Daryl Turner's cell phone rang shortly after 1 am this morning.

The president of Portland's rank-and-file police union, Turner often tells people he'll answer the phone at any hour of the day. So he answered.

On the line was Teressa Raiford, one of the leaders of the nascent protest movement that's begun calling for police reform in a series of well-attended protests and meetings since late last month.

"I couldn't sleep, because I was worried about my safety and the safety of my protestors," Raiford said today. "If I didn't call him I was just gonna keep crying."

Instead, the short conversation set the stage for an impromptu meeting this afternoon between members of the group Don't Shoot Portland and leadership at the Portland Police Association. The meeting—which was actually supposed to be nothing more than another vocal protest of police abuses and a lack of oversight over officers—came a day after Turner sent a message to union members, decrying a "culture of hatred toward law enforcement" that's springing up around the country and, he said, had led to the killing of two New York City police officers over the weekend.

Rather than locked doors and closed windows, protestors showed up at the PPA's Northwest Portland headquarters at 1 pm to Turner opening the door to them and calling for refreshments,

"We're gonna have a conversation," he said. "I have no problem having a conversation."

What ensued was nearly two hours of largely civil back-and-forth. Protestors trickled in over the course of that time, numbering about 20 eventually. The PPA refused to allow video or audio recording (I snapped four pictures, since no one said anything about photography, and got chastised).

The discussion touched many issues. People mostly wanted to know about Turner's statement—in particular a part that reads:

How did this happen? The cold-blooded assassination of two of New York's finest in broad daylight? For months now, the media, politicians and community activists have been vilifying the police. They call us murderers and racists. Now, these same people who so quickly crucified the police are backpedaling. They are blaming a crazed gunman for the deplorable shooting. But it is their very words that fueled his anger and the anger of many Americans with unfounded accusations characterizing all police as brutal thugs. They have created a culture of hatred towards law enforcement nationwide. This can’t go on.

Pressed about those comments, Turner stuck to a semantic argument, pointing out he never said a thing about the local movement, or that local protestors had contributed to this "culture of hatred." He never addressed whether he thought local protestors were contributing to that culture, only that his statement didn't say so.

"I didn't name anyone or say it's local," he said. "None of this says anything about the protestors."

There was a lot more. Hit the jump for a selection of tweets from the meeting.

It would be hard to take anything negative from the sit-down, which ended with promises of future dialogue and, both sides said, a better understanding of the other.

"I think we got an agenda-based dialogue," Raiford said afterward. It's more than she'd expected. "I was thinking we were gonna get arrested for sure."

She noted, though, that she'd not been moved from her opposition or concern over Turner's statement, which he'd taken pains to tell protestors was "for members" and not the public at large.

"The statement to me still seems the same," Raiford said. "We held him accountable to those statements."

Following the meeting, activists lingered outside of PPA headquarters. They were going to do what they had come to do. When the Mercury left, about 17 people were carrying out a protest.