Portland police training on protests ends with slide showing mock prayer for ‘dirty hippy,’ prompts investiga - OregonLive

The slide was discovered in September 2021 as the city prepared documents to turn over to lawyers for Don't Shoot Portland, a nonprofit that sued Portland police over its use of force during social justice protests in 2020.

A Portland Police Bureau training presentation on protests ended with a PowerPoint slide listing a prayer for a “dirty hippy” and the promise to send “my humble servants” with hats and bats to “christen” their “heads with hickory” accompanied by a photo of a helmeted officer raising his arm to a woman.

“I am disgusted that this offensive content was added to a training presentation for our police officers,” Mayor Ted Wheeler, who serves as police commissioner, said in a statement Friday.

The city made the slide public, months after city attorneys turned it over to lawyers for the nonprofit Don’t Shoot Portland, a Black-led nonprofit that advocates for social and racial justice.

Wheeler called the slide “unauthorized” and said it was discovered last September while the city was reviewing and preparing documents to be turned over in the Don’t Shoot Portland legal case.

The mayor said the training slide wasn’t made public earlier “to protect the integrity” of the early part of the police internal inquiry.

Attorney Juan Chavez, one of the lawyers representing Don’t Shoot Portland, said the slide “is only coming to light because plaintiffs stood up to the City and sued them.”.

The city released the full training presentation and the inappropriate slide Friday, as it anticipated a new court filing in the case.

The nonprofit’s lawyers initially learned of the derogatory training meme during a deposition taken in the case last year and obtained a copy from city lawyers under a protective order in September, Chavez said.

Police Chief Chuck Lovell said in a statement: “The message on the training presentation slide was contrary to PPB’s values and what we are trying to achieve as an organization.’’.

The chief said the content and message in the slide “is not representative of the Portland Police Bureau and it is disappointing to all of us who work so hard to earn the community’s trust.’’.

“I believe that the hard-working members of the Portland Police Bureau who are seeing this for the first time are also angered and disgusted by the image and words on this slide and how it portrays members of our community and law enforcement.’’.

Aaron Schmautz, president of the Portland Police Association, said in a statement: “The content of the slide does not reflect the values of our hard working and devoted members, or our values as police union.