Portland Police Rambo-rama news roundup

We're still waiting for any information at all about the conduct that led to the disciplining of then-Portland police union president Brian Hunzeker. The incident occurred more than four months ago. It had something to do with the outrageous slander inflicted on city commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. But the public still doesn't know bupkiss about how Hunzeker was involved.

While we await the facts on that one, we can brood about another of Portland's finest, Detective Erik Kammerer (pictured). It's not exactly news, but Kammerer's being looked at by the state for possible criminal charges in connection with alleged brutality while on protest duty wearing notorious Helmet 67. This week, Willamette Week is once again pointing out the prominent role Kammerer often plays when the police bureau is "investigating" a killer cop.

Kammerer helmed the investigations of some of Portland’s most high-profile fatal police shootings during his tenure. The cases include Officer Andrew Hearst’s fatal shooting of Quanice Hayes in 2017; Officer Consider Vosu’s fatal shooting of Andre Gladen in 2019; and the 2010 killing of Keaton Otis, whom at least three officers shot a total of 23 times. (Officer Cody Berne, who fired 11 rounds, was later hired as a prosecutor in the DA’s office.)

In the eight months since county prosecutors referred Kammerer’s own case to the DOJ for possible criminal prosecution, his workload has remained steady.

Let's hope the reforms that the city's voters passed in November get guys like this out of the driver's seat when it comes to police discipline. Meanwhile, the police union contract is up, and there's still no news from behind the closed doors of the room where the new one is being hatched. Light a candle on that one, too.