Today, the Chief of the Portland Police Bureau said tear gas is uncomfortable.

No, it's a war crime.

During a pandemic it can be a death sentence.

Zero apology for the treatment of the press or taking ownership for officers abuse of force.

There is no end without accountability, and there is no accountability because there is no emotionally intelligent leadership.

PPB has now used:

"Good protester vs. bad protester"
"Few troublemakers"
Weapons of war
Tactics of war
Proxy alliances

And none of it has worked. I wonder why?

There is a culture of a lack of accountability within PPB and nobody within PPB has said how that's changing.

You are dealing with generations of people who believe in changing things as part of a multi-racial, radically inclusive movement.

They cannot be defeated.

They need to be heard and things need to change.

You can change all the laws you want but unless the culture within PPB changes, nothing will fundamentally change. As we saw last night, stipulated agreement or laws, they're going to do whatever they want to do.

One thing has fundamentally changed though it's now PPB vs. Portlanders and Protesters.

Portlanders are social justice minded, anti-fascists who are sick of this. Rightfully so, nobody is hearing their calls for significant change.

There is no significant change because the entity with military force refuses to concede that there is even the smallest of problems. How could they? They were trained on compliance rather than communication.

They are perplexed that people will not simply obey when the social contract has become so fragmented that everyone now has a police abuse story. The terror continues, this time in new neighborhoods.

Nothing will fundamentally change until the Bureau changes.

Imagine a world where the Chief of police says,

"You're right. We have messed this up completely. We support a 30% cut to our budget. The money devoted to us should be earned. We shouldn't be entitled to it. We will also work with the community to develop better oversight."

"We will ensure that our union does not oppose these changes, because it matters to us."

"We will encourage the DA's office to drop these charges. We will investigate all abuses of force. We will support a stronger IPR and Citizen Review Board. We will write directives with the people we serve. We will build with each other instead of by ourselves."

"We abused your trust and for that we owe you a profound apology. We will make things right one day."