April 02, 2004

24 Seconds

Two Shootings, By The Numbers

At the risk of further incurring criticism for not making as much noise about the the cocaine content of James Jahar Perez's system as we've made about the history of Officer Jason Sery, we feel the need to make specific reference to today's Oregonian article on one of the latest revelations about the incident:

Twenty-four seconds elapsed between the time that a Portland officer radioed the traffic stop of James Jahar Perez on Sunday to an officer's radio call that shots were fired, Portland Police Chief Derrick Foxworth disclosed Thursday.
The first radio call may have come as the officer already had stepped from his car and was approaching Perez in the parking lot of the Lucky Day Cleaners & Laundry, Foxworth said.

When we first heard of a witness claiming that Perez had been reaching to undo his seatbelt, we had flashbacks to the Feburary, 1999, shooting of Amadou Diallo by four New York Police Department officers, who mistook Diallo for a serial rapist, and Diallo's wallet for a weapon. A year later, Bruce Springsteen wrote a song called "American Skin/41 Shots" -- the latter half of that title being a reference to the number of shots fired by the four officers (nineteen of which actually struck Diallo).

New York City and Amadou Diallo had their forty-one shots. Portland and James Jahar Perez have their twenty-four seconds.

Incidentally, the other revelation in that Oregonian article is that Officer Sean Macomber discharged his Taser for a full three minutes and nineteen seconds. Remember, Macomber used his Taser only after Sery had already fired three shots into the torso of Jahar Perez.

We're sorry. Are we making some people uncomfortable? Goodness knows we wouldn't want to be doing that, now would we?

Posted at 10:41 PM | PermalinkComments (14) | TrackBacks (2)
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Comments (14)

  1. Anna on 02 Apr 2004

    I have absolutely no idea how relevant this is to this particular case, but - Post-mortem drug testing can be inaccurate:

    ...because of a technique used to infer how much of a drug is in a deceased person's body. The technique, which is approximate at best in the living, is being incorrectly applied to corpses in a bid to establish how much of a drug a dead person took, or was given, before death. As cells die off any drug would be released back into the bloodstream - so drug levels shoot up.

  2. Jack Bog on 03 Apr 2004

    Who cares how coked up the guy was? It is completely and utterly irrelevant. If he didn't put the officers in reasonable fear for their lives (which you would think would take longer than 24 seconds), he shouldn't be dead.

    Did they give drug tests to the cops?

  3. toonprivate on 03 Apr 2004

    Maybe instead of focusing on what happened during the 24 seconds, there is something to be learned by investigating the system.

    Questions for b!X:
    1) does the Portland police department still subscribe to the "community policing" model of the '90s?
    2) how have funding cutbacks hurt the efforts at community policing (Potter's thoughts on the matter)?
    3) how did this particular "stop" conform or not conform to the community policing model?
    4) what changes have been put in place at the police department since the kendra james shooting?
    5) how did this shooting conform to any new guidelines since Kendra?

  4. Michael McDaniel on 03 Apr 2004

    Drug use does not legally incur a death penalty. It is totally irrelevant whether drugs were found in or on Mr. Perez.

    It would seem that our police are, in too many cases, operating with an inordinate amount of fear when dealing with citizens. This indicates to me a need for more thorough or different training. Perhaps a mentoring period with older, more seasoned, officers.

  5. Jason on 06 Apr 2004

    Anna said "(which you would think would take longer than 24 seconds)"

    Here is a link to the story about the State Trooper in Medford that was shot a day or two before the Perez shooting. The conversation turned from "asking directions" to gunfire in probably much less than 24 seconds. My point is that it only takes a very few seconds for a situation to turn deadly. We shouldn't necessarily get too hung up on "less than 24 seconds."

    http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=65811

    Personally, I am undecided on the shooting.

    Jason

  6. Kenric on 21 Apr 2004

    There is one fact in this case that for some reason few people mention (quoting from the Oregonian):

    "Perez had a felony record for burglary, gun and drug possessions and was on parole."

    Also, I used to hang out at the Paragon bar in North Portland, and I can tell you from my own experience that there are indeed areas in this city where fear is definitely justified when dealing with certain citizens.

    However, I can also say from experience that the first thing that needs to change is for cops to STOP LOOKING FOR EVERY STUPID REASON TO PULL SOMEONE OVER.

    I've been pulled over by Portland cops four times within at least as many years, for a variety of lame reasons:

    * Not signalling before making a right turn (there was no one in front or behind me ... the cop was following me from a different street and then pulled me over right in front of my house in North Portland)

    * Speeding up to pass through a yellow light and then going directly into the right lane after making a left turn

    * Not having a light on my license plate at night (after going through the exact same intersection as above at Lombard and Denver)

    * Pulled over downtown because they thought I was someone else. The cop says something like, "I've dealt with you before". And I said, "I don't think so ... oh wait. Yeah! You pulled me over for going through a yellow light!" She realized I wasn't her man, and that was the end of our conversation. :-)

    * Supposedly not wearing a seat belt (in fact I was wearing it, but only around the waist, not over the shoulder ... I still don't know if that's actually illegal because the cop didn't say it was)

    So, I definitely know there is a problem with cops performing too many "routine traffic violations". One of them even told me that there are many drug dealings in the area, which implied the real reason I was pulled over was because of the chance that I might be a drug dealer. I also think there is some profiling involved, because I drive a big ole pimp-daddy 1981 Buick Electra. Make your own conclusions if you will. ;-)

    -Kenric

  7. SE Portland Resident on 24 Apr 2004

    SUPPORT THE PORTLAND POL
    ICE BUREAU!! James Perez is one less shit head on the streets. The PPB have been in 6 shootings this year and only 2 of them were black. So get over this they shot him cause he was black bullshit!!! Times have changed so go find something else to bitch about. If a white guy got shot, nobody would give a shit. People wouldnt come from all around and set up a memorial for someone they didnt even know. Unfortunity for our officers we are in Portland, full of big fucking liberals who are always going to be breathing down your necks. Who cares about 24sec. or what ever....the fact is he was fighting the officers and resisting arrest!!! HELLO???? The only person responsible in this was James Perez, he was the dumbass who was just asking to get shot.

  8. Kenric on 25 Apr 2004

    Mr. Supportpolice,

    (I assume you're a man because you sound angry and that more often comes from men.)

    It's collective attitudes like yours that instigate riots. Because of your extremist delivery, the people whose opinions you are trying to change will not bother trying to understand your point of view.

    I would like to know more about the four other shootings you mention. Did those people also die? Did they have weapons or attack the cops? Were they sitting in their cars pulled over for a minor traffic violation and still wearing their seat belts when they were shot? If their situations were different, that would at least partially explain why they didn't get the same headlines.

    As for the Perez case, it is true that he was on parole for burglary and gun/drugs possession, a fact which protestors rarely mention because their cause benefits more from phrases like "African American citizen" and "father of a six year old". However, it seems highly unlikely that the excessive amount of force used by the cops was justified by his offenses (failing to signal, resisting arrest, and attempting to hide evidence), nor should minor traffic violations be an excuse for unreasonable search and seizure.

    From what I've read so far, it appears that officer Sery has a history of being involved in a higher than average number of violent conflicts and a tendency to pull his gun early and too often. He barely passed the psychology test before becoming a cop in Montana. His partner taser'd Perez for THREE minutes after he was already dead. The manufacturer says it's only supposed to be used for 5 seconds at the most, and that 3 minutes is a dubious new world's record. There is definitely something not right with this picture. People who aren't good at handling these situations SHOULD NOT BE COPS.

    Please, don't support BAD COPS. They are giving *good* cops a bad name.

    What happened here is like what happens in no-limit poker when one dude has Four Aces and the other has a Royal Flush. Both people are super aggressive and neither one quits until one of them loses everything.

    This simply has to stop.

    What's needed ideally is for the world to be "perfect", where no crimes are ever committed and therefore cops aren't needed.

    The chances for that being slim, the next best thing is to work towards perfecting the law enforcement process and minimizing these bad situations, with changes such as better screening of police applicants, better training, periodic reviews, improving relationships with citizens who are afraid of cops, a renewed focus on *real* crimes instead of minor traffic violations, and a genuine desire to learn how to deal with people in ways that minimize aggression, in hopes that encounters do not escalate towards violence.

    -Kenric

  9. LUEser on 30 Apr 2004

    They shot him because he wasn't American.

  10. moby on 01 May 2004

    Sery isnt just the only bad seed. What about the two who attacked Eunice Crowder , a 71yr. old BLIND woman. They managed to knock her glass eye out in the process of macing, then tazing, and knocking her to the ground . Officers Robert Miller and Eric Zajac should never be allowed to work as police officers,yet they are. Why is that? Sery and all the rest of the bad seeds should be made to find other jobs.

  11. Supportpolice on 22 May 2004

    It all comes down to this... You fucking liberals and the leftist media! Plain and simple. The world is going to hell. You cant let officers do their jobs because this country is so fucking liberal people will be breathing down your neck. Lets go back to the good old days of the law. Officers cant do their jobs properly because of you leftist. Someone yells at the police or is just a plain piece of trash such as James Perez deserves to kick his ass kicked. That would teach people to give these hard working officers respect. The reson why the streets are getting worse is because you are taking away power from officers and always questioning their actions!

  12. GinsBorg on 05 Jun 2004

    So, cops should have the ultimate power of killing anyone they choose regardless of what they've done. Is that really how you see it?

    I give up. When people like you are obviously incapable of logic and don't even bother to at least consider opinions besides your own, it seems to me the human race is doomed.

    Or maybe we'll get lucky and some cop will kill YOU.

  13. Support Police on 07 Jun 2004

    To GinsBorg:

    I don't want to waste my breath on you, so this is short. Police don't kill someone for no reason. Face that fact! This BS about me getting shot by an officer, well I’m not worried about getting shot because I don't do stupid things such as reach for something and disobey all commands from a police officer!! Plain and simple! Give them respect, they give you respect.

  14. Support Police on 07 Jun 2004

    To Ginsborg:

    P.S. I have taken time to see it from your point of view. But I know it is not the right way! The path to hell is paved with liberals! You should check out www.michaelsavage.com Maybe you would learn something!

Trackbacks (2)

  1. White or Black? on 05 Apr 2004

    After the shooting of James Perez last week, Portlanders are asking themselves if Portland police treat whites and blacks differently. Yes. Blacks are shot in their cars. Whites are shot in the privacy and comfort of their homes.

  2. Thin blue race. on 28 Apr 2004

    Portland bloggers Ethan Lindsey and Christopher Frankonis (the One True b!X) are both typing up blow-by-blow coverage of the public inquest into the shooting of James Jahar Perez by Portland police officer Jason Sery. It’s the first such inquest...