It would be a spooky thing to look out your window and see a couple dozen heavily geared up cops hiding in your bushes.
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By
Lizzy Acker | The Oregonian/OregonLive
As Portland’s protests against police violence and systemic racism continue nightly, community members are struggling with
the incursion of police and demonstrators into neighborhoods.
Karen Roberts is still unnerved by an experience she had earlier this month.
“It has shaken me to my core,” she said. “I’m not going to lie.”
Roberts lives several blocks away from the Penumbra Kelly Building on East 47th Avenue and Burnside Street, a police building and occasional focal point of protests.
On Aug. 7, Roberts said she and her husband heard the announcement from police over a loudspeaker and went out to their porch. A neighbor was outside his apartment too, she said.
“All of a sudden,” she said, “something caught our eye, and then over on the other side of the street in the shadow was people.”
Her neighbor turned on his iPhone flashlight to get a better look, she said, and they realized there were about 10 police officers in full riot gear, in uniforms with the word “police” written across the back, waiting quietly on her street, “hiding in the bushes.”
At least one other person living in the neighborhood reported seeing officers hiding in bushes that night.
Lt. Greg Pashley, a spokesperson for the Portland Police Bureau, said police officers are allowed to station themselves on private property.
Roberts said they asked the officers if they were with the Portland Police Bureau and they wouldn’t say.
According to Pashley, officers in the bureau are governed by directive 0312.50 Identification when it comes to identifying themselves to the public.
“Generally, officers are to identify themselves with a name and business card,” he said. “There are exceptions spelled out in the directive, such as circumstances that it would be unsafe to do so or impair the performance of duties.”
“The agency name is on the card, and usually on outer garments such as patches and badges,” Pashley added.
But Roberts said when they were asked to identify themselves, instead, they threatened her neighbor, saying, “Turn your flashlight off or we will come back and arrest you -- we know where you live.”
“It was chilling,” Roberts said.
Roberts stayed on her porch that night for about three hours, taking bathroom breaks and coming back to see what was happening in her neighborhood.
“It got scarier as the night went on,” she said.
The number of officers she saw grew to about 30, in what she called random uniforms.
“I didn’t feel safe,” she said, after “three hours of men hiding in the bushes with weapons who would not identify themselves.”
She didn’t know who to call, she said. But she didn’t think she could call the police on the police.
Roberts isn’t the only person who has reported unsettling interactions with police in neighborhoods as the protest in Portland near 80 consecutive nights.
Otti Sabina lives in North Portland, near another focal point of protests, the police union building on North Lombard Street.
Sabina said she lived near a church where officers have gathered. On a recent evening, she said she approached officers in her neighborhood.
“I went down there to ask the question I keep asking,” Sabina said, “which is why does it make sense to show up to a protest in full riot gear? How is that going to deescalate the situation?”
The police, she said, did not take kindly to her questions.
“He refused to have any actual dialogue with me,” Sabina said, “he just wanted to deflect and deflect.”
“If you’re not going to answer a valid question from a concerned citizen that lived in this neighborhood,” Sabina said she told the officer, “I would appreciate it if you guys would get off my street.”
Sabina said the male officer then stepped towards her and said, “What, you want to dance?”
“If we cannot ask a question of our police,” she said, “we are so far from a democracy.”
According to Pashley, Portland police “strive to be present as much as possible in neighborhoods.”
“We hope that members of the community will seek us out to get to know the officers that work in their neighborhood,” he said. “It can be difficult to do that at the time officers are involved in a call or circumstance that is in progress or ongoing. It might be beneficial to seek out those interactions at other times.”
Pashley said that the shortage of police officers had made connecting with community members more difficult.
“I’m sorry to hear somebody did not have a positive interaction,” he said, adding he is not aware of the specific anecdotes described here.
“Recent nightly violence by individuals has drawn officers from their usual presence in the community as well,” Pashley said. “Still, the Police Bureau offers opportunities to connect. We have a variety of advisory councils, we are present at community events, and we have tons of information on our website including our directives, videos, information on many years of work reforming the bureau, and more.”
But for some people living in neighborhoods with a heavy police presence, those options aren’t enough.
Sabina is one of a group of people supporting
a petition to “Demilitarize North Portland.”
The petition, which calls “for the immediate cessation of militarized police activity on our streets” had 172 signatures on Friday afternoon.
-- Lizzy Acker
