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Thursday, July 10, 2008

News Cops On Pregnant Panhandler: She Wasn't Pregnant, She's A Junkie...

Posted by Matt Davis on Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 10:41 AM

The Portland Police Bureau addressed the story of Catherine "Jasmine" Perkins, at this morning's Street Access For Everyone committee, the girl whose 10 sit/lie cites somehow slipped through the city's cracks, by telling the group "she has a heroin addiction," and that she wasn't even pregnant. "Everyone comes up with, how can I put this, a unique sign to draw in money," said Portland Police Officer Craig Dobson, in telling people about her case.
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Also, Dobson told the group, Perkins was mocked by fellow street kids for having her sign. She got into an altercation with another group of street kids, according to Commander Mike Reese, and a young man stepped in, who told Reese that he'd had his teeth kicked in for trying to intervene.

Apart from attacking the credibility of Perkins' story and blabbing about her medical issues, the cops did also apologize for, and explain, the data error that led to 11 of her sit/lie cites not appearing on the SAFE oversight committee's list.

"I'd like first and foremost to apologize to everyone on the committee for the error in our records division," said Reese.

The records division's code for a warning (#88) is different from their code for a miscellaneous violation under which the sit/lie cites fall (#269). Because Perkins stopped receiving warnings fairly early on, only her first warning was captured under the cops' records sweep, said Reese. But not her subsequent 10 citations.

Reese estimated that three other people with multiple citations have also slipped through the cracks. He's asked the records division to go through all the #269 cites from now on when it prepares data for the oversight committee.

Perkins, who is about to move into housing, now has around $3,000 of fines. Marc Jolin of JOIN is talking with Deputy District Attorney Laurie Abraham about ways for Perkins to transfer those fines to community service.

 

Commenting was not available when this article was originally published.

Comments (15) RSS

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1
Wow. So it turns out this "victim" is not pregnant at all, just a "heroin addict." And the police have a fairly detailed explanation for what went wrong.

Hmmm. So I'll just wait here on the comment board for a retraction of the knee-jerk lefty indignation we saw after the initial post.

Waiting... waiting... yaaaaawn
Posted by Blabby on July 10, 2008 at 11:40 AM · Report
2
Oh, and thank God she's "is about to move into housing."

How much is that costing us?
Posted by Blabby on July 10, 2008 at 11:42 AM · Report
3
I also expect no apologies for my posts about this liar junkie when I said a pregnant woman had plenty of opportunity to find housing.
Posted by D on July 10, 2008 at 12:03 PM · Report
4
Oh, this was about THAT girl? I used to see her all the time at Powell & Milwaukie holding that sign.

She didn't look pregnant, nor did she get any bigger over the couple of months I would see her there. I kinda always figured it was a scam. They usually are.

I worked in a bar in Medford while going to college in Ashland and there were always these two dudes (only ever one at a time, though) at the freeway exit with signs, but I noticed they shared the same dog.

They both came into my bar one night, spending that hard-earned spange on well whiskey, and they were discussing their schedule for sharing the dog and one of them was bitching about how much less he got per day when he couldn't use the other dude's dog... then they took a cab home.

This is why I never give out change. It doesn't help, it just enables.
Posted by DemonJuice on July 10, 2008 at 12:29 PM · Report
5
this is another perfect example of class war and keeping the oppressed that way.
because this girl was homeless, she now has to pay $3000 in sit/lie citations, further keeping her POOR.

THIS CITY IS F*#KED UP-
PROTEST SAM ADAMS FOR HIS SUPPORT OF THIS.
Posted by the people on July 10, 2008 at 12:52 PM · Report
6
Wait, you're implying that teenager WASN'T a pregnant Vietnam vet needing $2.34 to get some gas to drive and pick up her dying father?

What has the world come to.
Posted by Freshmaker on July 10, 2008 at 1:07 PM · Report
7
Sam Adams hasn't officially taken the position of mayor. Therefore,
WE, THE PEOPLE, CALL FOR HIS IMMEDIATE RECALL:

On the basis of Human Rights violations, already deemed so by the ACLU via both the illegal and fascist Sit/Lie Ordinances penned for and by the private Portland Business Alliance,
and the illegal and fascist powers given to their arm of enforcement, including Downtown Clean & Safe, and further perpetrated by the Portland Police Bureau.

We further demand these bodies be individually investigated for violations of human and civil rights and brought to the court of justice.

We will not allow this treason against THE PEOPLE any longer.
The People have SPOKEN.
Posted by the people on July 10, 2008 at 1:09 PM · Report
8
Hey the people - the subject at hand is not (unproven) human rights violations - it's that the 'victim' is a liar and a con artist.
Posted by D on July 10, 2008 at 1:25 PM · Report
9
The People: "she now has to pay $3000 in sit/lie citations"

You really think she's going to pay any of that? You're adorable.
Posted by Blabby on July 10, 2008 at 1:32 PM · Report
10
Cool,

Our Cops are now medical doctors and can tell if a woman is pregnant by looking at them.

Come on... Is Officer Craig Dobson (MD) really in a position to make the determination if a female is pregnant? Really? Do Portland Police carry pregnancy test and administer them?

Or could it this an attempt of the Portland Police to attack the creditability of a person.

After all ¨officers Craig Dobson and Mike Cox are detailed by Central Precinct to support Clean and Safe¨ according to the Portland Allianceś April 2008 news letter... and we know how creditable they are.

http://www.portlandalliance.com/news_cals/BIDnewsletter_april2008.html
Posted by I am not a Doctor either on July 10, 2008 at 2:05 PM · Report
11
Just quit giving bums money. It's really that simple.

Oh, and stop reading Matt's posts.
Posted by Suburban Porn King on July 10, 2008 at 3:24 PM · Report
12
"Come on... Is Officer Craig Dobson (MD) really in a position to make the determination if a female is pregnant?"

We can either believe him, or the junkie street kid who begging for money while showing no signs of being pregnant. Not a tough choice for me.
Posted by Blabby on July 10, 2008 at 4:32 PM · Report
13
wait a minute here! don't forget that Officer Dobson is a cop...as in being a PoPiggy... and from that rank we get such characters as Jason Sery, Scott McCollister, Kyle Nice, Christ- opher Humphreys, Leo Besner and on and on...and they expect us to believe them? GET REAL folks! Though crass, they none-the-less were astute enough cover-up artists to get by with killing a fellow citizen! So be dubious of any PoPiggy when he/she squeals...
Posted by Bad Robot on July 10, 2008 at 5:20 PM · Report
14
god, this popiggy shit again. do you people have any idea how thoroughly you're alienating those that are sympathetic to your causes with this sophomoric shit?
Posted by A cat on July 10, 2008 at 7:21 PM · Report
15
LOL!!LOL!!
Posted by Al M on July 11, 2008 at 8:53 AM · Report

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