Press Release: Councilor Green Police Tweets

For immediate release
Contact: Maria Sipin, maria.sipin2@portlandoregon.gov
Chief of Staff, Councilor Mitch Green

Councilor Green in Response to the Oregonian and Chief Bob Day Statement

Let me provide some much-needed context for the series of tweets from 2020 recently published by the Oregonian. This week, I'm being judged for messages I posted for a public audience during Black Lives Matter, the largest mass protest movement in U.S. history.

When I wrote those things on social media, I was outraged like so many Portlanders by the constant stream of anti-Black violence being perpetrated by police departments across the country and the Portland Police Bureau. I was mourning the senseless murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray and countless others at the hands of police. I was part of a community that's been troubled by the Portland Police Bureau's response to our movement. During that period, police officers gassed the entire city and documented more than 6,000 uses of force against protesters, the wall of moms, faith leaders, and Portlanders of all stripes, so much so that the courts had to step in. 

The critics want to label my tweets from 2020 as "violence" when we've witnessed hundreds of actual incidents of physical violence resulting in bodily injuries to Portlanders. The movement for Black Lives was not and is not about hatred. It is about a basic respect for human dignity, and a revulsion at the violence and callousness we have all witnessed too many times to count. 

So, Chief Bob Day is right, I do have an agenda: protect and expand Portland Street Response, defend the budget against cuts to the non-armed first responders, protect the Office for Community Police Accountability, and push for transparency and accountability. Thousands of Portlanders have been demanding police accountability for decades.

I was elected to scrutinize systems of power, represent the diverse needs of Portlanders, and support the ballot initiative for police oversight that more than 80% of Portland voters passed November 2020. I'm concerned that Chief Day seems to expect me and other elected officials to have sterile or supportive views of police as members of the budgeting body. 

Portland Police do not want to be judged by their misconduct on the streets in 2020 like I should not be judged solely for the tweets I posted in that same year. I should be evaluated for my votes and actions as a councilor today, as the police should be evaluated for their actions too. I don't post today like I did in 2020, I've built relationships with police while on council, and I will still continue the charge for oversight, accountability and care.