http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2008/11/12/cop_union_boss_has_strong_word Comments On: Cop Union Boss Has Strong Words On Chasse Case by Matt Davis en-us Copyright 2009 Portland Mercury. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Portland Mercury readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Portland Mercury. webmaster@portlandmercury.com (Portland Mercury Webmaster) Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0800 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:30:00 -0800 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
Community policing, conceptually, is a great answer to this issue. Even so, we have to have some lines drawn for the human pit bulls who enforce our laws. Like, pissing in the street is NOT justifiable cause for the kind of apprehension used on James Chasse. Might we all agree on that one point?
Posted by Guffman]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:39:35 -0800 Portland Mercury And, Guffman, you are not the only one still scared by this. The police actions in this case only serve to make citizens more afraid - and more likely to react exactly the way James Chasse did to an attempted police stop.

Posted by rww]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:20:38 -0800 Portland Mercury
"They didn't expect Chasse to suffer serious injury. They were merely hoping he would comply with their commands": Implicit in this is a warning: If you don't comply with cop commands, they can and will kill you. Even if all you did was piss in the street.

"These are men of honor and integrity who were trying to do their jobs, and they feel terrible about the outcome": Well. I'm sure they feel terrible about the outcome now, when the damn thing STILL hasn't been swept under the rug. "Honor and integrity"? That's hard for me to credit, given that Chasse was "wanted" for nothing more than PISSING IN THE STREET, which to the cops apparently warranted a foot chase and a brute-force takedown, on pavement, of a much smaller man.

The Chasse case scared me. I'm not in as bad a mental state as Chasse was, but occasionally I can see that place from where I stand. And sometimes it occurs to me that I'm just one bad day away from a disastrous Downtown encounter with the PPB. Because, if you act weird, one of them might "tackle" you from behind and break about forty of your ribs....
Posted by Guffman]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:36:18 -0800 Portland Mercury
Brag about how you kicked ass to your buddies then lying to investigators. Humphreys is probably wondering where his medal is...
Posted by joe]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:09:22 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by econoline]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:41:37 -0800 Portland Mercury Pronunciation: \im-ˈpyü-nə-tē\

Etymology: Middle French or Latin; Middle French impunité, from Latin impunitat-, impunitas, from impune without punishment, from in- + poena punishment
Date: 1532

Definition: exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss

Shit happens. Impunity is systemic. If the cops had said - we made a mistake, we're sorry, we'll fix it - nobody would disagree. We'd take it in stride - the costs of living in the big city. Wrong place at the wrong time. The family would be sad, but compensated knowing the cops understood they had made a mistake. The terrifying and continuing weirdness of this case is they don't think they made a mistake.

This discordant and arrogant statement from the union flack shows the impunity continues.

And didn't Westerman already kill two people?

So. Who's next?
Posted by cicolini]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:17:46 -0800 Portland Mercury