News Some new numbers are in. According to local media, 10,000 people were at the Capitol in St. Paul to protest against the War in Iraq during the Republican National Convention (lower than the 50,000 expected). As I mentioned in an earlier post, the vast majority of those 10,000 were nonviolent and civil. The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting on the “bands of protesters” who ...   More

News It turns out some of the medical workers I wrote about here (in the photo above, they were helping activists who had been sprayed with pepper-spray or hurt by police in the aggressive suppression of anti-war protests on the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul) are from a Oregon group called Portland Medics. According to the Medics, their members were arrested and attacked ...   More

News Wednesday, Sept. 17 marks the two-year anniversary of the death of James Chasse Jr., and the Mental Health Association of Portland wanted to be sure today that your outrage hasn't waned. Several association members spent the afternoon surrounding the Portland Police Bureau Central Precinct, drawing outlines of bodies and leaving a chalky roster on the sidewalk that lists the names of 12 mentally ...   More

News Neil LaBute's latest effort to sabotage his career was screened after WW press deadlines. Just as well: Lakeview Terrace The most disheartening thing about Lakeview Terrace is not that director Neil LaBute has hired himself out to a limp, ludicrous exploitation picture, but that he has prostituted his sensibilities as well. On screen and (mostly) stage, LaBute has delved into the hostilities ...   More

News New Year's Resolution: See more hot men in an intentional state of undress. In light of the fact that Chippendales will be gracing Portland's Refectory next week (Thursday, Jan. 15), it is time to discuss amongst ourselves the place of a male revue in our lives. And everyone has an opinion when it comes to Chippendales. Celebrities tend to have an inflated view of Chippendales' influence ...   More

News After a confusion-filled Day 1 of the Portland Police Bureau's precinct consolidation on Tuesday, here's hoping Day 2 goes more smoothly. Cops at Central Precinct, East Precinct and North Precinct (formerly Northeast) describe a sometimes-disorderly move that initially left some officers with no patrol cars, nowhere to put their rifles and nowhere to park their own vehicles. "The first day ...   More

News We reported today about new stats showing Portland police use Tasers on people with mental illness more than anyone else. Here are five more nuggets from the Independent Police Review report issued last week, which covers data from November 2007 to November 2008. Fact 1: African-American subjects are the only racial group that's subjected to use of force at a greater rate than they get arrested. Black ...   More

News Tigard Police Chief Bill Dickinson announced this morning he's retiring after seven years as head of the suburban city's 80-member police force. Tigard PD spokesman Jim Wolf says it's only a coincidence that the announcement came on the same day WW published this week's cover story critical of a Craigslist prostitution sting by three of Dickinson's officers. "It's unfortunate, the timing ...   More

News Five days after Portland police were booed by a crowd July 31 for taking a man to the ground outside the Roseland Theater, another man filed a lawsuit against the city claiming a very similar story. According to the lawsuit filed Aug. 4 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Sadiki Stone, 27, of North Portland, was standing on the sidewalk at Southeast 4th Avenue and Washington Street on Aug. 5, ...   More

News More than three years after the death of James Chasse Jr., Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer today released the findings of an investigation into the death. The Police Use of Review Force Board in its findings concluded that the "initiation and termination of the foot pursuit of Mr. Chasse did not violate any Bureau policy and that the force used during the struggle to stop, control and handcuff ...   More