By way of background: Portland, as you may or may not remember, decided not to embed its officers with the group in 2005, after eight years of doing so, because of political and civil liberties concerns. We're the only major city in America to have done so, working instead with the feds on a case-by-case basis. And now, after the Pioneer Square bomb plot, people like Dan Saltzman and Mayor Sam Adams and Police Chief Mike Reese want to revisit that decision. (Click here and/or here for way more detail on how Oregon's civil liberties laws stack up with what the feds can do.)
And, as you might expect, cue the outrage! Close to 200 people showed up to ask questions or raise some serious beef about the FBI and what many see as its spotty civil rights record. They also had harsh words for the Portland Police Bureau, which has had its own issues with spying on people like, oh, peace activists (Every time someone thundered off a charge like that, Adams had to scold the crowd for clapping—a big no-no according to the night's ground rules.)
Said one speaker: "I think Portland went on record in opposing this intrusion, and I would hope they would continue to take a clear moral stand against this thing and for local control of what happens in this city."
There were highlights: Randy Leonard, as he and the mayor walked wireless microphones around the room early on, made sure Brandon Mayfield got up to speak. The infamous example of what happened Mayfield, the Portland-area lawyer falsely held by the FBI in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings, has been repeatedly invoked by the JTTF's critics.
"We don't have our police violating our statutes and our constitution. That's what we gain by not being there," he said. "Let the federal government do what they need to do, and let's keep Portland weird."
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