Press contact: Dr T Allen Bethel 503-288-7241

PICKET LINE/NEWS CONFERENCE TO PROTEST OFFICER FRASHOUR’S REINSTATEMENT
Justice For Aaron Campbell
Thursday, Dec. 31, 11:30 AM, Portland City Hall, SW 4th and Madison

Tomorrow, Thursday December 31, the Albina Ministerial Alliance (AMA) Coalition for Justice and Police Reform will hold a picket line and news conference to protest the Oregon Court of Appeals’ ruling that the City must reinstate Officer Ron Frashour to the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). Frashour shot the unarmed Aaron Campbell in the back in January, 2010 and was fired later that year. The  action will take place at 11:30 AM on
the 4th Avenue side of City Hall, between Madison and Jefferson Sts. The Coalition demands that Frashour be assigned to a job or shift at the Bureau that requires the least contact with the public as possible, because of the potential that he may do harm to community members.

There has been a history of officers with problems being assigned to desk jobs and other areas of the Bureau to minimize their interactions with the public.

The Coalition protested the Arbitrator’s decision in April, 2012, and applauded the City’s decision to file an appeal, asserting their right to make such personnel decisions.

The reinstatement of Frashour continues a long line of arbitration overturning firings of officers who wrongfully use deadly force, or otherwise take actions often targeted at communities of color.

–Officer Scott McCollister, who was suspended for six months after shooting and killing African American Kendra James in 2003, was reinstated with back pay;
–Officer Douglas Erickson, who shot and wounded African American Gerald Gratton in the back in 1993, was reinstated;
–Officers Richard Montee and Paul Wickersham, fired for selling T-Shirts reading “Don’t Choke ‘Em, Smoke ‘Em” after an officer choked African American security guard Lloyd “Tony” Stevenson in 1985, were reinstated;
–Officers Craig Ward and Jim Galloway, fired for tossing dead opossums on the porch of a black-owned business in 1981, were reinstated;
and
–In one case where the victim, Dennis Young, was white, Lt. Jeffrey Kaer was reinstated after being fired for shooting and killing Young in 2006.

The apparent racial bias of the arbitration system comes in the midst of a national debate on racial profiling, sparked by the shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida. Like Keaton Otis, an African American man shot and killed by Portland Police less than four months after Campbell, Martin was deemed suspicious for wearing a hoodie. Other cases that have prompted protests have included those of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, Eric Garner in New York, Tamir Rice in Ohio, the death in custody of Sandra Bland in Texas, and too many others to count.

For more information visit the AMA Coalition website at http://www.albinaministerialcoalition.org