Has a Grand Jury Ever Indicted a Portland Police Officer for an On-Duty Shooting?

Eight men (no women) have been shot and killed by Portland police since the start of 2012.

Has a grand jury ever indicted a Portland police officer for an on-duty shooting?

—Michael B.

Under current conditions, Mike, your question seems like an invitation to throw our police under the bus. While I'm not afraid of the cops (or TriMet), I'm too deficient in hard-news skills (and too high on cough syrup) to pass judgment on Portland's finest.

I can tell you that, according to Portland Copwatch, eight men (no women) have been shot and killed by Portland police since the start of 2012. Seven were white, one was Latino, none were African-American. So…yay?

There's been one indictment of the kind you describe: In 2011, officer Dane Reister fired at a fleeing suspect with what he thought (spoiler alert) were non-lethal beanbag rounds. (They weren't.) The suspect nearly died, and Reister was charged with assault. Reister committed suicide by freight train in 2015 before there could be a trial. Bummers all around.

One more thing. At a town hall last week, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick asked President Obama whether police could "really, in their heart, feel like you're doing everything you can to protect their lives?" It's a common theme: Cops deserve the benefit of every doubt because police work can actually get you killed.

Which is true—be careful out there! But it's also true that on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' list of most dangerous jobs in America, "police officer" ranks No. 15, right between "maintenance worker" and "groundskeeper."

"Logger" tops the list, followed by "commercial fisherperson," "aircraft pilot," and "roofer." When was the last time you saw a flag at half-mast for a roofer?

I've actually held two of the jobs that beat "cop" on this list: "truck driver" (No. 8) and "taxi operator" (No. 10). Given the risks, I totally deserved some kind of death ray to vaporize any cars that might have been about to hit me, but I never got one. I just had to pay attention all the time—and worse, had to let people just drive away, even after they'd really, really pissed me off. Life is unfair.

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