Federal judge slaps restrictions on Portland police munitions, removes officer from crowd control
(The Center Square) – A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that an officer be suspended from the Portland Police Bureau’s Rapid Response Team during an ongoing police brutality investigation.
In a seven-page ruling, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Marco Hernandez ordered the bureau to suspend Officer Brent Taylor from the unit indefinitely as it investigates allegations of police brutality against him. The officer is accused of shooting protesters with 40mm rubber rounds without provocation during a June protest in Portland.
The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed last June by activist group “Don’t Shoot Portland’ regarding the city’s “indiscriminate” use of tear gas against protesters. Tear gas was later banned at the local level by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler in September weeks after he was tear-gassed by federal agents.
Under his order, Hernandez banned the force from using FN303 or 40MM munition launchers until it creates procedures for reporting their use, sets limits on how long officers can assume crowd control duty without a break, and “recognize and articulate a threat without speculating and before utilizing less than lethal force.”
In addition, all crowd-control munition grenadiers must receive at least nine hours of training and retrained every six months, Hernandez ruled. He stressed in his ruling that the conditions of the order shall not be lifted until the city gives him reason to do so. The order takes effect 10 days after Hernandez enters it into the record.
“These sanctions shall remain in effect until Defendant City of Portland demonstrates to the Court that it will comply with the Court’s Order,” Hernandez wrote.
Portland police have been subject to a new wave of public scrutiny following their decision to “kettle” protesters and the press during a protest last weekend, potentially violating civil rights laws in the process.
The incident was followed on Tuesday by the abrupt resignation of Portland Police Association President Brian Hunzeker. Hunzeker said his resignation concerned a “serious, isolated mistake” he made regarding a hit-and-run investigation falsely tied to Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who was fully cleared.
The case went viral due to a video posted to Facebook by the Coalition to Save Portland, a police lobbying group whose members claim they were tipped off by an unnamed Portland police official. The group denies Hunzeker was involved.
On Wednesday, Willamette Week reported that a Portland Precinct Commander Erica Hurley may have also violated PPB guidelines in making politicized remarks against Multnomah District Attorney Mike Schmidt for being soft on crime.
The Portland Police Bureau’s current contract with the city ends in June.
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