It's been well-documented that police put up what's called the Blue Wall of Silence whenever police are accused of misconduct, and rally around officers involved in the most gross instances of brutality. This unified front makes governments loath to discipline any police officer for fear of the backlash from police unions.
And so it goes in Portland, where police can pepper-spray babies with impunity, cops can be involved in repeated use of excessive force (mostly against women) and be linked to Nazism, and can even kill a schizophrenic homeless man with impunity.
But one bad cop (the one who was involved in the killing of James Chasse) might have run out of luck.
Officer Chris Humphreys, one of the officers involved in the tackling, alleged beating, and neglect of schizophrenic homeless man James Chasse, was involved in another incident last weekend, this involving the use of a bean-bag shotgun at nearly point-blank range against a 12-year-old girl who was being arrested for riding a Portland MAX train after being banned from it.
The video of the incident shows police arresting her and being able to control her, but Humphreys takes a gratuitous shot at point-blank range with the bean-bag shotgun. (The bean-bag shotgun shoots bags filled with lead shot at a velocity similar to that of a baseball - it is meant for use at distance in place of a firearm or to keep a suicidal person from harming themselves, not for use at point-blank range.)
But in a rare instance of political courage, Portland Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman suspended Officer Humphreys pending an investigation.
And what happened? You guessed it - the Blue Wall formed - literally. (I wonder if the cops involved were on duty and wasting taxpayers' money?) And the police union is issuing a'no-confidence vote' against Police Chief Rosie Sizer and Commissioner Saltzman.
The results will be about as predictable as a North Korean election.
Police unions haven't quite figured out how to throw their liabilities under the bus. And that's why even though I might need a police officer's help, I don't trust them. I just don't.