From Astoria we’ve headed inland to Portland, which is Oregon’s largest city; more than 2 million people live in the metropolitan area. One of the startling things to me is how ‘new’ many of the towns and cities are in Oregon. It was the final state of the US to be settled, so Portland, for example, only existed properly from 1845 – its name being chosen on the toss of a coin. Although the city has a short history, it’s clear that change is a significant part of its history. As a major port in the 19th century it was infamous for widespread criminality, theft and violence. Since the 1960s it has worked hard to rebrand itself as a progressive and liberal city, partly driven by incoming hippies from San Francisco (down the coast) in the late 60s/early 70s. Whilst here we go to the district of Sunnyside to visit the Laurel Theater to watch a film, it costs $4 (about £3) per ticket, and $8 for a pitcher (about 3 pints of beer) – scarcely believable. We watch the documentary ‘Weiner’ – don’t laugh! It’s about an infamous Democrat politician in New York and his rise and fall. Words genuinely can’t do it justice, I urge you to see it if you get a chance, it illustrates so much about the nature of politics and the state of the world, here’s a taster
Deaths after police contact
I’m in Portland to meet Dan Handelman, spokesperson for Portland Copwatch. Similar to Seattle (see last post), Portland police have been under investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for their persistent excessive use of force. There is a long history of controversial deaths, unfortunately there are so many examples it’s difficult to know which ones to draw your attention to. I’ve decided to pick one from each decade since the 1980s. In 1985 Lloyd Stevenson, a military veteran, died after being restrained by a choke hold, on the day of his funeral two police officers were suspended for selling T-shirts with the slogan ‘don’t choke ‘em, smoke ‘em’ (in this context, ‘smoke’ means shoot to kill). In 1998 Dickie Dow died after being beaten with batons by up to eight officers as he lay cuffed at the wrists and ankles, they refused to administer CPR to him saying they were not trained to do so. In 2001, Jose Poot was shot dead by police after being called to a psychiatric centre. Poot was not mentally ill, he was having a type of epileptic seizure, the reasons for him being detained in the first place, and more about his story are here.
The officers involved were later given awards for exemplary service. In 2010 Keaton Otis was pulled over in a ‘routine’ traffic stop, he had no criminal record, he was not armed, he had no contraband in his car. He was tasered three times, then shot 27 times. The officers responsible are still active patrol officers for Portland police. In 2012 the Department of Justice concluded their investigations into Portland police, stating that they would sue the police force unless it pledged to make significant changes to its operations (in the US this is termed ‘settlement’). This appears to be a pattern in a number of US cities, it mirrors what occurred in Seattle. Since then, the police and DoJ have been engaged in negotiations about what changes should be undertaken. One change has been to set up a Police Review Board, which is notionally made up of independent staff (similar to Seattle’s Police Community Commission). Predictably, this has had a troubled short history. It has been criticised for being toothless, and a number of board members have resigned in frustration about its inability to make progress. The latest development is that the board wants to hear police misconduct cases in private (since its inception they’ve been held in public). Most academic authors on policing state that police rarely want reform, and actively organise to to resist it. One of the key tactics is to initially agree to change, then wait until the demands for change lose urgency. At this point police start to claw back what they originally gave up – it’s difficult to argue with this view given the story on Portland police.
Keeping Portland Weird
Portland is also home to ‘Voodoo Doughnut’ (see photo below), an outlet that has a messianic following which appears to stretch far beyond the city. Every time we go past it, the queue is way out the door – it doesn’t matter what time it is. In the UK we get excited about Krispy Kreme. Let me assure you, this is a whole different ballpark of doughnuts we’re talking about. I won’t list them all, but the doughnuts on offer range from the seemingly non-doughnut sounding ‘bacon maple bar’, ‘mango tango’, and ‘ain’t that a peach fritter’ through to the delightful sounding ‘triple chocolate penetration’, ‘cock-n-balls’, ‘dirty snowballs’, and ‘old dirty bastard’. We’re not in Kansas anymore Dorothy (younger readers, please ask an old person about the Wizard of Oz). The success of Voodoo Doughnuts appears to be partly an offshoot of the more offbeat nature of the city, which I suppose comes from the hippies and dropouts from the 60s and 70s. One manifestation of this is the official slogan of the city, which is ‘Keep Portland Weird.’
One part of Portland society not buying doughnuts is the huge homeless population, which seems to be all over the city. There are a remarkable number of tents and semi-permanent tarpaulin constructions pretty much everywhere in the city. Last year Portland’s mayor declared a state of emergency on the issue, but on the basis of what we’ve seen, it doesn’t look like much has happened. There have been incidents where homeless encampments have been attacked, and in some cases set alight by angry residents. This short video gives an overview of the issue. Portland is certainly a vibrant city with a lot happening culturally, in many ways it feels like a quite affluent city. But I can’t help feeling that it’s a troubled city that has problems squaring its identity with reality. I also wonder about the way that Lewis & Clark (the US navigators who were the ‘first’ to reach the coast of Oregon in 1805) are accorded mythical status in American history, conveniently overlooking the fact that the Native American tribe ‘Nev Perces’ had lived there for centuries. We have seen very little evidence in Oregon of its Native American heritage. Combined with police deaths and homelessness, I find it all quite troubling.
mindthegapdavidbaker.wordpress.com 