Calling out a cover-up

The folks at Willamette Week are appalled at the lengthy delay we're all encountering in finding out what Brian Hunzeker, the disgraced former Portland police union head, did to get himself bounced from that position.

Hunzeker, these days busted back down to motorcycle cop, resigned the sweet union gig after making a "mistake" in connection with the outright slandering of city commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. But here we are going on three months later, and the secret "investigation" is supposedly continuing. 

It is unusual for WW to track the timeline of such investigations, but the circumstances themselves are unusual: A veteran police officer and union president abruptly resigned from his union leadership role in connection with information leaked about an elected official. Meanwhile, he has continued to work the patrol unit in the North Precinct. We believe Portlanders have a right to know what Hunzeker did that led to his resignation, and we believe it is critical to put pressure on public officials and law enforcement leadership who might prefer that the public forget about it. We will continue to publish this column until we know what Hunzeker did.

Go get 'em! They need to do this sort of thing more often.

I wonder if the ongoing hiding of the details of the misconduct by Hunzeker, a resident of Clark County, Washington, has something to do with the current negotiations between the city and the union over a new contract. It shouldn't, but it very well might.

If you ask the mayor and the police chief what happened, they'll probably still say they don't know. Which means that either the police bureau is totally out of control, or the mayor and/or the police chief is a liar. I suppose "all of the above" is another possible answer.