Your thoughts, Luther?

[Dinsdale]

PORTLAND - No criminal charges for two Portland police officers and a Multnomah County deputy involved in the death of James Chasse, a grand jury decided Tuesday.

The 42-year-old died last month while in police custody. He suffered from schizophrenia.

After learning that Chasse suffered 16 broken ribs and other internal injuries, his family believed that police used excessive force. The medical examiner said Chasse was hurt when an officer accidentally fell on him during a brief foot pursuit.

Thirty witnesses gave testimony, including the three officers. The grand jury decision was unanimous.

Gee, didn't see the exoneration from the Grand Jury coming here...:rolleyes:

In the staggering slew of police shootings around here, this is the one I think is going to cause a big fucking problem.

Most9if not all)of the other cases...oh well. Pull toy guns or knives or whatnot on cops, and Darwin rears his ugly head. But these guys...there's just too many eyewitnesses with an entirely different story from the cops. But of course, they lined up 30 witnesses to the contrary, but the cops' story is the one that stands?

Come the fuck on.


A pictures is worth a thousand words(more like 10,000 in Dinsdalese) --



That's the cops standing over a man they just laid a fatal boot party on. In the street. Catch is, the guy is alive and (barely) breathing. Was he given medical attention? No. The cops told the paramedics they'd take him bar car to the hospital...they didn't. Dude died from massive chest injuries, amongst other things.


This man's crime? Suffering from schizophrenia. According to the cops, his other crime was urinating on the sidewalk, although they can't seem to find any of the myriad witnesses to back this up. The witnesses closest to the scene seemed to tell a different story -- that Chasse merely called the cops some objectionable names.

It is widely believed that there are more witnesses, but since in the past when people have questioned the actions of the Portland Police, they've mysteriously ended up dead. Not good incentive to coming forward with your version of events.

I don't have any statistics in front of me, but I believe the police have now committed more homicides in the metro area than the bad guys have...a deplorable ratio.

Don't get me wrong -- when you commit a violent crime, and you continue your aggression once the popo show up, your rolling some very dangerous dice, and rightfully so. But when an unarmed man calls the cops a name, and is stomped to death in front of a crowd in the middle of the day...something's wrong.


In this run of public hearings about all of these incedents in the last few years, the DA/police department/union reps seem to have a knack for getting any evidence or testimony that outs the cop in a bad light supressed.

And the ugly bottom line -- this guy was white, and his family apparently has some financial means. The cops done fucked up BIG this time, as did the Grand Jury. Although with the complete lack of accountability in recent years, the Blue Wall has grown quite strong, and the city will spend much time and money keeping this case from any further action.

It's pretty hard for anyone with a scrap of common sense to believe that several allegedly trained police officers couldn't take a mentally ill man into custody without stomping him to death.

Absolutely deplorable behavior on the cops' end, and equally deplorable actions by the courts in hiding behind the Blue Wall. These renegades need to be tossed to the lions, as a deterrent to the ever-increasing violence against the public that the police are exhibiting. It's not OK to kill unarmed people just because they called you a name.

And any time now, the police/city are going to want people to accept a tax increase to bolster the size/strength of the police department...think that's going to happen now? They've bitten the hand that feeds them.


I really think there's going to be fallout from this one...they went too far this time.

[Luther]

When the original story first broke, I thought, "This one won't look good on a resume." Am I buying the story that some of the injuries were caused by an officer tripping over Chasse, and then falling on top of him? Maybe if you've laid somebody out on the sidewalk and I can WWW skydrop on top of him, maybe...

No, I think this baby is going to civil court and the city better be socking away the bucks now.

Rip City

[Goober McTuber]

A pictures is worth a thousand words(more like 10,000 in Dinsdalese) --

You’re saying that your words are worth much less than those of other people? Brilliant.

[Dinsdale]

No, I think this baby is going to civil court and the city better be socking away the bucks now.

And there you have it -- this is all about the money.

Again, I have no problem overall with the Police Department as a whole. It's just the complete lack of accountability they have towards the rogues that rubs people the wrong way.

If you read some local boards/blogs/newspapers, there were a whoooole bunch of witnesses, and what they're saying, and what the Grand Jury based their ruling on were two COMPLETELY d9ifferent things. Sure, everyone has a story, and anyone can make up bullshit...but the only people who didn't give identical accounts of the incident were...the cops. I mean, dozens of people saw what happened, yet the Grand Jury didn't seem to care what they had to say. They broke 16 ribs in 26 places...and all the eyewitnesses claimed the officers continued stomping on the guy's torso while he was unconcious/subdued...and seemed to be enjoying the sport of it.

And as a former officer with that department, you know better than anyone else how badly they rig those Grand Juries when something like this comes up.

Remember when that dude shot the female police officer back when Moron Moose was the chief? Dude had a Consttutional Right to protect himself in his home, and the badge was meaningless once they violated procedure by breaking into his home. My buddy is a paramedic, and he got there late, but one of his close frinds was first on the scene, and he claimed there were some VERY questionable procedural violations committed that day. And then when half the lawyers in town offered to take on his soon-to-be civil case, the dude magically regained the ability to sit up on his own in his hospital bed, and even had, in a few short days of paralysis, regained his ability to hang himself in his hospital room. And oddly enough, the DA actually threatened criminal charges when anyone tried to launch a private investigation...HMMMM.....


When people start getting dead over this shit, there's something horribly wrong. And rather than try and correct it through accountability, they make the situation worse by protecting those involved, even though everyone in the entire area knows the police committed a crime.

I have no problem with the police doing their job. In fact, I'd send a thank you letter if they ever capped any of the gangbangers downtown whoo think that a gunfight on busy streets is anj acceptable bar-closing activity. But there's a line, and in this case, it has clearly been crossed.

This is not going to end well for the Portland Police. Hell, I would have subdued the guy for a nominal fee, and he would have been alive for his trip to the State Hosptial. Or they could have hired the Enraged Slumpbuster who choked out the Jizzmopper/Hitman. They had a chance to do the right thing, but they didn't...and since it was a white guy from the middle class this time, who just happened to have some mental issues, it's not going to get swept under the rug this time.


And the police department's response? Of course, no more than a matter of hours go by, and they're already clamouring for more money for "better training." Seems to me, if that's their response, that implies an admission of poor training(read: poor judgement by the officers).


Somehow, I just can't picture Officer Luth being party to anything like this.


Should be some good theater in the coming weeks. Fuck it -- string those cops up in Pioneer Square. They could charge some serious admission, and that would help finance the police department.

[Dinsdale]

A pictures is worth a thousand words(more like 10,000 in Dinsdalese) --

You’re saying that your words are worth much less than those of other people? Brilliant.

You're saying your slow to catch a joke? Brilliant.

[Luther]

"Remember when that dude shot the female police officer back when Moron Moose was the chief? Dude had a Consttutional Right to protect himself in his home, and the badge was meaningless once they violated procedure by breaking into his home. My buddy is a paramedic, and he got there late, but one of his close friends was first on the scene, and he claimed there were some VERY questionable procedural violations committed that day. And then when half the lawyers in town offered to take on his soon-to-be civil case, the dude magically regained the ability to sit up on his own in his hospital bed, and even had, in a few short days of paralysis, regained his ability to hang himself in his hospital room. And oddly enough, the DA actually threatened criminal charges when anyone tried to launch a private investigation...HMMMM..... "

The "dude" was trying to burn up all the chronic that he was growing in his house when the police knocked on his door. Watching him trying to jam all those pretty buds into the fireplace basically would tweek the argument that he was "destroying evidence" which then would justify the police breaking down the door. He opens up on the cops with some automatic rifle of some sort, kills one female cop, critically wounds another, and grazes the male Sgt. at the scene. My best bud was watching the front of the house from the yard, and he saw it all happen. When the "Code Zero" was called, I bust my ass up there from about 60th and Holgate. I ended up sharing part of a bush along the east/back yard of that involved house.

Dude had use of his arms and he wrapped something around his neck and then tied it to his bed somehow. Then he uses the controls to lower or raise (can't remember the direction) the bed and it basically hangs his sorry ass. Fuck, Dins, had the police wanted to kill him they would have finished him off in his house when the SERT team went in there. They in turn drug his naked ass out of the house and onto the back of one of those military looking vehicles, where they dropped him off at some ambulance down the street.

I see your point, but the comparisons aren't up to par on this one.

Rip City

[Dinsdale]

The "dude" was trying to burn up all the chronic that he was growing in his house when the police knocked on his door. Watching him trying to jam all those pretty buds into the fireplace basically would tweek the argument that he was "destroying evidence" which then would justify the police breaking down the door.

This is somewhat off-topic, but they "watched" him do it?

Revisionist history, much?

The report at the time said they "smelled" him doing it. As both a concerned citizen and an armchair defense attorney, I was just kinda curious which university the cops got their chemistry degree in, to be able to conclusively identify the smell of burning marijuana, as opposed to any other wet flora?[/devil's advocate]

And the person who claimed that the "perp" was growing marijuana...where's his signature on that affidavit again?

Oh. But as long as the ends justify the means, what's a little Constitution between friends, right?

He opens up on the cops with some automatic rifle of some sort, kills one female cop, critically wounds another, and grazes the male Sgt. at the scene.

After they ILLEGALLY broke into his home. At what point does a badge become a license to commit crimes?

They in turn drug his naked ass out of the house and onto the back of one of those military looking vehicles, where they dropped him off at some ambulance down the street.

Here, I'll help you out with that..."They intentionally drug him over a pile of scrap sheetmetal, causing further severe lacerations and severe bleeding, which they then denied the man medical attention for an inappropriate amount of time."

Or so says the responding EMS worker...but you never heard his testimony over it, did you now?

And as far as "they dropped him off at an ambulance down the street"...tell the whole story, Luth. The ambulance was on the scene, and the police committed a MAJOR procedural violation by first attempting to send a paramedic in before the scene was secure...which as you well fucking know is a HUGE no-no. But...you didn't hear about that part in the media, did you?

I see your point, but the comparisons aren't up to par on this one.

Yeas and no. The comparisons are valid imo, because it speaks to the fact that any evidence that puts the cops in a bad light in these confrontations is swept under the rug. It's not about the truth, or what really happened, it's about trying to preserve the "sterling image" of the police, which they never had in the forst place, because they will NEV R admit fault for anything, and the rogues flourish in such an environment.

[Atomic Punk]

Here, I'll help you out with that..."They intentionally drug him over a pile of scrap sheetmetal, causing further severe lacerations and severe bleeding, which they then denied the man medical attention for an inappropriate amount of time."

I'll bet if the druggie used square-headed deck screws in that sheet metal, there would be no severe lacerations or bleeding now would there?

[YD]

Dins, I hardly think that dude was thinking about the constitution when he knew the cops were kicking down his door any minute. Dude was probably tweaking hard, and grabbed his AK for a fight to the death. If I'm innocent and the cops are at my door....I don't think I'm locking and loading.

and once he had shot a couple of their buddies (with a fukken assult rifle), I'm not surprised the cops went warlock on the idiot.

[Luther]

Granted, I wasn't a big fan of these "friendly knock knock" deals or whatever they called them. For the most part they'd tell the people that they were given information that they were growing pot on their property, that their electrical usage in the last six months rivaled that of the Rose Garden, and that you could actually smell pot all the way out to the mailbox.

Officers testifying about the "look" of pot, the "smell of growing" pot, or the "smell of burning" pot are acceptable testimony in a court of law. Years of training, and experience *cough* allows you to testify to these types of things. I can't remember what those officers claimed at the time whether it was seeing pot, smelling pot or what. But everything they were there for turned out to be correct. There was pot growing, and he was trying to destroy it.

The sad part however is that they should have known more about this guy. I'd want to know all about his history, his past convictions, any history of mental illness, any information regarding guns etc. Had I known that some guy had an assault weapon, and maybe told a few friends of his that he would never go back to jail, or if he would kill anyone who broke into his house, or blah blah blah. I would have wanted to know that. I don't think that team knew all that stuff, and well, someone was killed over it.

The procedures mostly had to do with that actual knock and announce thing and what they knew about the subject and the house. There was a little argument over "exigent circumstances," regarding the necessity to make a forced entry into the home sans a search warrant. But that all petered out when all the information started to come out.

You've brought back memories of a bad day.

Rip City

[Luther]

My fingers are heavy today and I doubled posted.

luth

[Goober McTuber]

A pictures is worth a thousand words(more like 10,000 in Dinsdalese) --

You’re saying that your words are worth much less than those of other people? Brilliant.

You're saying your slow to catch a joke? Brilliant.

No, I understood that you’re likely to use 10 times as many words as anyone else to say the same thing. I just thought it needed to be pointed out that this particular equation implies a much lesser worth for your words than those of others. I do these things to help out the Ciceros of the world.

[Derron]

Don't choke em... smoke em....

[Dinsdale]

Possum Toss'um.

[Dinsdale]

They don't make a rolleyes big enough for this floater.

They don't make a rolleyes big enough to show disdain for your underestimation of a sleazy defense attorney.

Actually, I've seen this same defense (successfully) used in a different, but similar situation....when I was....uhm....an observer in the courtroom. Yeah, that's it...observer.

[The phantorino]

So, that Afrikanns, nazi piece of shit was somewhat right. the U & L is at the forefront of US states turning the country into South Africa, but PRE-ANC.

Something tells me that Louisiana is the same, and that the LAPD is aglorified private army.

Can we smell the whiff of Revolution in the air?

[Dinsdale]

the U & L is at the forefront of US states turning the country into South Africa, but PRE-ANC.

Huh?

State-that-lets-illegals-get-voter-registration-cards-and-driver's-licensces-sayswhat?

I only wish you knew what the fuck you were talking about.

[Cuda]

This man's crime? Suffering from schizophrenia.

Dude was a schizo?

Obviously, he broke his own fucking ribs.

Intentionally

Then pissed on the sidewalk

[Smackie Chan]

Can we smell the whiff of Revolution in the air?

Just smells like wet flora to me.

[Jerkovich]

This man's crime? Suffering from schizophrenia.

Dude was a schizo?

Obviously, he broke his own fucking ribs.

Intentionally

Then pissed on the sidewalk

I'll go with multiple page rap sheet for $500 dumbfucks. The POlice was doing us all a favor.

[Dinsdale]

PORTLAND, Ore. - The family of a mentally ill man who died in police custody lashed out at police Wednesday, alleging that they, and the district attorney's office, hijacked grand jury proceedings to keep officers from facing criminal charges.

A Multnomah County grand jury on Tuesday cleared police in the death of James Chasse Jr., 42, who died Sept. 17 after a struggle with two Portland police officers and a Multnomah County Sheriff's Deputy. Chasse died while the officers were transporting him to the hospital.

In the autopsy report, it stated that Chasse broke 16 ribs, including some that punctured a lung and caused massive internal bleeding. Toxicology tests showed he had no alcohol or drugs in his system. Despite the autopsy results, the medical examiner ruled Chasse's death accidental.

On Tuesday, Police Chief Rosie Sizer expressed regret over the incident and talked about how the Portland Police Bureau was planning to do in light of Chasse's death. In addition, Mayor Potter apologized to the Chasse family.

An attorney for Chasse's family, Tom Steenson, said Wednesday that authorities twisted the facts of what happened that day.

"We would hope that Chief Sizer and the Police Bureau would stop dispersing false information to the public and be truthful so the community can make its own decision about what happened," he said.

Steenson contended that Chasse's injuries did not match the conclusions by the medical examiner. He also claimed there were also inconsistencies in transcripts of officers' accounts of how they took Chasse into custody. For example, the lawyer pointed out, Portland police officer Christopher Humphreys said he gave Chasse a "really hard shove," but Sgt. Kyle Nice said Humphreys tackled Chasse and both men landed in the intersection.

Overall, Steenson contended, grand jurors never received an accurate picture of the events surrounding Chasse's death.

"When the medical examiner is in there telling the grand jury that this was an accident and basing her conclusion on the fact that (one of the officers) fell on Jim - when that's not the truth - it's clear that the grand jury, from our point of view, was misled," Steenson said.

The grand jury unanimously agreed that Nice, Humphreys and Multnomah County Sheriff's Deputy Brett Burton did nothing criminal while Chasse was in custody. Chasse's family said regardless of the grand jury decision, they remain upset at police.

"We remain horrified by the callous and completely indifferent ways the police and law enforcement treated James the day he was killed," said Chasse's father, James Chasse, Sr.

Steenson said the city needs to send a message with the case.

"In this case it's about attitude," he said. "If the city doesn't take remedial steps and prompt steps to address concerns like this with these officers then there's no reason for the officers not to continue to exhibit out of control behavior and that's what they did. They were out of control."

Steenson left open the possibility of filing a civil lawsuit in connection with the case. He said he also might seek an independent review from an outside agency such the Oregon Attorney General's Office.

Yup -- 3 freaking weeks to prepare, and the cops STILL couldn't get their lie story straight.

3 cops, none of their stories matched...about 30 eyewitnesses, whose stories all matched, and all of those stories were about a boot-party on a crowded street.


The games are just beginning. I don't think there's anyone in this area that doesn;t think the cops are bald-faced liars, and the city went way out of its way to protect them(par for the course on these matters). But at a time when community trust of the police is pretty much at an all-time low, they really fucking screwed the pooch this time.

Heads should roll.

Make no mistake, that was one of four police homicides that week...one of which was pretty shady, the other two, the community didn't bat an eye, since the perps pretty much Darwined themselves.

[Cuda]

A few years ago in the 303, a coupla off-duty cops working a bar emptied just over 2 hi-cap mags EACH into some poor fuck who was trying to flee in his car from an ass-kicking. The DA found the shooting totally justifiable because the cops said they were in fear for their lives from the car, which was going away from them. Their hit-ratio was very high: 38 of approximately 40 shots hit paydirt

The DA is now running for Governor and is pissed that his opponent got a hold of supposedly restricted information on his long running practice of plea bargaining wetbacks accused of felonies down to misdemeanor agricultural tresspass. A heroin dealer got kicked loose on the Ag-Tresspass dealio and in his gratitude, went on to molest a child.

Now that his opponent made this all public, Mr. Former DA is all of a sudden tough on crime: He demanded- and got- the FBI to investigate how the opposition got that information!

[Luther]

I used to carry a Smith and Wesson revolver, and when we all switched over to 9mm's I bought one of those 3rd wheel trailers to haul all my ammo around with. You should have seen the looks I got driving down Dinsdale's street. Bwahaha.

Rip City

[smackaholic]

guess this gives a whole new meaning to the term pig-pile.

[RadioFan]

$500 dumbfucks.

Is that how much the reindeer trolls swindled out of you?

The cops in Tulsa generally aren't that bad, but the cops in Lawrence, Kan., on the other hand ...

I'm sure there's an internal memo going out from the chief there to all officers urging them to study this as an example of good public relations.