Remember – the key witness is Jason Walters, a veteran police officer, but also the shooter and therefore an extremely biased witness to a potential crime.
And remember – many of the reported facts about what happened to James Chasse and to Aaron Campbell turned out to be false.
What we can piece together from news reports and some witnesses is the following.
Jason Walters and perhaps a partner officer were called to the Hoyt Arboretum office on the afternoon of March 22. Someone complained about a middle-aged white male who was drunk.
Soon after 3 PM Jason Walters shot this man four times with our bullets. One of the bullets tore through a vital conduit and the man bleed to death at the scene.
Was crime being committed? Perhaps trespassing. Was the dead man threatening someone? No indication of a threat is described by anyone but Jason Walters through his impulsive spokesman, police union president Scott Westerman. Was the dead man wanted for crime elsewhere? We don’t know – no name has been released. (James Chasse’s name was in the media within 48 hours. Aaron Campbell’s name was revealed first in the Oregonian within 22 hours.)
The police have proven ineffective at policing themselves. The politicians sit on their hands. The oversight process is toothless. The reform process is stifled.
So what can you do?
1. Stop calling the police unnecessarily. Unless there is obvious threat to life or limb there are other solutions.
2. Be an advocate for public housing and mental health + addiction treatment. This means working with others to apply direct pressure on politicians, at the city, county and state, to fund services.
3. Public administration by litigation is stupid. Encourage stupid people to remove themselves from public policy discussions.
4. No justice no peace. That’s not a mindless chant, it’s a formula which protects our vital social contract.
Over time we’ll know more about what happened at the Hoyt Arboretum. But not today. Be safe out there.
I would love to see what you “mental Health professional’s” would do if someone covered in blood came at you with a knife. you people think that you can just say “lets talk about this or please put the knife down. physco babble doesnt work when you have a man covered in blood charging you with a knife. sure tell him as many times as you want while he’s charging you to put it down, or hey lets talk about this. then before you know it your dead. why because you thought all your text book talk would stop him. the Job of a Portland Police officer is to insure the Safety of his/herself, the Public,and the suspect, Officer Walters Gave Mr, Collins every Oportunity to drop the Knife. Mr Collins Refused. When you have someone who is Clearly showing signs of being Severally Deranged and is covered in blood (Blood of unknown origin) and possess a weapon you cant just approach him because you have no idea what he’s capable of, with all the blood on him you dont know if he’s Just killed someone. in my personally opinion Officer Walters did the right thing and i stand by him 110%. Though Mr, Collins wasnt threatening someone, He charged the officer with a Knife in a threatening manner, Posed a safety risk to the officer, Himself,and the Public Wittness’s Heard Officer Walters tell Mr Collins to drop the Knife. Murder? NO. Following Procedure? YES!!!!. If you so called Mental health people would correctly do your jobs Mr Collins would never have been in that situation, and Other mental health clients wouldnt have been in the position they were in or are still in. DO your job correctly and stop projecting the blame on to Portland police! its up to you people to make sure that mental health clients are PROPERLY TAKEN CARE OF!!! by making sure they are taking their medications on time, going to appointments like their supposed to. When you dont do your Job its left up to PPB to track YOUR CLIENTS down and return them to you!!