The police are supposed to keep protesters safe as they exercise their rights to free speech—not retaliate by shooting them with rubber bullets, striking them with batons, or spraying tear gas at more than 2,200 times the safe limit. But that’s just what the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) did in the summer of 2020, as protesters took to the streets after the police killing of George Floyd.
Among those critical of the bureau’s use of excessive force was current Portland City Council member Mitch Green, who took to Twitter to express his views. Green’s tweets from 2020 and 2021, which recently resurfaced in a September 15 Oregonian article, include statements in favor of abolishing the police and references to police officers as “absolute monsters” and “cowards.”
The response from PPB leaders, Mayor Keith Wilson, and some of Green’s City Council colleagues was swift. President Aaron Schmautz of the Portland Police Association—the union for rank-and-file cops—called for Green’s immediate resignation. PPB Chief Bob Day said in a press release Wednesday, “we cannot pretend these past statements don’t damage trust. And I will not ask the men and women of this Bureau to pretend otherwise.”…