Aaron Campbell was shot in the back by a cop who was providing “lethal cover” for other cops in 2010.

It’s terrible.

It’s also the way Portland Police Bureau cops have been trained to do and that’s why an arbitrator has ruled that Officer Frashour should be reinstated after being thrown under the bus by the both the Chief of Police and Police Commissioner and Mayor Sam Adams.
Adams went to You Tube to try to placate the Albina Ministerial Alliance and

the Portland Professional Protesters who plan a protest today.

The case has been scrutinized by the Feds and has resulted in a feeble attempt by the City to attempt to change training techniques midstream during the Campbell family’s wrongful death lawsuit. In fact, as we see here in this article in the Zero, the whole lawsuit settled before the court was told that the Campbell episode was, sadly, by the book:

Officer Ryan Coffey, the bureau’s lead defensive tactics instructor, was to testify Portland police are taught not to allow potentially armed suspects to “secure hard cover,” the document said. Further, police are taught that suicidal people are “frequently homicidal,” the instructors were to testify. Former defensive tactics instructor Todd Engstrom was to point out that Frashour’s sole focus as the officer with an AR-15 rifle was to provide “lethal cover.” 

This case could be the reason why the City Council recently voted to approve building a new training center.  A Center will fix nothing, of course; only new rules of engagement will. Rules to improve communication at these stand offs will need to improve.

Mayor Sam Adams seems eager to show his willingness to throw this Officer under the bus and keep him there for following his own Bureau’s rules and regulations. Unfortunately, Adams’s objections might ring more true and less politically conniving should he have more gravitas. Alas, he has none. For that one must have respect for the law, which Adams does not.