Kristian Williams
Guest comment

On Nov. 24, more than six hundred supporters of the Portland Police Association gathered in defense of one embattled officer, Christopher Humphreys.

Humphreys had been suspended, with pay, pending investigation of an incident in which he had fired a less-lethal shotgun at an unarmed 12-year-old girl. At the time of the incident, he was already facing discipline for his role in the beating death of a mentally ill man named James Chasse.

The cops marched, not in uniform, but in t-shirts and carrying signs reading “I Am Chris Humphreys.” Such a display should dispel any illusions about what the police want or what the PPA stands for.

Humphreys’ notable career has been punctuated by continuous violence. In addition to these high-profile cases, in 2005 he struck an unresisting suspect more than 30 times; it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. A year later, he was implicated in the beating of a black college student (whom a jury later acquitted). Based on police records, it is estimated that only one cop in the city uses force more often than Humphreys.

Cops often complain that it is unfair to judge the entire Police Bureau by its most dysfunctional officers. But when push comes to shove, and shoving comes to beating, and beating comes to shooting — the Police Association always lines up to defend the most brutal practices and the most bigoted cops.

The last time the PPA mobilized a rally in support of suspended officers it was because racist cops were harassing black business owners by repeatedly leaving dead possums on their doorsteps.

The interests the Police Association defends are the interests the police defend. Cops are the hired guns of capitalism and the protectors of white supremacy; they stand for a system of power that exploits workers, excludes the poor, and leaves people of color at the bottom of the social pyramid.

Police “unions” do not, and cannot, represent the interests of the working class, because police are not workers like other workers. They are part of the apparatus by which worker organizing is suppressed. Here at the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Organization protests, we should also remember the long and inglorious history of police attacks on the labor movement — red squad infiltration, raids on union halls, and assaults on picket lines.

The labor movement owes the police nothing — not solidarity, not support, not our silence. The only thing workers owe cops is a good hard kick in the ass.

Kristian Williams is a member of the National Writers Union and Rose City Copwatch. He is the author of “Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America,” and “American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination.”