A Portland commissioner who has led efforts to defund the police – despite calling the cops on a Lyft driver last year – has branded the Oregon city’s 50-person riot squad that resigned in protest this week a ‘rogue paramilitary organization’ and called for the team to be formally disbanded.
City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty gloated in a statement on Thursday that the- resignations are a sign that ‘the good old boy network is crumbling and we can either be a part of the change or part of the status quo – but the arc of justice is bending quickly and it’s imperative that the Portland City Council lands on the right side of history.’
All the members of the Portland Police Department’s Rapid Response Team, who are tasked with crowd control amid the city’s ongoing, often violent protests, abruptly quit on Wednesday in solidarity with a colleague who was indicted on criminal charges for allegedly striking a photographer who was dubbed a protester.