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Long line to get inside PPB listening sesh. 
Slow moving, Marantha Church has requested all attendees be checked for weapons, etc. before coming in.
PPB Chief Danielle Outlaw starts the session: “I acknowledge that this is a symptom of years and years and years of mistrust within the police department. I am here to listen.”
Full house.
Public comment begins: “We shouldn’t have to be here right now. Really? Again?”
Someone requests Ted Wheeler steps down as police commissioner and hand the reins to Commissioner Hardesty. * cheers and applause *
Man: “You collaborate with people who want to kill us. Do you want me to die Ted?” Wheeler: “no, I do not”
Man who worked in finance in PPB speaking in support of Lt. Niiya. “He was an outstanding member of PPB. Please don’t criticize a cop before you know all the facts.”
An older woman thanks PPB. “Communication is key to making peace in this city.” People boo and laugh loudly and tell her to sit down.
Man says members of patriot prayer yelled homophobic slurs at him from a truck, and then PP’s ‘Tiny’ pulled over an assaulted him.
Chief Outlaw, after loud yelling: “I called this meeting to hear from you. We have to come up with solutions so we don’t have to come here time and time again. Please offer suggestions and solutions. Please, can we offer something meaningful and not speak over each other?”
A woman whose name was made public via PPB public records says she’s been getting death threats since records released. “You guys have actively put my life in danger.”
Update: White people yelling “racist!” at each other in church, African American pastor has his head in his hands.
Aaaaand lunches are being thrown in the pews.
“This is the product of your forefathers,” says African American woman. “I’ve been through it, my brother was beat up by police. Northeast Portland has always been this. We have been crying this for years. I come to talk about the black community that was replaced by you people.”
(That shut everyone up).
*punches, unfortunate error
Notes.
Woman: “chief outlaw you lied to our faces and you said you were there you said you saw rocks being thrown and then you went in a conservative talk show and bragged about kicking our butts. How should I trust you?”
“Antifa is more disciplined than the Portland police.”
Woman also requests PPB creates hate crimes task force.
Woman now mentioning the recent spate of attacks against the LGBTQ community.
Leader for Republican Party complaining about police, but standing up for patriot prayer.
“When we saw those emails we saw a cop doing his job.”
Oh fun, now he’s talking about the importance of closed borders.
AAAAAND PP member Haley just rushed the podium. This is what it looked like.
This kicked off two minutes of chaos, including people chanting “Nazi scum” at Haley, who is standing on top of a pew. She’s been removed.
A man mentions reporting by @katemshepherd from 2017 about a Portland police officer being supportive of patriot prayer.
Woman thanks church leaders for holding this event, but questions why a political event is being held in a church. And then she calls Chief Outlaw a “race traitor”.
Man suggests out of towners (patriot prayer’s from Vancouver, WA) pay into a bond to cover the cost of the police who have to deal w/ protests.
Dan Handeman w/ Portland Copwatch speaking about city not redacting names from records made public.
We have a nuclear plant protester talking about... not the police.
We’re going past 8, folks.
So far, at least three people have asked Wheeler to step down as police commissioner and give the job to Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty.
Man says Chief Outlaw is a “Black woman navigating in a white space.”
Another man: “Police don’t need training to stop identifying white supremacy, they need to stop identifying *with* white supremacy.”
Oh! It’s wrapping up. Despite having 50 people left.
Danielle outlaw wraps up “I want to thank you for your time. I don’t want to speak over you.”
I ask Pastor Bethel why he offered his church for this tense conversation. “Many of the conversations during the civil rights movement happened inside churches. We wanted to offer a safe space to share these very real concerns.”
A ton of folks gathering in the parking lot, smoking, chatting, feels like a show just let out.
Headed home to write. Thanks for following along, buds.
End product: portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2019/…
