A complicated embrace

For years, Jo Ann Hardesty, President of our Portland NAACP, has been an active critic of militarized police departments, mass incarceration, and racial profiling. She leads vigils in memory of unarmed people of color who have been killed by the police. She often wears a T-shirt declaring, “I Survived Portland Police,” and she carries around a large portfolio full of signs such as, “Police Lie, People Die,” and lists of names of people killed by the police.

On Friday morning at 8 a.m. she organized a protest of a fundraiser for the police called “Meet the Heat.” Their flier reads like an ad for an action movie, glorifying and normalizing violence: “Ever wonder what it takes to apprehend a dangerous criminal? Deactivate a bomb? Shoot a gun or drive a police vehicle in a high speed chase? Put yourselves into the shoes of local law enforcement and hear from the experts. Join us for a never-been-done before, exclusive look into the challenges, the danger, and the successes of Portland Police officers.” The price for the opportunity to spend a day playing with police toys was $1000 per person.  

We stood on the sidewalk with our signs, greeting the people who had paid $1K for the experience, as they arrived in BMWs, Mercedes's, and sports cars. Later Jo Ann delivered a powerful prepared speech for the local alternative media (the commercial media didn’t show up), and then we walked, en masse, into the police training center. The receptionist asked for our invitations. We just stood there. And then the Assistant Police Chief, Capt. Kevin Modica, came out to talk with Jo Ann. I kept a respectful distance as they conferred in a corner, and at the end of their negotiations, Modica reached out to hug JoAnn, and she received his hug warmly and with what appears to me to be sorrow. 

In the hug of those two citizens of African ancestry, I saw complexity and hardship, weariness and wisdom, anger, understanding, heartbreak, and years of struggle, disappointment, and beginning again.  

Modica, who is a 30-year veteran of the Portland Police department, has won many awards for his service. He apologized for the deaths, the abuses, and the losses we mourn and refuse to forget. He appeared to be genuinely troubled by the history of policing in Portland, and he accepted a hard copy of Jo Ann’s speech and promised to relay our concerns to the department. He thanked us for showing up, for making our statement, and for agreeing to leave.