Dame regained consciousness but could not speak. “The doctor was talking about how amazing it was that Dike was still alive,” Laizure says. “Dike wrote the doc a note saying ‘I’m too tough to die.’”

Meanwhile, back in Portland, Williams had arranged for an air ambulance to pick up the men. About 24 hours after the shooting, a jet arrived in Los Mochis and flew the men back to Portland, stopping only in San Diego to clear customs.

Dame arrived in a Portland hospital Sunday night about 11 p.m. and remains there, having undergone surgeries. (The name of the hospital is being withheld at Laizure’s request).

Laizure says his friend will have a difficult recovery but the good news is that the bullet did not injure Dame’s brain.

Laizure himself is still trying to make sense of what happened but says he’s sure of one thing: Dame’s is the toughest guy he’s ever known.

“I learned a real life lesson in seeing what the determination of an individual can do,” he says of Dame. “If it wasn’t for his tenacity and endurance, I don’t think he’d be alive.”

Williams, whose friendship and partnership with Dame goes back decades, says Dame would be dead if Laizure had not been there to keep Dame’s airway open and to keep pressure on the wound.

“Chip is a real hero,” Williams says.

Laizure says that an official from the U.S. consultate told him that an investigation into the shooting is proceeding but no arrests have been made.

(Photo courtesy of Williams and Dame)

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Chasse Cop Christopher Humphreys Placed on Administrative Leave (UPDATED with union reaction)

James Pitkin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:19:48 +0000

Portland Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman has directed that Police Officer Christopher Humphreys be placed on administrative leave while investigators look into Humphreys firing a beanbag round at the thigh of a 12-year-old girl at close range.

In this release (PDF), police say Humphreys —who also was involved in the death of James Chasse— and Officer Aaron Dauchy responded to a call at 10:47 pm last Saturday that took them to the MAX platform on 162nd Avenue. Police say officers were told there had been a large party with several gang members that had just broken up, and that a gun had been found in bushes near the party.

Humphreys and Dauchy got on the MAX train heading west with about 20-30 teen-agers, including a girl Dauchy knew was excluded from the trains, police say. When Dauchy tried to take her into custody, police say she swung at him and resisted despite repeated warnings from Humphreys that he would fire the beanbag gun.

Police Chief Rosie Sizer says a TriMet video of the incident left her “troubled.” And Saltzman said he “directed that Officer Humphreys be immediately removed from the street and placed on administrative leave.”

Sizer read the prepared statement at a news conference and took no questions. Police spokeswoman, Det. Mary Wheat, wouldn’t comment on whether there was a policy dictating the proper range for a beanbag shot.

UPDATE: After Sizer ended her news conference without taking questions, police union president Scott Westerman held his own news conference on the steps of the Justice Center.

Flanked by about 40 other officers, Westerman said Humphreys is a “well-respected” officer and called his actions “appropriate, justified, warranted and necessary” to defuse the situation. Westerman said regulations governing beanbag use require shots to the torso be from at least 10 feet away but that in closer-range situations, beanbag rounds to the extremities are OK. Westerman added that there are no restrictions on using beanbags against children.

Westerman ascribed Humphreys’ punishment to what he termed a “bias” against Humphreys after the Chasse death. And Westerman said Saltzman’s decision to put Humphreys on administrative leave overrode Sizer’s decision to only take Humphreys off the street.

He said both Sizer and Saltzman have lost the confidence of police rank-and-file.

An Update on K-8s in Portland

Beth Slovic — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:58:12 +0000

A sub-committee of the Portland School Board met Monday to talk about the current state of Portland Public Schools’ K-8s, the hybrid “elemiddles” Portland created starting in 2004.

Here’s a quick take on the 90-minute meeting:

* The district recognizes some of the small K-8s may never be able to sustain the K-8 model. It’s possible those K-8s won’t stay K-8s forever.

*All K-8s in the district have bell schedules that are 15 minutes shorter than middle schools’ bell schedules. This doesn’t translate directly to 15 fewer instructional minutes (because schools in PPS are like snowflakes; every single one is different with different passing times, etc.) But the district would like all schools with sixth, seventh and eighth grades to start with the same number of minutes in the day, so they’re considering “early recommendations.” But “early” doesn’t really seem like the right word; the district has been working on the problem for three years. And “recommendations” so far seems to mean only that the district recognizes a problem exists.

There’s disagreement about why the problem exists. But one thing appears certain. PPS can’t afford to send two sets of buses to K-8s to accommodate two schedules for K-5 students and 6-8 students. And there doesn’t seem to be a clear (cost-effective) answer.

*Finally, Board Member Ruth Adkins had “urgent” words for PPS administrators. Looking at the data from administrators that showed K-8 students lacked access to geometry classes and generally had fewer enrichment classes, she wanted to know what administrators planned to do now to address the stark differences. That issue was left unresolved in the meeting. Superintendent Carole Smith’s chief of staff seemed to indicate it might be better to start identifying possible improvements now — for implementation next year.

*Adkins also asked the district to reconvene parents in public meetings like the ones around K-8s that happened in late 2007 and early 2008.

Officers Told Today At Roll Call That Chasse Cop Christopher Humphreys In Recent Use-Of-Force Incident

James Pitkin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:53:33 +0000

East Precinct police officers were told today at roll call that Christopher Humphreys, one of the cops involved in the death of James Chasse (photo above), was involved in a use-of-force incident recently in East Portland.

Reports are not entirely complete, but apparently there was a struggle between an officer and a teen-ager and Humphreys fired a beanbag round at the teen-ager from a distance of about one foot.

Police Chief Rosie Sizer is scheduled to have a news conference in a few minutes.