Officers, sergeants resign en masse from Portland's Rapid Response Team crowd control unit

[Calista241]

Source: The Oregonian

Officers who serve on the Portland Police Bureau’s specialized crowd control unit, known as the Rapid Response Team, voted to resign from the team during a meeting Wednesday night then alerted the chief’s office, a police lieutenant and the mayor’s office have confirmed.

The unprecedented move by officers and sergeants to disband their own team came a day after a team member, Officer Cody Budworth, was indicted, accused of fourth-degree assault stemming from a baton strike against a protester last summer. A year ago, about 70 members comprised the team.

A team lieutenant called Chief Chuck Lovell to inform him the members of the team, who serve voluntarily in the assignments, voted to resign due to perceived lack of support from City Hall and from the district attorney over the past year during more than 100 consecutive nights of protest coverage, according to the mayor’s office and officers.

...

“Our RRT members do not volunteer to have Molotov cocktails, fireworks, explosives, rocks, bottles, urine, feces and other dangerous objects thrown at them,” wrote Daryl Turner, then president of the union. He noted that the team members volunteer for the work without any specialty pay.



Read more: https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/06/officers-sergeants-with-portlands-rapid-response-team-resign-from-the-specialized-crowd-control-unit.html

[qazplm135]

1. I want the credit

For doing a dangerous job, but I don't want any actual danger is what I'm seeing.

[moreland01]

4. Or at the very least

I want to be able to beat on protesters without them having the ability to defend themselves.

[NotHardly]

7. That is about the size of it... however,

They also do not want the responsibility to behave decently, work by the rules, or work within the limits of their authority. They just want all the authority and not to bear any of the responsibility for what they do. Whinny weenies all.

[C_U_L8R]

2. Sorry, the malls aren't hiring

[The Magistrate]

3. To Translate This Turner Fella Into English, Sir

'Our members volunteer for a chance to crack heads without consequences, and if we can't fuck people up without risking jail time like some common mope, well, then, fuck it! What the hell's the point?'

[oasis]

8. That's it in a nutshell, Sir.

[sarisataka]

5. So instead of volunteering to do crowd control

They will be told to do crowd control.

It doesn't appear they resigned from their jobs, just a voluntary team.

[Calista241]

6. The can be told to do their job, but there's a lot of ways they can push back at their command.

I would imagine this is really just the first step of their efforts, and they can make things progressively worse for the city if they choose. Especially since I would expect protesters to be out in force since the primary team they've been fighting with won't be there.

[Turbineguy]

9. Not much point in being in this crew

if you can't beat the shit out of somebody.

[2Gingersnaps]

10. Wonder how many of them would have volunteered to be Capitol Police?

Really takes some damn nerve.

[ace3csusm]

11. City should have replied will take your resignation as well ...

[Happy Hoosier]

12. Good, get the fuck out. NT