Don't Shoot Portland issued a news release about the peaceful protest planned at City Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2016, in advance of the city council meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2016.
Don't Shoot Portland issued a news release about the peaceful protest planned at City Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2016, in advance of the city council meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2016.
Don't Shoot Portland issued a news release about the peaceful protest planned at City Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2016, in advance of the city council meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2016.
Tomorrow (10/11/16), Dont Shoot Portland along with many groups will be holding a protest at Portland City Hall. We plan to begin at 3 PM and then stay throughout the entire night so that we can fight against the contract on Wednesday during City Council. The mayors office has gotten word of our protest and has begun the usual tactic of silencing black and brown voices in regards to policing. 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. Members of our group are in the process of filing a lawsuit against the mayors office and the city for this disgusting abuse of power. 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 Citys 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 at Dont Shoot Portland believe that locking the public out of our own building and then calling it business is usual is outrageous. This is especially true during a pivotal moment for our city. This move signals the troubling trend from Charlie Hales of attempting to silence the people. Unfortunately, this is business as usual. We support the opinions of the citys elected Auditor, Mary Hull Caballero, and Independent Police Review Director Constantin Severe in condemning the current contract. The contract lacks in accountability, it leans consistently in favor of the police instead of the people, gives too much leeway to cops in terms of body camera footage, hampers IPA oversight, and was fast tracked in an unethical manner. Furthermore, the entire argument for Hales pushing this contract forward is that we have a shortage of police officers. However, crime is down across the board. The loss of officers in Portland has not led to an increase in crime. This is hardly a crisis. Our group has laid out many issues with the contract in previous releases. Another release will occur tomorrow after we see the cities response to our peaceful protests. As always, we instruct our members to be non-violent, non-destructive and respectful to our city and community members. Unfortunately, this is more than our city government can say. 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.