From The Skanner, March 31, 2010. Guest opinion by Jason Renaud.

The board of the Mental Health Association of Portland do not endorse the tactics taken Monday 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 the protesters and we -understand where it started.

It started on Sept. 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 its City Council, its 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 26 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 an 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 11 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 infrastructure of our community.

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.

(Photo: Flickr.com/Thomas Hawk)

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

Published in The Skanner, March 31, 2010

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.

Portland Police Officer Ron Frashour

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.

Westerman - a Taser is not 100%