From the Coos Bay World, November 28, 2009

Kevin Dubisar and his wife, Ali, take a trip to the North Jetty on a recent Saturday. Due to post-traumatic stress disorder, Dubisar prefers to stay away from large groups of people and uncertain environments. Dubisar feels safe at the beach, flanked by the ocean and deserted sand.

“When Lily saw the picture, she said ‘Where’s Daddy’s teeth?’” Ali Dubisar said.

The 27-year-old doesn’t smile anymore, or do a lot of things he used to.

Dubisar survived a one-year deployment to Baghdad, Iraq, but the war has followed him home.

“Life for me, as I knew it before the war, has completely changed,” Dubisar said.

Everyday life has become a constant battle.

Dubisar, along with an estimated 75,000 other American veterans, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Dogs are barking in the street, and I’m thinking a bomb or something is going off,” Dubisar said. “I’m constantly looking outside, up and down the street.”

The U.S. Department of Defense estimates 40 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have some level of the mental illness.

“Almost half that we send over there come back damaged,” said Tom Mann, public information officer for the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs. “It’s probably the same numbers for every war. We are just looking for it now; before we weren’t.”

Coos County has an estimated population of about 8,500 veterans, meaning roughly 3,400 would suffer from PTSD based on the calculation. Not all veterans are veterans of war, and many Coos County vets served in previous wars.

PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can occur after a traumatic event — car accident, rape, bombing. It’s been called different names, like “combat fatigue” or “shell shock,” but the illness essentially has been around as long as war itself. The signature symptoms include reliving a terrifying event, severe depression, nightmares, hyper-anxiety, withdrawal, startle reactions, uncontrollable anger and irritability. Other acts, seemingly unrelated, also carry the mark of this debilitating disorder — addiction, fighting, divorce, suicide.

But just because it is widespread among soldiers, doesn’t mean there’s not a stigma associated with PTSD.

“It’s embarrassing,” Dubisar said. “It makes you feel like you’re weak, like you’re not a man or you’re crazy. People just don’t understand.”

Still, Dubisar has sought help. He uses a mixture of psychotherapy, group counseling and medications.

Realizing your triggers is one of the most vital steps in therapy, said Eugene Vet Center Counselor Susan Aviotti, who’s based in North Bend. But even recovery carries unflattering connotations.

“I don’t want people thinking I’m a 27-year-old pill popper,” said Dubisar, who only has a few more credits to go before graduating with a criminal justice degree. “But that is the only thing that calms me down sometimes.”

Aviotti said continued exposure to combat or severe trauma causes a chemical reaction in the brain. Once a soldier is home and his brain is triggered by something associated with the trauma, his brain reacts the same as it did during wartime. That is why medication often is a necessary part of treatment.

“I have tried to mentally reprogram my brain to think how it did before the war, but I can’t,” Dubisar said.

Before the Marshfield graduate joined the U.S. Army in 2001, he liked to hang out with friends and was a good student. He was clean cut, but doesn’t want to shave anymore. It reminds him of his military days.

“I avoid everybody. I used to like family functions and hanging out with the boys,” he said. “When I came back all that stuff was really stressful. It’s because you don’t have control of everybody. When you are over there, you have lots of control.”

At war, Dubisar would be awake for days.

He remembers coming under mortar fire one day while driving back to the base in Sadr City. His truck was splattered with shrapnel. He only got back to safety using emergency air to keep the tires inflated. When he reached the base, everyone took cover. After things quieted down, Dubisar moved his truck. As he walked away, there was a piercing boom. The truck exploded.

He wasn’t hurt, but often startled at the smallest of noises. He was always on guard — he had to be to survive. Now that he is back in Coos Bay, that survival mentality hasn’t subsided.

A car backfiring, a suspicious glance from a stranger, or a mob of people at Walmart all can be triggers.

“The whole time I have to keep reminding myself that I’m in Coos Bay,” Dubisar said. “In a split second, you feel like you’re back in Baghdad. When there is a lot going on, there is more of a possibility of something bad happening. I don’t trust people.”

When Ali Dubisar forgot to put a jacket on her daughter one day, her husband exploded angrily. She thought it was her fault. In her husband’s mind, a small mistake like that could mean death in a war zone.

“Ninety-eight percent of the time it has nothing to do with the person that you are freaking out on,” Dubisar said.

It wasn’t until Ali Dubisar started going to a group for spouses and partners of combat veterans that she started to understand why her husband acts the way he does.

“I didn’t know what was wrong at first,” she said. “He was always angry. It was like he had an argument going on in his mind. He is always lecturing me on every possible thing that can go wrong.”

Unfortunately, many never learn to cope. Mann said VA statistics show only about a third of all veterans ever seek treatment.

One of Dubisar’s closest friends committed suicide while with him in Iraq, but the surviving soldiers never talked about it.

The suicide rate for Oregon male veterans is more than double that of non-veterans, according to the 2005 Oregon Violent Death Report. From 2000 to 2006, 1,066 male veterans took their own lives — that’s 3.7 a week.

Veterans with PTSD do not receive a purple heart for the mental scars inflicted by war. But their wounds are real, as is Dubisar’s plight. He is taking the steps, along with his wife, to recovery.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be fully healed,” he said.

But by getting help and admitting he has a disorder, Dubisar said he believes he can live a functional life post-war.

Editorial from the Oregonian, November 25, 2009

The police union calls for a vote of no confidence in the chief and a commissioner, while news events repeatedly raise a very different question

At a rally outside Portland City Hall on Tuesday morning, intended to drive the effort for a police union vote of no confidence in Police Chief Rosie Sizer and Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman, members of the Portland Police Association wore T-shirts reading, “I am Chris Humphreys.”

For the Portland city attorney, already involved in a liability lawsuit featuring that officer, hundreds of police officers claiming his identity couldn’t be an encouraging sight.

Nor was it encouraging for Portland residents hoping for some sense that the police understand what’s at stake here.

Fundamentally, this is not about whether the police union has confidence in the police chief. The real question is whether Portlanders have confidence in their police.

This is not a judgment in the current controversy over Humphreys’ shooting a 12-year-old, 160-pound girl with a beanbag shotgun while another officer tried to get her under control, for which Saltzman placed Humphreys on administrative leave. It’s not even a judgment on his role in the 3-year-old death of James Chasse Jr. while in police custody, for which Saltzman recently ordered Humphreys suspended for 80 hours. A lawsuit against the city in that case is pending, while the related case against Multnomah County, which involved a sheriff’s deputy, was recently settled for $925,000.

The issue is whether Saltzman, an elected city commissioner put in charge of the police by Portland’s elected mayor, and Sizer, named police chief by the mayor, have disciplinary authority over the police — or whether, as police union chief Scott Westerman charges, the only question is whether officials and citizens stand with the police.

In front of City Hall on Tuesday morning, Westerman warned the city’s elected officials, “If you do not, you have put political expediency in front of law enforcement.”

Yet Portland citizens might have a different idea about who works for whom — and might think that Westerman has it reversed.

The past decade has seen a considerable number of incidents raising questions about police behavior — inevitable in any city of Portland’s size. Several of them have involved the death of Portland residents, others ended with the city paying considerable sums in damages. We have seen repeated efforts to recraft the review structure. All together, they raise questions about our system for dealing with charges against officers, especially considering that the union-negotiated arbitration system frequently overturns any penalties.

Concerning Saltzman’s suspension of Humphreys, Westerman commented Tuesday, “We all know when this goes to arbitration, we’re going to get it back.” He regarded this probability as validation; others consider it part of the problem.

On Nov. 27, the police union starts its no-confidence vote on Saltzman and Sizer, expecting to report its results Nov. 30. “If it comes back at 97 percent of our members saying they have no confidence,” asked Westerman, “how can that be an effective leader?”

But that might be the wrong question, or at least, not the only question.

The deeper question is whether Portland’s police officers are accountable to the city’s elected and appointed officials — or the other way around.

Anna Griffin

Editorial Column by Anna Griffin from the Oregonian, November 24, 2009

A bit of friendly advice to the fine men and women of the Portland Police Bureau:

If you give a rat’s tail about how you’re perceived by the people you’re paid to protect – the people who also happen to pay your salaries — take off those T-shirts and go back to work. Because right now, you bear a startling resemblance to a bunch of out-of-touch thugs.

Some 650 people, Portland officers and their friends and families, rallied downtown Tuesday to protest recent command decisions. They carried signs and wore freshly printed blue T-shirts bearing the motto, “I Am Chris Humphreys.”

Humphreys is the 10-year veteran at the heart of two recent high-profile incidents of police force. Three years ago, he chased and then fell on James Chasse, the schizophrenic man kicked and Tasered by police after they spotted him urinating on a Pearl District sidewalk. Chasse died in police custody from blunt force trauma to the chest.

Earlier this month, Humphreys shot a 12-year-old girl in the thigh at close range with a non-lethal bean-bag shotgun. The girl had slapped another officer and resisted attempts to remove her from a MAX train.

Humphreys faces a two-week suspension in Chasse’s death and, last week, was placed on paid leave while internal affairs investigators look into the bean-bag shooting.

That prompted Tuesday’s rally. Union leaders, receiving advice these days from the same lobbying team behind Merritt Paulson’s clumsy effort to bring Major League Soccer to town, say they need more support from City Hall and the Police Bureau’s upper echelon.

“This is not about one officer,” union president Scott Westerman told the crowd. “This is not about one incident.”

Those T-shirts suggest otherwise.

The requisite caveat: Most of the city’s 922 officers work exceptionally hard under difficult, sometimes dangerous circumstances. They go out of their way to avoid violence.

The crowd Tuesday shouted, “Will you stand with us?” again and again. As a community, our answer should be a resounding, “Yes, yes, yes.” We will stand with the vast majority of you who do your jobs well – and well within the confines of both common sense and the law.

But will officers and their union stand for true accountability? Will they acknowledge that sometimes the best cops make poor choices and that bad cops – or good cops who cannot control their tempers – need to find new jobs? Will they recognize that they work for taxpayers – and Police Chief Rosie Sizer and City Commissioner Dan Saltzman – not the other way around?

Because at the moment, they seem to have forgotten.

There is an innate disconnection between the police and the people they protect, particularly in a city as liberal as this one.

Many Portland cops live outside city limits, preferring to escape far from urban life at the end of a shift. Working in a paramilitary organization, one in which you put your life on the line daily, creates a natural “us against the world” mentality. City leaders have been absentee landlords recently, allowing the internal investigation into Chasse’s death to drag out three frustrating and perplexing years – a disservice to both Chasse’s memory and the officers present for his death.

A union leader’s job is to get as much as he or she can for union members. Westerman, a genial, solidly built guy who could have played an extra on “The Sopranos,” may do that with this impressive display of organization.

Oregon labor law makes it hard to discipline police officers. City Council members seem determined to let the Chasse family’s wrongful death lawsuit play out in court, rather than settling. Judging by the turnout Tuesday, when an ocean of blue covered the sidewalk outside City Hall, the “no confidence” vote union leaders have called against Sizer and Saltzman seems likely to pass.

Yet to what end?

There’s been talk that Sizer –widely considered Portland’s best chief in a generation — may retire soon. She can’t do that now without looking as if she’s caved to union pressure. Mayor Sam Adams, who has been completely removed from the recent conversations, should have kept leadership of the bureau himself from the beginning. He cannot take it back now. You don’t give in to bullying.

It’s no coincidence that incidents of police force and the crime rate have both dropped in recent years as bureau leaders worked to lessen the divide between officers and civilians. Now that disconnect is growing again.

Most of us have few face-to-face interactions with the police. What we know comes from images on the news or in the paper. The recent ones include that snapshot of Humphreys and other officers standing around, drinking coffee and chatting, as Chasse lay prone and hog-tied on the sidewalk, and the grainy video of Humphreys firing his shotgun at a girl who’d already been put on the ground by another officer.

Now this, a remarkably well-attended, remarkably tone deaf rally.

“I am Chris Humphreys.” Are you sure that’s the message you want to send your constituents?

Portland cops made T-shirts once before. They included a smoking gun and the phrase, “Don’t Choke ‘Em, Smoke ‘Em,” to protest a new ban on the so-called “sleeper hold” after an off-duty security guard placed in the position died.

The two officers involved in Lloyd Stevenson’s death were cleared of criminal charges by a grand jury. The officers who sold the shirts were initially fired but won their jobs back after another hard political and legal push from union representatives.

The public relations damage from that sad incident took years to clean up.

Apparently our friends in blue need a history lesson.

Editorial from The Oregonian, November 20, 2009

By hitting a police officer, a 12-year-old put herself at risk, but was it necessary to shoot her with a beanbag?

Snap judgments are almost invariably wrong in police use-of-force cases. We repeat: “almost” invariably.

In Arkansas last week, a police officer zapped a 10-year-old girl with a Taser to force her to take a shower before bedtime. “People here feel like that he made a mistake in using a Taser, and maybe he did,” Mayor Vernon McDaniel said, with an excess of caution — maybe? — “but we will not know until we get an impartial investigation.”

Let’s go out on a limb here and say that, yes, that officer did make a mistake. But judging what Portland Officer Chris Humphreys did a week ago today on a MAX platform is not as simple. Humphreys fired a beanbag shotgun at a 12-year-old girl, hitting her in the thigh.

This juvenile had made what can be, and has often proved to be, a fatal error: She struck Humphreys’ fellow officer, Aaron Dauchy, in the face.

It will take an internal affairs investigation to determine whether Humphreys acted in accordance with Police Bureau policy and training. Although admittedly, if he did, then it’s fair to add: Maybe it’s time to improve both.

It would be nice to think that two Portland Police Bureau officers would be capable of subduing a 12-year-old girl — even one of adult height and weight — without resorting to weaponry, even the less-lethal variety. Yet the reality is that neither the bureau’s critics nor its defenders actually know enough, based on the video image that’s been shown, to condemn or exonerate this officer. And yet that didn’t stop both sides from rushing to their predictable battle stations Thursday.

To the critics, it’s obvious that Humphreys shouldn’t be a police officer anymore. And let’s admit that he does have another strike against him. He was one of three officers involved in the fatal foot pursuit of James P. Chasse Jr., the schizophrenic man who died in police custody three years ago.

On Thursday, Police Chief Rosie Sizer called the MAX platform video “troubling” and determined that Humphreys shouldn’t be on patrol but could perform desk work, pending the results of an internal affairs investigation. City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the Police Bureau, went further, deciding that Humphreys should be placed on paid leave. “I did not want him on the street,” Saltzman said.

These are reasonable judgments to make, based on the circumstances. But you’d never guess that based on the reaction of the police union. More than 40 officers assembled Thursday, shoulder to shoulder on the steps of the Justice Center. To these officers, it’s apparently obvious that an officer who shoots a weapon at a 12-year-old girl is above reproach.

But how can the officers be so sure about that? The police are actually trained not to make snap judgments, but to examine the evidence — which isn’t all in, in this case. It would be nice to see Portland police officers demonstrate the cautious, tempered judgment that they expect their critics to demonstrate.

From The Oregonian, November 20, 2009

Portland police Officer Christopher Humphreys filed a stress-related disability claim as the Portland Police Bureau began an internal investigation into his Saturday night beanbag shotgun shooting of a 12-year-old girl on a Northeast Portland MAX platform.

The move is consistent with a long-standing pattern of Portland police officers taking stress disability while facing investigation or potential discipline, but police and others say reforms to the disability system should prevent abuse.

Whether Humphreys’ actions could impede an internal inquiry is unclear; Portland police are proceeding with the investigation, contacting witnesses and others, said Detective Mary Wheat, a Portland Police Bureau spokeswoman.

“The goal is to have it done as quickly and thoroughly as is possible,” Wheat said.

Portland police union president Sgt. Scott Westerman said Friday that Humphreys was “hung out to dry for three years” while the bureau investigated his role in the death of James P. Chasse Jr., a 42-year-old man with schizophrenia. Chasse was knocked to the ground after he ran from officers who suspected he was urinating in a street. He died in police custody from blunt force trauma to the chest Sept. 17, 2006.

This month, City Council member and police commissioner Dan Saltzman proposed that Humphreys, a 10-year veteran assigned to the transit police, be suspended for two weeks for failing to insist that Chasse be taken by ambulance to a hospital after police stunned him with a Taser and after the jail refused to book him because of his physical condition. Saltzman also found that Humphreys failed to provide paramedics at the scene with a full account of the violent struggle.

“Now that takes a toll on anyone,” Westerman said.

Humphreys was devastated this week, Westerman said, when the commissioner ordered him off the street and had his badge and gun removed while police investigate the 12-year-old’s shooting.

Westerman, though, would not comment on Humphreys’ recent disability claim to the Fire & Police Disability & Retirement Fund. Instead, he spoke generally, saying the voter-approved reforms adopted in 2006 removed the board from hearing claims, leaving it up to independent hearing officers.

The reforms, passed in November 2006, did change the makeup of the fund’s board, previously dominated by police and fire employees. It also removed the board from voting on claims, instead passing that authority to the fund’s staff or hearings officers.

Every stress claim approved for police since the reforms has been valid, Westerman said, and has been taken so officers can preserve “their own mental health, and to see and receive the assistance that they need,” Westerman said.

Meanwhile on Friday, the police union prepared to mail ballots today to its 922 members to hold a vote of no confidence in Chief Rosie Sizer and Saltzman. Ballots will be collected Nov. 27 and the results announced Nov. 30. The union also plans a rally Tuesday in support of Humphreys. “I believe our faith in the leadership of the Portland Police Bureau is gone,” Westerman said.

He said that Humphreys acted as he was trained and did everything to minimize injury to the 12-year-old girl.

According to the bureau, Humphreys shot the girl once in the thigh as fellow Transit Officer Aaron Dauchy struggled to take her into custody on a MAX platform at Northeast 148th Avenue. Police said the girl had swung at Dauchy’s head when he tried to arrest her for violating a TriMet exclusion.

Dauchy took her to the ground. Humphreys, who arrived with a beanbag shotgun over his right shoulder, pinned it to his side and tried to reach out with his left hand to help grab the girl’s hands, but he could not, Westerman said. Then Humphreys stepped back and circled the girl, waiting for a chance to fire. One shot struck the girl in the thigh, leaving a bruise.

“If the officers were able to grab control of her hands, none of this would have happened,” Westerman said. The chief and commissioner asked internal affairs to determine whether the force was justified and whether the beanbag firing at such close range fell within training.

Bureau directives say nothing about distance restrictions, but the force trains officers to shoot a suspect in the torso at no less than 10 feet with no restrictions on a person’s extremities, police say.

During the past several years, reports from the Police Assessment Resource Center, outside experts, have recommended that the bureau adopt a more specific policy on beanbag shotguns, noting that model policies recommend shots be aimed at the abdomen, thighs or forearms and not at the head, neck or groin, with optimal shooting distance between 21 and 50 feet. They note that rounds present a risk of death or serious injury at less than 10 feet when fired at the chest, head, neck or groin.

Westerman said he was disturbed that Sizer did not release the police report, which he says shows that the girl’s mother apologized to Dauchy.

“Her (the girl’s) actions is what led to the use of force against her,” he said. “This perception this was a 12-year-old girl going to the zoo with her family is wrong.”

Saltzman did not return calls Friday afternoon about Humphreys’ disability claim. Wheat said the chief would not discuss any claim. She also had no response to the union’s position.

“She understands the high emotions that are running and doesn’t want to add to that by making statements,” Wheat said.

From KPTV.com, November 20, 2009

Steve Duin

In the brutal chain of personalities and events that have licensed Portland police to turn a beanbag shotgun on a 12-year-old girl, the aloof commissioner, absentee mayor and anything-goes police chief aren’t nearly as significant as James Chasse Jr., Eunice Crowder and Barbara Weich.

Chasse, of course, died after Officer Christopher Humphreys pancaked the 145-pound schizophrenic when he had the audacity to flee the cops’ approach.

Crowder? In 2003, police pepper-sprayed the 71-year-old blind woman with such enthusiasm that her glass eye popped out of its socket, then used a Taser on her four times as she lay in the dirt.

And Weich? In 2005, the 58-year-old gallery owner tossed a derogative term at one of Portland’s finest — Officer Greg Adrian — after the motorcycle cop gave her a ticket, she says, then mocked her annoyance.

Adrian followed Weich over the Hawthorne Bridge and pulled her over again. “He then hit her in the face with enough force to leave bruising on her cheek and neck,” said Greg Kafoury, her attorney. “He then grabs her arm, pulls it out the window, twists it, puts his weight down on it … fractures the arm.”

Weich subsequently moved to rural Idaho. “She was shattered by the experience,” Kafoury said.

Adrian? “He received no discipline,” Commissioner Randy Leonard reminds us.

Portland police are all about imposing discipline, not exercising it. For years now, escalating displays of excessive force have prompted nothing but shrugs from the police chief and six-figure settlement offers from city attorneys.

Not until Humphreys unloaded his beanbag shotgun at that unruly 12-year-old did Commissioner Dan Saltzman express his annoyance. Overruling chief Rosie Sizer, he put Humphreys on leave. With pay.

“The first glimmer of light I’ve seen in seven years,” Leonard said. “The first time I’ve seen an incident that I considered inexcusable and unjustified in which the chief and the police commissioner followed up.”

Like thousands of Portlanders, they watched the TriMet videos.

The videos offer a vivid contrast to the Police Bureau statement, which tries to explain all this away by insisting Officers Aaron Dauchy and Humphreys were responding to a call about a party “involving several known gang members,” marauding teenagers “wanting to fight,” and a gun that, conveniently, had just been discovered in bushes a mile away.

Given that dramatic buildup, I expected to see Dauchy and Humphreys wade into a chaotic mob scene on the MAX platform at Northeast 148th.

Not even close. The platform is virtually empty as Dauchy first cuffs a juvenile male he knows to be on the TriMet exclusion list, then orders the 12-year-old girl off the train. As he moves to cuff her, she swings on him and Dauchy takes her to the ground. Humphreys is circling the tussle with the shotgun, seemingly desperate to get his licks in.

Every day in Portland, parents are forced to rein in angry adolescents without hauling out the shotgun. When did bureau protocol put the official stamp-of-approval on child abuse?

“The real problem,” Leonard says, “lies in the chief’s office.” And the problem is augmented by the churlishness of the union, the charade of “independent” citizen review, and the cops’ refusal to admit mistakes, much less learn from them.

“The city as it relates to the police bureau is essentially leaderless,” said Chuck Currie, one of the clergy at Chasse’s 2006 memorial service. At the time, he cautioned people to have patience and push for justice.

“Asking for patience,” Currie said Friday, “was a mistake on my part.”

Below are all the relevant news articles about the suspension of Christopher Humphreys on November 19, 2009.

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Trimet surveillance video, November 19, 2009
Live blog, videos: Portland police suspend officer who shot girl, 12, with bean bag, The Oregonian
Portland officer suspended after shooting girl, 12, with beanbag gun, The Oregonian, November 19, 2009
Police officer suspended after girl shot with beanbag, Portland Tribune, November 19, 2009
Officer On Leave For Using Force Against 12-Year-Old, KPTV.com, November 19, 2009
Officer on leave after shooting girl with beanbag gun, KGW.com, November 19, 2009
Saltzman Suspends Chasse Cop For Beanbag Shot On 12-Year-Old Girl, Portland Mercury, November 19, 2009
Chasse Cop Christopher Humphreys Placed on Administrative Leave, Willamette Week, November 19, 2009
Weekend incident prompts officer suspension, KATU.com, November 19, 2009
Officer put on leave during abuse of force investigation, KOIN.com, November 19, 2009

Rogue cop at it again, Jack Bogadanski, November 19, 2009

NOVEMBER 20, 2009

Portland police vote “no confidence” on Saltzman and Sizer – KOIN.com

Experts consider training, procedure in use-of-force case, KATU.com
Police union plans to hold a vote of no confidence for Sizer, Saltzman, KATU.com

Police union defends officer on leave over beanbag gun incident, KGW.com

Portland officer in 12-year-old girl’s beanbag shooting files for stress disability, The Oregonian
Mayor supports officer’s suspension for shooting girl with beanbag, Portland Tribune
Police Union Plans No-Confidence Vote on Saltzman and Sizer, Willamette Week
Shoot beanbag at 12-year-old girl? Just the latest from the Portland police, The Oregonian
That thinning blue line, editorial from The Oregonian
Police Union Planning No-Confidence Vote, KPTV.com

DOCUMENTS

Use of Force Continuum, Portland Police Bureau (PDF)
Use of force policy – City of Hillsboro (PDF)
Defensive Tools Policy – Washington County Sheriff’s Office (PDF)
Portland Police Association press release, November 20, 2009

READ – Everything about Christopher Humphreys

From The Oregonian, November 19, 2009

Portland Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman overruled the police chief for the second time in recent months, ordering Officer Chris Humphreys be placed on paid leave as police investigate his firing of a beanbag shotgun at a 12-year-old girl.

The encounter was caught on TriMet videotape at 10:47 p.m. Saturday, showing Humphreys circling the girl after his fellow Transit Officer Aaron Dauchy had taken the girl to the ground and continued to struggle with her on the MAX platform at Northeast 148th Avenue. The girl had struck Dauchy in the face when he tried to take her into custody on a TriMet exclusion violation. Humphreys, police say, repeatedly warned the girl to stop resisting or he’d shoot his beanbag gun, and fired one shot, striking her in the thigh at close range.

“After reviewing the video, I am troubled by it,” Chief Rosie Sizer said Thursday, reading from a prepared statement.

She has asked the police internal affairs division to determine if the use of force was justified, and if the firing of the beanbag shotgun at close range was consistent with bureau training.

The chief on Wednesday wanted to remove Humphreys from the street and put him on a desk job, but Saltzman directed he be placed on paid leave instead.

Saltzman, who was waiting for a community public safety meeting to begin at Jefferson High School Thursday evening, said he was worried by what he saw in the video. “As a layperson, it did not strike me as being a necessary use of force,” he said. “I did not want him on the street.”

Moments after Sizer’s news conference wrapped up inside the Justice Center, police union President Sgt. Scott Westerman stood outside vigorously defending Humphreys, backed by more than 40 officers who stood shoulder to shoulder on the center’s front steps.

Westerman decried the actions taken by the police administrators, calling them politically motivated and further fallout from the pending federal lawsuit involving Humphreys, who is accused of using excessive force against James P. Chasse Jr., a 42-year-old schizophrenic man who died in police custody in September 2006. Humphreys faces a proposed two-week unpaid suspension in that case.

Police said the shooting occurred shortly after transit police were called to assist other officers who were dealing with a rowdy crowd of 75 to 100 teenagers leaving a party near Northeast 162nd Avenue and Halsey, including several known gang members. Officers were told a gun had been recovered in bushes near the party.

Dauchy and Humphreys had gone to the MAX platform on 162nd and saw 20 to 30 teens board the westbound train. Dauchy recognized the 12-year-old girl, knew she had been excluded by TriMet, and, with Humphreys, followed the train to Northeast 148th Avenue. Police said Dauchy called to the girl to get off the train and when he began to take her into custody, she swung at him.

Westerman said the girl, who had previously been excluded from TriMet in Clackamas County for having stolen a purse, was “violently and aggressively” fighting with Dauchy, and Humphreys stepped in to use less-lethal force, as trained, to protect his fellow officer.

“This action was appropriate. It was justified. It was warranted,” Westerman said, trying to speak over the rush-hour traffic. “This is exactly what the citizens of Portland expect their police officers to do.”

Police written directives do not say anything about the distance an officer must stand from a subject before shooting a beanbag shotgun, but officers say they’re trained to be at least 10 feet away when shooting at the torso.

“Ten feet to the torso, the extremities are fair game,” Westerman said.

Westerman said he doesn’t have any confidence in the chief or police commissioner, and the union’s executive board would be meeting tonight to determine if a vote of no-confidence is warranted. “Had they not already had a predetermined bias against Officer Humphreys, we would not be here today,” Westerman said.

But other people said they were glad to see the bureau take decisive action and initiate an investigation.

“We’ve been worried about this man for three years now, and this confirms our concerns,” said Jason Renaud, a volunteer with the Mental Health Association of Portland. “We believe Humphreys should not be a Portland police officer.”

Dan Handelman, of Portland Copwatch, said he watched the video and doesn’t think it helps the police. “She’s 12 years old — what is she, the incredible hulk? She’s unarmed. It doesn’t make any sense.”

He also said he’s disturbed by the multiple allegations of excessive force brought against Humphreys in recent lawsuits, and that the bureau hasn’t acted to deal with him until now. “Hopefully, this is the straw that will break the camel’s back,” he said.

In 2002, the bureau transitioned from the square beanbag ammunition in its 122 less-lethal guns, to sock-type bags filled with seven ounces of birdshot, to help eliminate skin injuries and allow greater accuracy. Only certain officers are trained to carry them. Police must warn the suspects before shooting the beanbag shotgun, and not just simply shout “less lethal” or “beanbag.”

Emergency paramedics at the scene said the girl had a bruise and didn’t need to be taken to the hospital. Instead, she was taken to the Donald E. Long Home juvenile detention, accused of assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and interfering with public transportation. She is not in custody and wasn’t named. Police said they’ve been in contact with her mother.

From the Portland Tribune, November 19, 2009

Christopher Humphreys was involved in 2006 arrest of James Chasse Jr.

Portland police officer Christopher Humphreys, who already faces discipline for his role in the September 2006 death of James Chasse Jr., has been suspended pending an investigation into the close-range beanbag shooting of a 12-year-old girl Saturday night near a Gresham TriMet MAX station.

Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Police Chief Rosie Sizer both said they were “troubled” by what they saw in a TriMet security video of the incident.

“Officer Humphreys has been placed on administrative leave and I have directed the Internal Affairs Division to conduct an immediate and full investigation into whether the use of force was justified under the totality of circumstances and whether the application of the beanbag at close range was consistent with the Bureau’s training,” Sizer said Thursday afternoon.

“The actions I witnessed on the video are not consistent with my expectations and what I believe are the community’s expectations for a Portland Police Officer,” Saltzman said.

A union representing Portland police officers blasted the suspension, calling it part of a pattern of bias against Humphreys and said it was spurred by “office politics.”

On Nov. 4, Saltzman recommended that Humphreys and Sgt. Kyle Nice be suspended without pay for about two weeks for their actions during the arrest of Chasse in the Pearl District.

The 42-year-old Chasse died Sept. 17, 2006, two hours after being arrested outside a Pearl District restaurant. He ran from police, who tackled him and used a Tazer to subdue him.

He died after being handcuffed and driven to the Multnomah County Detention Center in a police car, where jailers refused to accept him because he was injured.

Chasse’s confrontation with police left him with several internal injuries, including 26 broken bones, broken ribs and a punctured left lung.

Chasse’s family is suing the city and the police officers in U.S. District Court.

Humphreys was with several other police officers who responded at about 10:47 p.m. Nov. 14 to a disturbance by several young people near Northeast 162nd Avenue and Halsey Street. More than two dozen young men and woman – some of them suspected gang members – were leaving a party in the area and got into a tussle with others in the area.

Many of the young people boarded a westbound MAX train. Humphreys and Officer Aaron Dauchy, both 10-year veterans assigned to the TriMet Transit Police, responded to the disturbance and discovered that one of the young men on the train had been excluded from public transit.

When Dauchy and Humphreys handcuffed the young man, Dauchy called to a young woman who also had been excluded and told her to leave the train. As he took her into custody, police said she allegedly hit him in the face.

As the two struggled, Humphreys turned a beanbag gun on the young woman and ordered her to stop resisting. When she didn’t stop struggling, he allegedly shot her at close range in the thigh.

Paramedics said the girl’s leg was bruised but not seriously injured.

She has been charged with assaulting a public safety officer, resisting arrest and interfering with public transportation. She is not in custody.

A TriMet security camera caught the incident on tape. When Sizer and Saltzman reviewed the video, they decided to suspend Humphreys pending an investigation into the use of force.

“I believe it is the best interest of the community and the members of the Portland Police Bureau to quickly act and investigate this fully,” Sizer said.

From KPTV.com, November 19 2009

Officer Shot Beanbag Gun At Girl Who Was Resisting Arrest

A Portland police officer who was criticized for his role in the death of a mentally ill man was put on administrative leave following an investigation into his use of force against a 12-year-old girl last weekend, the police chief said.

Officer Christopher Humphreys is already facing a possible two-week suspension for his role in the September 2006 death of James Chasse Jr., who suffered from schizophrenia.

Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who proposed the suspension in the Chasse death, ordered the administrative leave for Humphreys on Thursday after authorities said Humphreys fired a beanbag round at close range and hit the girl in the leg after she struck another officer and was resisting arrest.

Police Chief Rosanne Sizer announced Saltzman’s decision Thursday afternoon.

On Saturday at about 10:47 p.m., police said Officer Aaron Dauchy and Humphreys responded to a large party involving known gang members.

The officers were told a gun had been found in bushes near the party, police said, and that 75 to 100 teenagers were walking in the area of 162nd Avenue and Northeast Halsey Street.

Portland and Gresham police officers followed the teens, some of whom were shouting about wanting to fight, to the MAX platform at 162nd Avenue. They followed the train to 148th Avenue and went on to the MAX platform.

As the train pulled in, police said Dauchy recognized a teenager who was on the TriMet exclusion list.

The teen was taken into custody and Dauchy then called to a 12-year-old girl, who was also on the exclusion list, to get off the train.

As Dauchy began to take her into custody, police said she swung at him and struck his face.

The officer told the girl to stop resisting arrest and continued to struggle with her, according to the Portland Police Bureau. Dauchy gave repeated warnings to stop resisting or he would shoot a beanbag gun.

Humphreys then shot the beanbag gun at the girl’s thigh at close range, police said.

She began to comply and officers began to take her into custody when she began to resist again.

Another officer arrived and the girl was handcuffed. Medical personnel were called and advised the girl had a bruise on her thigh but did not need to be transported.

Police said the girl has appeared in juvenile court for assaulting a public safety officer, resisting arrest and interfering with public transportation. She is not in custody at this time.

The investigation is ongoing.

Sizer said she was “troubled” by a Tri-Met video that showed the incident.

“Officer Humphreys has been placed on administrative leave and I have directed the Internal Affairs Division to conduct an immediate and full investigation into whether the use of force was justified under the totality of circumstances and whether the application of the beanbag at close range was consistent with the bureau’s training,” she said.

Sgt. Scott Westerman, Portland Police Association president, accused the city of playing politics and criticized both Sizer and Saltzman, telling reporters on the steps of police headquarters he no longer had any confidence in them.

On Nov. 4, Saltzman said he wanted Sgt. Kyle Nice and Humphreys suspended without pay for 80 hours each because they failed to get proper medical treatment for Chasse, a mentally ill man who died following his arrest.

Chasse was arrested Sept. 17, 2006, after being stunned by a Taser and chased. According to autopsy results, Chasse suffered more than a dozen broken ribs, including some that punctured a lung and caused massive internal bleeding.

The officers involved, including Humphreys, were criticized for failing to get proper medical treatment for Chasse.

A federal civil rights lawsuit filed by the Chasse family is still pending, accusing Portland police officers of excessive force and denying Chasse appropriate medical attention.

A separate lawsuit against Multnomah County was settled for $925,000.

From KGW.com, November 19, 2009

A Portland Police officer investigated in the death of James Chasse has been placed on administrative leave after shooting a 12-year-old girl in the thigh with a beanbag gun during an incident at a MAX stop Saturday night.

Officer Christopher Humphrey shot the girl with a beanbag gun after she attacked officers trying to arrest her, police Chief Rosie Sizer said Thursday.

Video surveillance of the confrontation was captured on a TriMet surveillance camera of the incident involving Officer Aaron Dauchy and Officer Christopher Humphreys.

“After reviewing the video, I am troubled by it,” Chief Sizer said as she announced that Officer Humphreys had been placed on paid administrative leave. Sizer said the Internal Affairs Division would conduct an immediate and full investigation into whether the use of force was justified.

“The actions I witnessed on the video are not consistent with my expectations and what I believe are the community’s expectations for a Portland police Officer,” said Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman.

A Portland Police Union spokesperson reacted angrily to the decision, saying the Police Chief and Commissioner were treating Humphreys unfairly.

Officer investigated in Chasse death

Humphreys was cleared of any wrongdoing in the 2006 death of 42-year-old James Chasse.

Chasse was tackled by officers in Old Town and taken to jail. He later died on the way to a hospital.

In August, 2009, the Multnomah County Commission voted to pay the family of James Chasse $925,000 as a settlement to a civil lawsuit filed over the mentally ill man’s death.

The county decided not to pursue criminal charges against Officer Humphrey in the case.

Earlier In November, Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman recently recommended Humphreys be suspended for his role in the incident.

Officers were responding to large party

Investigators said just before 11 p.m. Saturday, Dauchy and Humphreys were called to a large party at 162nd and Northeast Halsey. Sizer said the party was attended by groups of suspected gang members. A gun had also been recovered from some brush in the area, officers said. Police said between 75 and 100 teens were leaving the party.

One group went to a nearby bus stop and were angrily shouting about wanting to fight. Portland and Gresham officers said as soon as police arrive the groupo began to disband.

According to Sizer, Dauchy saw a girl who he knew had been excluded from riding the MAX as part of a group of teens that got on a train at the stop on 162nd.

When the train pulled in to the stop at 148th, police said Dauchy saw another boy he knew was on the TriMet exclusion list and took him into custody.

Investigators said as he began to take the 12-year-old girl into custody, she hit him in the face and resisted arrest.

Police said officers repeated warnings to her to stop resisting or she would be hit with a beanbag gun, Officer Humphreys fired the weapon at her thigh at close range. Investigators said “she became compliant and the officers began to take her into custody when she began to resist again.”

Another officer arrived and they were able to handcuff her, and medics were told she had a bruised thigh but did not need to be taken to the hospital.

The girl was charged with assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and interfering with public transportation.

“I believe it is the best interest of the community and the members of the Portland Police Bureau to quickly act and investigate this fully. I ask the community and the media to remember that there is a juvenile involved and therefore, we are being very careful in providing the public records protection regarding her identity that is afforded to juveniles,” said Chief Sizer.

Police said they were in contact with the girl’s mother.

From the Portland Mercury, November 19, 2009

Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman has overruled Police Chief Rosie Sizer and ordered the suspension of Portland Police Officer Christopher Humphreys, after he shot a 12-year-old girl in the leg with a “less-lethal” beanbag round on Saturday night.

The action has outraged the Portland Police Association, whose president, Scott Westerman, stood in front of 37 fellow cops outside the Justice Center on SW 2nd, to protest against Saltzman for “trying to be the police chief.”

“When the Police Association first heard about this, the idea was to remove Officer Humphreys from the street, but Saltzman overrode that,” Westerman told the media this afternoon. “With no police experience, he overrode a 25-year bureau veteran and ordered the suspension of Officer Humphreys.”

WESTERMAN: OUTRAGED ON BEHALF OF THE POLICE UNION

Saltzman has declined comment on the move, personally, instead, leaving Police Chief Rosie Sizer to read from a written statement on the 15th floor of the police bureau this afternoon. Sizer also released video of the incident to reporters.

Sizer issued the following statement:

“After reviewing the video, I am troubled by it. Officer Humphreys has been placed on administrative leave and I have directed the Internal Affairs Division to conduct an immediate and full investigation into whether the use of force was justified under the totality of circumstances and whether the application of the beanbag at close range was consistent with the bureau’s training.”

Saltzman issued the following statement:

“The actions I witnessed on the video are not consistent with my expectations and what I believe are the community’s expectations for a Portland Police Officer. I directed that Officer Humphreys be immediately removed from the street and placed on administrative leave.”

Humphreys, along with Sergeant Kyle Nice and Officer Bret Burton, was one of the officers involved in the 2006 death in police custody of James Chasse, a man with schizophrenia. A lawsuit is ongoing in that case, and Chasse’s attorney, Tom Steenson, was present at the press conference as an observer this afternoon. He declined comment, but his law firm also announced its intention to sue Humphreys again earlier this year, following his alleged assault of a mentally ill woman at a Gresham MAX stop.

Sizer told the press that on Saturday night, November 14, Officer Aaron Duchy and Officer Humphreys responded to a call to assist with a large party that had just broken up involving several known gang members. Information provided to officers stated that a gun had just been recovered in bushes near the party and that 75-100 male and female teens were walking in the area of 162nd and Northeast Halsey.

The chief continued:

“Several teens went to a nearby bus stop and were angrily shouting about wanting to fight. Portland Police and Gresham Police Officers began to follow the groups to ensure they disbanded without violence. Officers Dauchy and Humphreys arrived at the MAX platform on 162nd and observed about 20-30 teens board a westbound MAX. Officer Dauchy recognized a juvenile female whom he knew to be excluded from MAX.”

Police officers on the steps of the justice center later told me that the girl had been excluded for “stealing a purse,” earlier. The chief continued:

“The officers followed the train to 148th, and went on to the MAX platform. They were the only officers on scene at that point, as other officers were responding to fight calls in the area of 162nd. As the train pulled in, Officer Dauchy recognized a juvenile male whom he also knew to be on the TriMet exclusion list. After placing the male in handcuffs, Officer Duchy called to the excluded juvenile female to also get off the train. As he began to take her into custody, she swung at him, striking him in the face and began aggressively resisting. Officer Dauchy told the female to stop resisting and he continued to struggle with her.”

“After giving repeated warnings to stop resisting or he would shoot a beanbag gun, Officer Humphreys deployed the beanbag gun to the female’s thigh at close range. She became compliant and the officers began to take her into custody when she began to resist again. Another officer arrived and the officers were able to handcuff her. Medical personnel were called and advised officers that the girl had a bruise on her thigh and did not need to be medically transported. Both juveniles were taken to the Transit Police Division for further processing and then to JDH.”

Westerman repeatedly stressed that Humphreys had shot a “170 pound person,” during his press conference in response to Sizer’s, outside the Justice Center.

Humphreys had “quickly, effectively ended a violent confrontation,” said Westerman. “This is exactly what the citizens of Portland expect police officers to do.”

Westerman was asked whether he thought Saltzman’s decision to discipline Humphreys was “political.”

“I have absolutely no doubt that the Commissioner and the Chief’s actions are as a result of the conflict at city hall,” said Westerman—City Commissioner Randy Leonard recently called Police Commissioner Saltzman a “parrot for the police chief” after he gave just two weeks off to Officers Humphreys and Nice over the Chasse incident.

“The police union can no longer tell its officers that politics do not play a part in discipline,” Westerman said. “Officer Humphreys’ action was appropriate, justified, warranted, and necessary.”

Are there any rules about shooting 12-year-olds, or shooting people with beanbag guns at close range?

“Not in the torso, but the extremities are fair game,” said Westerman. “There are no restrictions on children when a person is inflicting injury on the officer.”

Police oversight advocates are pleased with the decision.

“The people give great power to the police, the power to use force, and the people also reserve the right to revoke that power use absolutely, without argument, and at any time,” said Jason Renaud, with the Mental Health Association of Portland—an outspoken critic of Saltzman’s response to the Chasse incident, so far. “I’m glad to see the chief is acting quickly.”

“We’ve been worried about this man for three years, and we don’t think he should be a police officer,” Renaud continued, referring to Humphreys.

“Why did it take two officers wrestling with a 12-year-old girl and a third one circling her with his shotgun to take her into custody?” asks Portland Copwatch activist Dan Handleman, who has been concerned about so-called “beanbag guns” for several years.

“These aren’t beanbag guns, these are lead-pellet bag guns,” he says. “They’re filled with the pellets that you would put into a shotgun shell, except they are wrapped in a Nylon sack. Being hit by one is like being hit by a line-drive baseball at 90 miles an hour. It’s not like sitting in a beanbag chair.”

“Humphreys has several high profile use of force incidents that have been controversial,” says Handelman. “This latest incident has only occurred because of the police bureau’s failure to adequately discipline any officer that repeatedly uses excessive force.”

“Given the totality of the circumstances, Officer Humphreys should not be a police officer,” Handelman concludes.

The District Attorney’s office is prosecuting the 12 year-old girl for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and interfering with public transportation.

Meanwhile, it’s unlikely that they will be disciplined for it, but Westerman’s fellow officers may have violated police bureau directives about appearing on media and in their uniform on the Justice Center steps this afternoon. There’s also a question about the political criticism of Saltzman, who is up for re-election next year. From the cops’ rule book:

Saltzman is due to speak to the community this evening at a two-hour community event at Jefferson High School, along with Senator Chip Shields, Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen, and State Representative Lew Frederick.

Update, 8:56pm:

“It’s not political,” says Police Commissioner Saltzman, in response to the Police Union’s accusations. “It’s based on what I saw on the video tape, and what I understand about policies and training, and procedure. There’ll be an investigation, and then we’ll determine if there’s going to be discipline.”

Saltzman made his comments to the Mercury after addressing a community audience at Jefferson High School this evening, on public safety. Asked by one audience member at the meeting whether he might support drug testing for officers after controversial use of force incidents, Saltzman said he “didn’t know about that.” State Senator Chip Shields said “such decisions are best left to bargaining units,” meaning the city, and the police union, in the upcoming negotiations between the police union and the city—due to begin in 2010.

From Willamette Week, November 19, 2009

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.

READ – Officer’s Use of Force to be Investigated; Police Bureau Releases Information and Video Regarding Incident, PPB – November 19, 2009