What does a cop have to do to get arrested here? Apparently shooting an unarmed man in the back after the victim has already said he intended no harm to himself or others isn't enough. Acts of violence on the part of the police are routinely excused as "accidents" and explained by "bad training". And then there is the opinion - on the part of the police - that "the camera is a weapon". Trigger-happy officer Ronald Frashour cost the city $55 thousand dollars back in May of 2006. In that incident he tasered a man armed only with a video camera who was documenting an illegal entry and search party. The Use of Force Review Board recommended no discipline for the cops. Waterhouse was cleared of all the bogus charges that wouldn't have stuck if they were made of epoxy. And in the wash-out, even Police Chief Rosie Sizer testified against Frashour. Frank Waterhouse is up $55 thousand and the City of Portland is right back where it started: The best this current Grand Jury could come up with was to conclude that "something went terribly, terribly wrong". Indeed. Indeed it did. What went "terribly wrong" was the jury's failure to indict Frashour, the failure of the police to disciple a rogue cop who is consistently proving himself to be a serious liability and the apathy on the part of Portland's White majority in the continuance of race-based injustice. But the African-American community is taking the case up a notch to the Federal level. Maybe from that vantage point someone will be able to see clearly what exactly a cop has to do to get arrested in Portland...
- KBOO