Fire Frashour Campaign Speaks On Ferguson Shooting, Cop Talks

In a few hours, we might learn whether the city's contentious contract talks with the Portland Police Association will, in fact, be shunted behind closed doors of if there's a modicum of hope they might remain out in the open. The city will decide whether to accede to the union's call for mediation after a closed-door session this afternoon.

But if you ask the folks from the Fire Frashour campaign—the group that sprung up to demand the firing of Ron Frashour, the officer who shot and killed Aaron Campbell in January—the outcome is hardly in doubt. Expect things to stay in the dark—along with discussions about drug-testing and whether the union should submit to a stronger regimen of civilian oversight.

"We have no idea: Are these kinds of problems actually going to be addressed?" asked group member Kathryn Cates, after reading prepared statement.

With placards in hand, a dozen or so members of the group staged a mini-rally on the steps of the Justice Center this morning, speaking out about the cop union talks; Friday's latest police shooting, in which Darryel Dwayne Ferguson was killed; and even on whether Frashour, who indeed was fired last month, might win his job back through arbitration.

(The Fire Frashour campaign is apparently keeping its name, assuming an arbitrator at some point really will put him back on the force.)

It was mostly TV cameras and reporters who gathered to listen. Click through to read Cates' statement.

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