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A coalition of civil rights and labor organizations is demanding Portland city leaders investigate what it describes as suspicious and potentially retaliatory police presence at recent events hosted by two city councilors who have pushed for stronger police oversight.
The letter, signed by the ACLU of Oregon, Imagine Black, Don’t Shoot PDX, Communication Workers of America Local 7901, and 13 others, was sent April 9 to Mayor Keith Wilson, Police Chief Bob Day, city administrator Michael Jordan, and the full City Council. It alleges Portland police may have used community engagement as a cover for intimidation—specifically targeting Councilors Sameer Kanal and Angelita Morillo.
The Oregonian first reported last month that uniformed officers showed up uninvited to public events hosted by the two councilors. The cops’ appearance came shortly after a March meeting of the council’s Community and Public Safety Committee, where the president of the Portland Police Association sharply criticized Kanal for his push to strengthen civilian oversight of the Police Bureau.
In the days that followed, officers appeared at a community event hosted by Kanal and, days later, at one organized by Morillo. Chief Day has since said the visits were part of routine community engagement.
The organizations behind the letter aren’t buying it. “Retaliation and intimidation by the police against anyone—including elected leaders—bolsters fascism, not democracy, and weakens the rule of law,” said Sandy Chung, executive director of the ACLU of Oregon, in the letter. “We ask Portland city leadership to do everything in their power to investigate, address, and prevent any form of intimidation and retaliation by police.”
The demand escalates standing tensions between the two councilors, who have taken up the mantle of police reform on the newly elected City Council, and the Police Bureau. Such friction is hardly new: As WW reported in 2021, the former president of the police union, Brian Hunzeker, resigned after leaking a police report to The Oregonian that mistakenly implicated then-Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in a hit-and-run crash.
Morillo tells WW that she was invited to speak at the Montavilla Church in the Hawthorne neighborhood to about 15 people when two police officers showed up in uniform. She says the officers did not engage with the congregation and the church had not invited them. When asked why they were present, the officers told Morillo they were “directed by their lieutenant” to be there, but when asked which lieutenant, they declined to answer and left shortly thereafter, she says.
Morillo says she felt “gaslit” about the incident and adds that while she was assured that intimidation was not the intent, she knows what she saw. “Impact matters more than intent,” Morillo said.
So far, the mayor’s office has not publicly responded to the letter, nor has Chief Day or the Portland Police Bureau. Wilson and Day could not immediately be reached for comment, and the Police Bureau cited comments by Day at the Community and Public Safety Committee meeting March 25, in which he said police attendance at previous town halls “did not go as [he] had planned.”
Chung said the best protection for the elected leaders of Portland is to remain “vigilant and observant” and report any inappropriate or potentially dangerous tactics.
“I think there may be other elected leaders who may feel that they have experienced some type of intimidation and retaliation,” Chung tells WW. “I would encourage people to step forward if they have experienced something like this.”