Portland Police Decry Mayor Wheeler's Decision to Ban Tear Gas [View all]

When Portland police officers are unhappy with a decision made by city leadership, they usually take their concerns to their respective union leaders, who use strongly-worded press releases or new lobbying campaigns to express their members' collective discontent.

On Thursday, however, police didn't bother cloaking their growing grievances behind a union statement. Instead, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) used its city-issued email account and official social media pages to trumpet their displeasure with Mayor Ted Wheeler's decision to ban PPB from using CS gas—a commonly-used type of tear gas.

In a lengthly press release sent through PPB's official media channels, PPB detailed how people have damaged property, thrown items at police, and caused general mayhem during the past three months of protests against police brutality.

"Banning the lawful use of CS will make it very difficult to address this kind of violence without resorting to much higher levels of physical force, with a correspondingly elevated risk of serious injury to members of the public and officers," the statement reads. "CS, while effective, is a significantly lower level of force than impact weapons, which would very likely be necessary to disperse riotous groups with its prohibition."

Read more: https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/09/11/28817893/portland-police-decry-mayor-wheelers-decision-to-ban-tear-gas