From NY Times, March 29, 2010

For lawyers offering free legal information at large immigration detention centers in remote parts of Texas, the task is difficult enough: coaching hundreds of detainees on how to represent themselves at assembly-line deportation hearings. But the lawyers soon discover a more daunting problem: many detainees are too mentally ill or mentally disabled to understand anything.

The detainees, mostly apprehended in New York and other Northeastern cities, some right from mental hospitals, have often been moved to Texas without medication or medical records, far from relatives and mental health workers who know their histories. Their mental incompetence is routinely ignored by immigration judges and deportation officers, who are under pressure to handle rising caseloads and meet government quotas.

These are among the findings of a yearlong examination of the way the nation’s immigration detention system handles the mentally disabled in Texas, where 29 percent of all detainees are held while the government tries to deport them. The study, conducted by Texas Appleseed, a public interest law center, and Akin Gump, a corporate law firm, documents mistreatment at every stage of the process.

Among many examples in the 88-page report, to be released Tuesday, is that of a 50-year-old legal permanent resident with schizophrenia who had lived in New York City since 1974. In November, a New York criminal court declared him incompetent to stand trial on a trespassing charge and ordered him to serve 90 days in a mental institution. Instead, he was transferred to the Willacy County Regional Detention Facility in South Texas, to face a deportation proceeding without counsel — so abruptly, the report said, that his family and lawyer did not know what had happened.

At the detention center, he received no medication for weeks, and in March, he was deported to the Dominican Republic. “My mother is devastated,” his sister, Janet Jiminez, said on Sunday. “She says he will die out there on the streets.”

“I’ve been a U.S. citizen for many, many years,” Ms. Jiminez added. “If we have a law system and the law system has declared that you are incompetent and should be taken to a mental hospital, why are you taken to Texas to be deported?”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the report said, routinely ignores its discretionary authority to leave such detainees in community settings rather than lock them up, at great expense, in distant jails where they can rapidly deteriorate.

The agency is reviewing the report, a spokesman, Brian P. Hale, said Monday, adding that “in cases where ICE is required by law to detain certain aliens with serious medical and mental health issues, we work to ensure the person receives sound, appropriate and timely care.”

A recent government memorandum shows that agents are under intense pressure to increase detentions and deportations. In the memo, James M. Chaparro, the Obama administration’s chief of detention and removal operations, congratulated agents for reaching the agency’s goal of “150,000 criminal alien removals” for the year ending Sept. 30. But Mr. Chaparro urged them to overcome a shortfall in the goal of 400,000 deportations by making maximum use of detention slots, including an additional 3,000 this year.

Despite the administration’s vow to focus resources on detaining and deporting the most dangerous criminals, the Feb. 22 memorandum, posted online Saturday by The Washington Post, instructed agents to pick up the pace of deportations by detaining more noncitizens suspected only of unauthorized residence. Such illegal immigrants can typically be deported more quickly than legal immigrants with criminal convictions.

The publication of the memo clearly embarrassed the administration. A spokesman, Sean Smith, said that “our focus continues to be on the criminal side,” and that Mr. Chaparro was reprimanded Monday by John Morton, the chief of the immigration enforcement agency, at a meeting with immigrant advocates. The memo, Mr. Smith added, was sent without Mr. Morton’s approval and “is completely unrelated” to the findings of the study.

Ann Baddour, who directed the study, disagreed. “Setting these kinds of quotas only encourages the process of detaining people and taking them far from their infrastructure,” she said. “When you take a mentally ill person from New York to rural Texas, you’re basically setting them up for almost certain deportation.”

Another example in the report is that of a Haitian man found incompetent to stand trial in an assault case and sent to a state mental hospital in Boston. The day he arrived, however, immigration agents sent him in shackles and without medical records to the Port Isabel Detention Center near Los Fresnos, Tex.

In that case, the man was eventually returned to the Boston hospital, said Maunica Sthanki, a lawyer involved in the study. More typical, she said, is the mentally disabled refugee from Southeast Asia who was wrongly taken into custody in Providence, R.I., sent to Texas, then abruptly released without notice at a rural gas station at 11 p.m.

The report details several such releases: a schizophrenic woman who spoke only Russian, left in a dangerous area at 1 a.m.; a man lost for a week on his way back from Texas to his family in Maryland; a delusional man who was deported four days earlier than planned, though his parents had arranged for his voluntary departure to Mexico, where his mother was to pick him up.

Two years later, the man has not been found, but a body matching his description is in a morgue in Mexico.

A version of this article appeared in print on March 30, 2010, on page A18 of the New York edition.

Join the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice & Police Reform at Portland’s City Hall tonight at 6 PM to speak to City Council.

City Hall – 1221 SW 4th Avenue.

Download and distribute this poster.

Just 11 days before he was killed by a Portland police officer, Jack Dale Collins, 58, walked into a police station and asked for mental health care, according to a police report.

Police say the shooting was justified, but many Portlanders are questioning Officer Jason Walters’ decision to use deadly force, and hundreds of self-proclaimed “anarchists” have taken to the streets to protest the shooting.

The March 11 police report describes Collins walking into Central Precinct and confessing to a 42-year-old sex crime, which the officer did not believe had actually occurred. The officer wrote that Collins had difficulty with the conversation, and “acted as if he didn’t understand several of the questions.” Collins then asked for mental health assistance, and was referred to Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare.

Less than two weeks later, on March 22, police received a 911 call about a man harassing and threatening people at Hoyt Arboretum in Washington Park. When Officer Walters arrived, he saw Collins coming out of the bathroom, covered in blood from self-inflicted wounds, and holding a knife.

According to police, Collins walked toward the officer, ignoring three commands to drop the knife. Walters shot Collins four times, killing him. The entire interaction took less than three minutes.

Medical examiner Karen Gunson said that Collins had cut himself across the neck several times and may have been trying to kill himself. Toxicology tests are pending, but Gunson found no signs of intoxication.

Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer defended Walters’ actions. “Portland police officers are confronted every day with life and death decisions. I am thankful that Officer Walters was able to protect the public in a place that is loved,” she said in a press conference.

Referral to Cascadia

When Collins reached out for help on March 11, was police response appropriate? Could police have averted this tragedy? Christopher J. O’Conner, a Portland attorney and board member of the Mental Health Association of Portland, expressed concerns and offered suggestions.

“[Collins] was obviously in some sort of mental health crisis, and the city either missed the signs or failed to provide adequate services to address Mr. Collins needs before the crisis escalated,” said O’Connor.

“A person will get almost zero services from the city of Portland when in the midst of a mental health crisis. The police are often the first called by citizens, or in this case contacted by a person seeking help. Unfortunately, the city has no services to directly offer to the citizen in crisis.

“In this situation, the officer simply referred him to a non-profit agency that Mr. Collins may or may not have been able to access. Depending on the time of day, Mr. Collins’ ability to access transportation, or the level of mental distress, ‘go to Cascadia’ may have been the same thing as saying, ‘Get out of my office and maybe someone else will help you.’”  Read more

The board of the Mental Health Association of Portland do not endorse the tactics taken this evening by protesters in the streets of downtown Portland. We don’t endorse violence in any form – verbal or physical, active or threatened, against persons or property. Simply being young, frustrated, over-educated or ignorant isn’t a sufficient excuse.

But we understand the anger of tonight’s protesters and we understand where it started.

It started on September 17, 2006 when three police officers, recognizing they had brutally beaten a man a fraction of their cumulative size, and in front of a dozen witnesses, began to lie to witnesses.

They said James Chasse was homeless. He was not. They said he had urinated on a tree. He had not. They said he was a drug dealer, that he had drugs in his possession. He was not, he did not. They said they knew him. They did not.

The American Medical Rescue team sent James to jail not to a hospital. The jail nurse refused to admit him, ordered him taken to a hospital. Two of the three policeman who beat James drove him to the farthest Portland hospital.

Then they let him die in the back of the squad car.

For the past forty-four months the city of Portland, represented by it’s City Council, it’s police bureau, and the police union, have stumbled through a public relations nightmare, thereby drawn out a travesty of justice. First they tried to blame the victim, then they blamed the mental health system, then framed twenty-six rib fractures as an accident.

What we wanted for James Chasse was immediate accountability; was justice. Left unsettled for three and a half years, the result is now out of the control of politicians and police, and into the hands of outliers. Add Aaron Campbell, an innocent man shot in the back while surrendering. Add Jack Collins, drunk, menacing and perhaps demented, shot by and officer acting alone and with questionable tactics.

Our organization is interested in the welfare of these men. Chasse had a diagnosis of schizophrenia before he was beaten by Kyle Nice, Chris Humphreys and Bret Burton. Campbell was held in a psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt a year before he was shot in the back by Ron Frashour. Collins had a long history of alcoholism and mental illness. He had confessed a crime in order to get some help just eleven days before Jason Walters shot him four times.

The board of the Mental Health Association of Portland holds the tonight’s protesters entirely responsible for the damage they caused. Every newspaper box, every window, every bump and bruise. Justice for them will be swift.

But we hold the City Council, the police bureau, and the police union entirely responsible for evading reform and thereby degrading the reputation and integrity of our police.

No wonder they’re hated, resulting in both responsible and irresponsible citizen protests in churches, public rooms and, finally, in the streets.

Again, impunity is a poison to government – as deadly as hemlock. The anger is just a preliminary paralyzing symptom. Allowing two sets of rules, one for the police and another for everyone else, is irresponsible and shows a reckless disregard for the social structure of our community.

From the Eugene Register-Guard, March 27, 2010

A decline in lottery profits is leading to less help for addicts

Maybe you’ve seen the TV ad: Three women are in the ladies’ room. One confides that she’s kicked a gambling addiction by seeking treatment. Another woman eavesdrops, realizes she needs help, too, and asks, “Can I talk to you?”

The ad, paid for by the Oregon Lottery, has spurred more calls to the state’s gambling help line.

But people who want help may need more luck than ever getting treatment.

Starting in April, the state will make deep cuts in the programs that provide treatment for gambling addicts. At least 265 people will be turned away, state budget records say.

The treatment and prevention programs get all their money from a 1 percent slice of lottery profits. But profits have fallen about 20 percent from their peak in 2008, driven largely by the bad economy and a 2009 smoking ban in bars and taverns. The lottery is projected to earn about $1 billion for 2009-11.

The drop in sales doesn’t mean there are fewer problem gamblers. Good times or bad, experts say, addicts keep playing — and losing.

“We should be redoubling our efforts, and instead we have to tread water just to stay afloat,” says Paul Potter, who oversees gambling addiction treatment for the Oregon Department of Human Services.

Potter says he will be forced to dole out $1.2 million less than the programs were counting on between now and July 2011, when the current state budget period ends.

Taking a chance on recovery

Laura Idica knows what that would mean. She spent the past 10 months trying to break her habit of gambling on video machines, a habit that wrecked her family.

“I know where I’d be if I didn’t get help,” Idica says. “I’d be dead.”

On May 8 last year, Idica says, she went to a bluff overlooking the ocean at Yachats and peered over the edge. “Thirty feet up, sharp rocks and deep water below,” she says. “It would have done the trick.”

Her gambling habit had caused her to think about killing herself before. She had lived in Newport for 20 years, working lots of jobs, not staying anywhere too long. She suffered from depression and she drank too much.

Idica, 46, says her gambling problem started in full four years ago. She started with lottery scratch-off tickets, buying 20 at a time during her work breaks, sometimes blowing $100 a day. She moved on to the lottery’s video games, which include poker and slot machine-type games, and she lost entire paychecks to the machines.

She had left her family broke and homeless. They felt they could do better without her.

Addicted gamblers often make deals with themselves. Idica paused while she made one. She’d just gotten a check for $250. She’d bet it all. If she lost, she’d jump. If she won, she’d quit while she was ahead.

She really would quit this time. Really.

Idica took her cash to a bar, doubled her money on video games and walked away. “I’d never done that before,” she said.

But she hardly thought herself cured. She gave money to her 18-year-old son and went into gambling treatment the next day.

Anticipating reductions

Potter says he held back on some spending in anticipation of falling lottery profits but now has to cut. The reductions will be split about evenly between prevention programs and treatment and counseling. Most treatment is outpatient counseling through local agencies and nonprofits. The 24-hour gamblers’ help line will have a smaller staff but won’t reduce hours.

The state this year added $400,000 to beef up prevention and treatment programs in rural counties, where it’s often difficult to provide services. Those counties, depending on their size, will see the funding cut by 33 percent to 60 percent next year.

Kimberly Lindsay is executive director of Community Counseling Solutions, a mental health agency serving Morrow, Wheeler, Grant and Gilliam counties. She says the state money had allowed her group to develop services for problem gamblers and get the word out that someone in the community could help.

“Now that’s all caved in,” she says.

In their February session, lawmakers insulated some state programs dependent on the lottery, including the agency that recruits and subsidizes movie productions.

Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, says lawmakers protected lottery-dependent programs that need to make debt payments or that show an ability to create jobs.

“We’re addicted to this money,” Courtney says. “And it’s a serious problem that we’ve attached critical programs to it.”

“The lottery is raking in millions,” Idica says, “and they’re trying to sell us they don’t have the money to help the people who really need it, the people hooked on their games. It’s just not right.”

Idica ended up in the only state-funded residential program for gambling addicts, Bridgeway Recovery Services Inc. in Salem.

Bridgeway can handle up to 11 gambling addicts. After the cuts, that number will fall to two to four people.

Tim Murphy, Bridgeway’s executive director, says Oregon deserves credit for dedicating lottery profits to help addicted gamblers.

“We’ve seen an increase in people who need our services,” Murphy says. “While the 1 percent is something, it’s just not enough for the problems created by pathological gambling.”

Idica left Bridgeway on March 15 after 63 days in treatment. She says she’s happy — and aware she’s only one poor decision from falling back into her addiction. But the program, she says, has given her a circle of people she can call on to help.

She spoke about her experiences at Bridgeway’s offices. Near the end of a recent interview at Bridgeway’s office, she leaned forward and pointed to the reporter’s notebook.

“I know I need to tell you the sad story,” she says. “But don’t forget the hope. It gets hopeful. I hope to lead a happy life.”

She paused. “I am going to lead a happy life.”

In this brief clip from the Salem Statesman-Journal, Oregon State Hospital’s superintendent Roy Orr says why his staff and policies are not responsible for the death of patient Moises Perez.

Orr implies blame for the mental health system outside of the hospital for failing to serve prospective patients, and attempts to reframe the committees concern by explaining the additional patient observation to be started by April 1.

Roy Orr: “I want this organization to be known for having a balanced concern for physical health as well as mental health.”

Roy Orr: “The reason he died is … system failed him. He had severely occluded coronary arteries and a number of [other] medical issues. While there were treatments available to him…he frequently failed to take the medications and to respond to treatment.”

Jack Dale Collins, known to his friends as Jackie, was a late-stage alcoholic who also was known to cut himself on the arms and face. This cutting is sometimes a symptom of a mental illness, possible one of many, including trauma disorders, psychotic disorders, depression or personality disorders.

Jack lived in Portland for several years and was estranged from his family. When he died he was homeless and not receiving any services for his alcoholism or mental illness.

Timeline of Events

March 22 – Jack was shot and killed by Portland Police officer Jason Walters at Hoyt Arboretum.
March 24 – Jack identified by name to the media.

Media about what happened to Jackie Collins

Authorities Identify Man Shot By Portland Police Officer, OPB.org, March 24, 2010
Portland Police Report: Hoyt Shooting Justified, KXL.com March 25, 2010
Police leaders need to reassure city in times of crisis, not say nothing, opinion by Anna Griffin, The Oregonian, March 23, 2010
Portland police officer says shooting came after orders to drop knife, The Oregonian, March 25, 2010
Crowd gathers at SE Precinct to protest officer-involved shooting at Hoyt Arboretum, The Oregonian, March 22, 2010
Bringing a Gun to a Knife Fight, Police Shooting in Hoyt Arboretum Sparks Anger, Questions, Portland Mercury, March 25, 2010
Anti-Police Protest Draws 50, Takes Over Burnside in March to Cop Shop, Portland Mercury, March 23, 2010
Police Shoot Man at Hoyt Arboretum, Portland Mercury, March 22, 2010
Man Dead in Hoyt Arboretum Shooting, Willamette Week, March 22, 2010
Investigators interview Portland police officer involved in fatal shooting, Oregonian, March 24, 2010
Anti-police protesters march through Southeast Portland, as officers trail behind them, Oregonian, March 24, 2010
Authorities ID man shot by police, Oregonian, March 24, 2010
Transient shot by Portland police bled to death after bullet strikes a major artery, medical examiner says, Oregonian, March 23, 2010
Second fatal Portland police shooting renews question of why it takes so long to interview officer involved, Oregonian, March 23, 2010
One dead in officer-involved shooting at Portland’s Hoyt Arboretum, Oregonian, March 22, 2010
What is a Razor Knife, Anyway?, Portland Mercury, March 25, 2010
Portland police officer says shooting came after orders to drop knife, Oregonian, March 25, 2010
Police release new details in Hoyt Arboretum shooting, KATU.com, March 15, 2010
In Which I Try to Cover a Police Protest and Get Kicked out of a Public Park, Willamette Week, March 23, 2010
Albina Ministerial Alliance Condemns Delay In Interviewing Portland Officer in Fatal Shooting, OPB.com, March 25, 2010
Police statement on Collins shooting, KGW.com, March 25, 2010
Should Portland Police release more information after a shooting, or wait for the investigation?, KGW.com, March 23, 2010
Police: Protester Used Bike To Assault Officer, KPTV.com, March 24, 2010
Street Roots weighs in on latest police shooting, Street Roots, March 25, 2010
Group wants feds to investigate Portland police, AP.com, March 25, 2010
A Cop Shooting by Any Other Name, Portland Mercury, March 23, 2010
Lawyer: Portland officer talks with detectives, AP.com, March 25, 2010
Investigators interview Portland police officer involved in fatal shooting, Oregonian, March 25, 2010
Portland man arrested for police assault at shooting protest, KGW.com, March 24, 2010
Police say reforms may go nowhere, Portland Tribune, March 25, 2010

Additional Documents

Multnomah County’s Deadly Force Plan
Updated Information on Hoyt Arboretum Officer-involved Shooting, Portland Police Bureau press release, March 25, 2010 (PDF)
Poster for March 29 rally “Now we stand up and fight back” (PDF)
Poster for March 29 rally, FRONT & BACK (JPGs)
Poster against Christopher Humphreys – Portland police officer
Poster against Jason Walters – Portland police officer
Radio transcript of shooting of Jack Collins, Portland Police Bureau

Comments from Portland Police Association president Scott Westerman.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It may be months or years, if ever, before we learn what happened at the Hoyt Arboretum on March 22, 2010.

Remember – the key witness is Jason Walters, a veteran police officer, but also the shooter and therefore an extremely biased witness to a potential crime.

And remember – many of the reported facts about what happened to James Chasse and to Aaron Campbell turned out to be false.

What we can piece together from news reports and some witnesses is the following.

Jason Walters and perhaps a partner officer were called to the Hoyt Arboretum office on the afternoon of March 22. Someone complained about a middle-aged white male who was drunk.

Soon after 3 PM Jason Walters shot this man four times with our bullets. One of the bullets tore through a vital conduit and the man bleed to death at the scene.

Was crime being committed? Perhaps trespassing. Was the dead man threatening someone? No indication of a threat is described by anyone but Jason Walters through his impulsive spokesman, police union president Scott Westerman. Was the dead man wanted for crime elsewhere? We don’t know – no name has been released. (James Chasse’s name was in the media within 48 hours. Aaron Campbell’s name was revealed first in the Oregonian within 22 hours.)

The police have proven ineffective at policing themselves. The politicians sit on their hands. The oversight process is toothless. The reform process is stifled.

So what can you do?

1. Stop calling the police unnecessarily. Unless there is obvious threat to life or limb there are other solutions.
2. Be an advocate for public housing and mental health + addiction treatment. This means working with others to apply direct pressure on politicians, at the city, county and state, to fund services.
3. Public administration by litigation is stupid. Encourage stupid people to remove themselves from public policy discussions.
4. No justice no peace. That’s not a mindless chant, it’s a formula which protects our vital social contract.

Over time we’ll know more about what happened at the Hoyt Arboretum. But not today. Be safe out there.

Roy Orr apologizes to the advisory board in the wake of an undisclosed federal critique of care preceding a patient’s Oct. 17 death

From the Salem Statesman Journal, March 19, 2010

Oregon State Hospital Superintendent Roy Orr apologized Thursday to the hospital’s advisory board, saying he was “personally remiss” in failing to notify board members about a scathing federal critique of patient care before it hit the press.

“I failed myself, and I failed all of you,” he said.

It won’t happen again, Orr said, promising to give the citizen-led panel far more information about thorny issues at the Salem psychiatric facility

“You will start receiving a lot more communications from us,” he said during the board’s regular meeting. I won’t apologize for the volume.”

Thursday’s mea culpa by the hospital chief came in the wake of a recent furor that erupted about his non-disclosure of a blistering federal critique of hospital care for patient Moises Perez in the year leading up to his Oct. 17 death.

Perez, 42, was found dead in his bed in a secure treatment unit in the hospital’s forensic program. His death sparked complaints from other patients and mental health advocates who alleged that staffers neglected Perez and that he was dead for hours before anybody noticed.

An autopsy determined that Perez died from coronary artery disease.

The U.S. Department of Justice reviewed Perez’s care as part of its prolonged and ongoing investigation into patient care and hospital conditions.

After reviewing Perez’s medical records, Shanetta Cutlar, leader of the agency’s Special Litigation Section, sent Oregon a letter in January that cited sweeping defects in his care.

Cutlar said the department was alarmed by the breakdowns and concerned that similar defects in patient care might “give rise to serious harm or death in other situations.”

Hospital advisory board members first read about the damning federal critique in the Statesman Journal, and some publicly complained about Orr not making them privy to it before it appeared in the newspaper.

In his Thursday apology, Orr said he made a mistake by not telling board members about the letter and by not notifying them in advance that the newspaper had obtained it through a public-records request and intended to run a story about it.

Orr said his mistakes “very appropriately created quite a furor.”

In the wake of the flap, the state has notified the U.S. Department of Justice that Oregon no longer intends to honor the federal agency’s request for total secrecy on back-and-forth correspondence between the two sides, Orr said.

Under the state’s new stance, hospital officials will review any written materials received from the federal agency, and, in most cases, quickly share the information with the advisory board, he said.

Expanded disclosure is necessary for the board to perform its oversight role, Orr said.

In his remarks to the board about Perez’s death, Orr said the hospital’s own review of the case found that “the system failed him.”

Although Perez often refused treatment, including medications and blood-pressure checks, Orr said, “It’s clear we didn’t do all we needed to do for Mr. Perez.”

The case has raised new and complex questions about whether the hospital can assume guardianship for a patient who refuses medical care, or take legal steps to compel such treatment.

“There is no precedent for that in this organization,” Orr said.

The case also has heightened awareness about the need to address the overall health of patients, not just their mental health, officials said.

Dr. Mark Diamond, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said a planned chronic-care clinic will expand care for state hospital patients with diabetes and hypertension.

Meanwhile, the hospital has taken measures to improve patient care and monitoring since Perez’s death, officials said.

Kathy Deacon, the hospital’s chief nursing officer, said the hospital has revised its rounds policy. Staffers making hourly checks on patients now are required to confirm they are alive through observation, touch or the sound of breathing.

The City of Portland’s attorney Linda Meng and Mayor Sam Adams have pulled the plug on the city’s own legal team and hired a pricey out-of-town trio to step in on Chasse v. Humphreys.

In a story broken by the Portland Mercury, the Seattle-based law firm of Stafford Frey Cooper will represent the city in what could be their most expensive civil trial.

The Oregonian writes that Judge Garr M. King granted the city’s request to have Anne Bremner, James R. Lynch and Theron Buck, be admitted to practice law in Oregon for the limited purpose of assisting the City of Portland in the James Chasse case.

All three list experience defending police officers in civil suits.

No word yet on the fate of James Rice and the other City of Portland attorneys who prepared for trial over the past three years. And no word on the cost of these new attorneys.

The trial’s been scheduled for June but this development will likely result in further delays. Rice’s strategy seemed to be to blame Chasse’s death on an imaginary ailment called “excited delirium,” a plan which has brought chuckles from more experienced attorneys.

READ – City Hires Big Lawyer On Chasse Case, Portland Mercury, March 17, 2010

READ – High-profile Seattle defense attorney to assist Portland city attorneys in Chasse case, Oregonian, March 18, 2010

Mental health advocates, and friends and colleagues of persons with mental illness and addiction, especially those who’ve come recently to this web site, may wonder about it’s preoccupation with police accountability issues.

A brief explanation. In September 2006 James Chasse was beaten by three police officers in a busy Portland streetcorner in front of dozens of witnesses. James had schizophrenia, and for years the Portland police prided themselves on their training to help persons with mental illness. The police ignored his injuries for over an hour and James died in the back of a police car.

No one has been held accountable for what happened to James Chasse. What happened to James is not typical, but the response from the City, the County, and from the ambulance service, undermined the credibility of political leaders and convinced a city that police could get away with murder.

Since this incident, we’ve asked for justice, for clear information from the city, county, and police bureau, and held those responsible accountable for James’ brutal death.

The City of Portland and its police bureau tried to ignore what happened to James, so we’ve been the stalking horse, successfully repelling dozens of attempts extinguish public debate. In the summer of 2009 the County settled with the Chasse family for over $900,000. A civil trial is scheduled for the City and it’s police bureau in June.

From the Portland Mercury, March 18, 2010

The Spank Heard ‘Round Portland – Randy Leonard Takes on Police Oversight

In a city that often prizes process over outcomes, Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard is by no means considered perfect. He’s been a champion of a secret police list program that has drawn comparisons to the Gestapo, been accused of trying to create his own water bureau militia by arming security guards, and has even drawn constitutional lawsuits by aggressively pursuing “problem” businesses with his so-called HIT Squad.

Still, Leonard’s latest effort to strengthen the city’s Independent Police Review (IPR)—which comes before council on Thursday afternoon, March 18—is likely to further strengthen his reputation as a populist dealmaker with a keen ear for the Rose City zeitgeist.

“Think about the difference in this community about police relations since last October,” says IPR Director Mary-Beth Baptista. “There has been a significant deterioration over the last few months.”

Indeed, calls for stronger police oversight have reached a climax in Portland ever since Officer Christopher Humphreys shot a 12-year-old girl with a “less-lethal” beanbag shotgun last fall. Humphreys was suspended by Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman, and then reinstated following a march on city hall by the police union.

At the time, Leonard described Saltzman as a “parrot for the police chief.” Chief Rosie Sizer had wanted to wait until an investigation into Humphreys’ actions was complete before proposing discipline. But Humphreys was also the key officer involved in the death in police custody of James Chasse Jr., a man with schizophrenia, back in 2006. An investigation into that incident took three years to complete, resulting in suggested discipline for Humphreys of just two weeks off—prompting cries from community groups that rogue officers are being allowed to act out with impunity.

Then on January 29, Officer Ron Frashour shot Aaron Campbell in the back. Campbell was an unarmed and suicidal African American man. Last fall, Chief Sizer herself had testified against Officer Frashour in a federal court case accusing him of excessive force. Nevertheless, Frashour went back to work the day after Reverend Jesse Jackson came to town in February and called Campbell’s death “an execution,” cueing further public outrage.

“Right now is a very difficult time in our community,” said IPR’s Citizen Review Committee Chair Michael Bigham, introducing a meeting to hear community concerns about the police at Portland State University on Sunday, March 14. “People are hurt, they feel angry and confused. They want changes in how the police do business.”

The biggest change proposed by Commissioner Leonard, in partnership with the IPR and City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade, is to create a new five-member police review board inside the police bureau. The board will include the IPR and a citizen appointed by the auditor as voting members. Leonard also wants to ensure that there’s a 12-month limit on investigations into officer misconduct, and grant the IPR subpoena power so that it can compel testimony in its investigations.

“For example, we had a case the other day where Project Respond [the county service that interfaces between police and people with mental health problems] wouldn’t talk to us,” says IPR’s Baptista. “American Medical Response [the ambulance company involved in Chasse's death] is also notoriously difficult to get information from. And there’s a reality to that—without a subpoena, they don’t have to talk to us.”

Leonard’s changes are hardly sweeping. There’s no suggestion of drug and steroid testing for officers, ongoing psychological assessment, or new incentives for officers to live in Portland—three suggestions mentioned repeatedly at Sunday’s hearing.

“But we’re not working in a vacuum, either,” says Baptista. “The union negotiations are going on right now, and if the community really wants annual performance review, drug testing, [and] encouraging police officers to live in the city, then they have to continue to put the pressure on those negotiations.”

Those negotiations started in the dark and cavernous Portland Building on SW 4th on Friday, March 12, with the police union objecting to the city’s stance that members of the public should be able to sit in and watch. The city says that in theory, the public can sit in, but no one has ever asked before. Meanwhile, the union says the city is playing politics.

“We’re in a difficult situation here because, of course, we’re not alone in the room,” said union attorney Will Aitchison. “We have all sorts of people who are in the room with no stake in our bargaining process.”

The issue of whether the public indeed has an interest in those negotiations and can sit in on them has been referred to the state’s Employment Review Board, giving Leonard at least a few more weeks to get his reforms passed.

Meanwhile, City Commissioner Amanda Fritz plans to ask for a delay until April on Leonard’s emergency ordinance vote, which was scheduled for Thursday. Fritz wants the public to have time to review and weigh in on the proposals.

“Public involvement and transparency in decision-making are two of my core values,” she wrote in a statement on her website.

Not for Leonard, of course.

“Every minute that this strengthened oversight proposal is not in place is another minute too long,” says Leonard’s chief of staff, Ty Kovatch.

Then again, when it comes to spanking the Portland Police Bureau, some feel Fritz’s delay will simply allow Leonard time to posture more loudly. Some wonder what value Fritz’s own posturing about “public process” really has, in the greater scheme of things.

“The IPR has been toothless since it was launched in 2001,” says Jason Renaud with the Mental Health Association of Portland—an outspoken advocate for police reform. “Another month of dawdling and vote trading by city commissioners provides the same police accountability as they’ve provided for their tenure.”

READ – Auditor pushes police reforms, Griffen-Valade finds herself in unlikely role of cop reviewer, Portland Tribune, March 18, 2010

OUR COMMENT – Leonard & Valade-Griffin’s proposed ordinance will do nothing to protect innocent persons from being injured or killed by police officer’s overzealous use of force. It will not rebuild the trust swept away by impunity. Since September 2009, the community has offered dozens of useful, simple, legal, non-threatening, apolitical steps towards reconciliation. The commissioner and auditor’s proposal is entirely political, and largely protects them personally from political attack by their city hall colleagues. Pathetic.

Two sudden vacancies on the Multnomah County Commission caused a rush of candidates. We’ve asked them all – Mike Darger, Jeff Cogen, Wes Soderback for chairmanship, and Paul van Orden, Chuck Currie, Gary Hansen, Karol Collymore, Loretta Smith, Tom Markgraf, Roberta Phillip, Maria C. Rubio for the #2 seat, representing N & NE Portland, to tell us their position on mental health issues.

Tom Markgraf, Multnomah County Commission Candidate

When I was a young man, one of my cousins suffered from mental illness and ended up taking his own life. His struggle with mental illness had a profound effect on my outlook throughout my later life. Already involved in public service, I determined to make serving the mentally ill a priority.

I worked as the project coordinator and built Transition Project’s homeless shelter and SRO housing. I was honored to be asked to join the board of Mental Health Services West and I soon became board chair. During my service there I expanded housing, started the Children’s Program, created Project Respond, and purchased the Royal Palm.

I advocated at the legislature, with the City of Portland and Multnomah County for mental health services. Since that time I have also served on the board of Outreach in Burnside which served the mentally ill of Old Town China Town.

I believe you can see the quality of the community in how they treat their least fortunate. And Multnomah County can do better for its mentally ill citizens.

We need real funding for the mentally ill. Better funding would not only better serve the least fortunate amongst us, it would also result in real savings. People on their medicine and in safe housing don’t act out. They don’t require the police. They aren’t housed in jails because there is no place else to put them. And they don’t end up in emergency rooms – the most expensive form of health care – because they don’t get regular treatment.

I will continue to support the causes of the mentally ill.

“This is about a system that is based on power and fear rather than on dignity and respect, ” Marcia Meyers, Lisa Coppock’s mother

Lisa Coppock was scheduled to appear in Multnomah County Court on March 16 for misdemeanors for:

theft of services (a $2.50 MAX ticket)
disobeying an officer of the law
resisting arrest

Instead, all charges were dropped and the case was dismissed last Thursday. After dozens of court appearances stretching over two years, Lisa stood her ground. She never conceded to the system that charged her, but had no consequences for Portland Police Officer Christopher Humphreys who in the process of arresting Coppock, threw her to the ground and slammed her head into the pavement. Humphreys’ treatment of Coppock while arresting her for allegedly not paying her MAX fare resulted in her being taken to the hospital for stitches before she was taken to jail.

BACKGROUND

Lisa’s case started in April 2008 when she got on the MAX in Gresham without a ticket. She boarded, planning to pay the appropriate officials and explain that the ticket machine was broken. Lisa was confronted by two police officers she explained her situation and held out her money. One of the the officers then ask her to get off the MAX. When she asked him why she felt a huge amount of rage emanating from the officer and she ran.

Lisa was pursued, thrown to the ground and had her head slammed into the pavement by that same officer. She was then arrested, taken to the hospital, where she received stitches for her head wound and was then taken to jail.

Later when talking with her court-appointed attorney, Coppock found out the officer from whom she had felt the rage and from whom she had fled was Christopher Humphreys. This is the same officer who was involved in the death of James Chasse in 2008,the bean bag shooting of a twelve-year-old girl near the MAX late last year, and the 2003 Chaz Miller case, where Humphreys dragged the wrong man from a truck and beat him with a baton.

Ordinarily, a case like Coppock’s would have been dropped quickly. Instead it dragged out for nearly two years. In the week before the case was dismissed, the charges against Coppock were reduced from misdemeanor to citation. Officer Christopher Humphreys is now implicated in a civil lawsuit in around the death of James Chasse. The Chaz Miller case led to an out-of-court settlement with costs to the city totaling over $133,000.

CASE HAS LARGER MEANING FOR THE COMMUNITY

Lisa and her mother, Marcia Meyers, want to share Lisa’s story with the community at large. They are also working with others to improve police accountability. This week they are joining the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice & Police Reform in urging others to go to the City Council hearing about changes to the Portland police oversight division on Thursday March 18 at 2 PM at City Hall, 1221 SW 4th.

“This is not just about Lisa’s case.” says Meyers. “This is about shining a light on an oppressive system that has many of us living in fear. Lisa and I want to use what we have learned in the last two years to help transform this system to one that is more compassionate and humane.”

READ – Portland officer Christopher Humphreys at heart of another lingering court case, this one over TriMet fare, Oregonian, March 2, 2010
READ – Bad Apple Reputation, New Lawsuit Threatened Against Chasse Cop, Portland Mercury, January 29, 2009