Portland Police Association blasts city, state response to downtown violence

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    PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) — The president of the Portland Police Association blasted city and state leaders in a sharp letter Monday as he called for the end of the destructive violence downtown and more support for the officers working protests and riots.

In the letter, Daryl Turner wrote in part, “Elected officials at the state and local levels are defending these criminal actions while in the same breath demonizing and vilifying the officers on the front lines.”

Turner also said the downtown destruction is the definition of “white privilege” and the violence is a distraction from the important message of Black Lives Matter.

“Trust and support the decisions made by law enforcement leaders who simply want to keep the residents, business owners and peaceful protestors safe,” Turner wrote.

It comes as lengths and blocks of downtown Portland are boarded up and graffiti is scrawled along buildings, sidewalks, trees, and signs.

Some businesses owners told FOX 12 they feel abandoned as the destruction consumes the city they love.

“We would like the police to be a little more assertive,” said James Louie, co-owner of Huber’s Café.

Louie said that Turner’s message was spot on and he doesn’t like that the money has been taken away from the Portland Police Bureau.

“Defunding the police is totally a crazy idea,” Louie said. “Perhaps police reform is in order, but that’s going to take money.”

“The police, they provide a very valuable service,” Louie added.

Although business has been slow, Louie said the café hopes to endure the tough times brought on by both COVID-19 and the protesting and rioting. The café, after all, claims to be Portland’s oldest restaurant and survived the Spanish Flu and Great Depression.

“With God’s help we’ll survive the COVID-19 pandemic and also the civil disturbances that are going on right now,” Louie said.

One downtown business owner won’t stick around to see how the dust settles.

We don’t want to fix the store and reopen a third time,” said the owner of Alex’s Watchworks, Alex Hofberg. “We’re simply going to shift to a new form of doing business.”

Hofberg closed his business due to COVID-19 and said he reopened it just four days before it was smashed up and looted by rioters.

“All of our store windows were broken, people were clearly inside, seven showcases were smashed. We lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of inventory,” Hofberg said.

Hofberg said COVID-19 was part of the reason he decided to move most of his business online and open an office space in the Laurelhurst neighborhood.

The other reason is a culmination of Hofberg’s dissatisfaction about how downtown Portland is faring: vandalism, increased crime and problems with the homeless have made his location at Southwest Morrison Street and 10th Avenue unsavory.

“I’ve paid millions of dollars of taxes over the 30 years that Watchworks has existed,” Hofberg said. “I am fed up with not being given the same protections that people who are paying no taxes are given.”

FOX 12 reached out to Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office and was told he wasn’t available for comment regarding the Portland Police Association’s letter.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz’s office said she had no comment at this time.

Commissioner Chloe Eudaly did not respond to an inquiry.

Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty released a statement Monday night, saying:

“Today Daryl Turner released a statement on behalf of the Portland Police Association in response to the impacts of the nightly protests in our city. While I appreciate the Portland Police Association’s concern for the community, I hope they are also just as passionately working to respond to the community’s demands for accountability, de-escalation, reform, and change. The public has been calling for specific, tangible actions and are waiting on both their elected leaders and the association to take responsibility for systemic change. There is an opportunity here, not just for elected leaders, but also for Mr. Turner and his organization to show real courage and leadership by accepting our roles in the community’s distrust and fear of police.
In order to move forward and build new systems that Portlanders can trust we must acknowledge that any discussions around violence that does not focus on police violence is a detraction from the heart of these nationwide protests. My fear has been, and continues to be, the tactics and violence executed by police. I also remain concerned for the people that have been harmed in the process of police protecting only property, including journalists. Community members exercising their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly are not the enemy. I do not want anyone to be harmed during these protests, whether it be our community members or PPB officers. While I have always been, and will continue to be, committed to non-violent direct action, I have significant concerns with any police tactics that do not respect these rights of our community members.
We can all learn and grow in this moment – this includes me and it certainly includes our police and the leadership of the Portland Police Association who, even in the face of difficult nightly demonstrations, have the opportunity to act with greater restraint. Portlanders are demanding better from police and I hope to show them that we are listening.”

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