At long last, someone has made a smart decision in the case of poor James Chasse. Not surprisingly, it's Ted Wheeler.
Chasse, a schizophrenic man, was behaving oddly and possibly urinating on a
tree when police spotted him on Sept. 17, 2006.
Two Portland officers and a Multnomah County deputy approached Chasse figuring they were dealing with a drunk or a drug addict. He ran. As Pearl District diners and shoppers looked on, police chased Chasse and knocked him to the sidewalk. He screamed and fought to break free. Officers used physical force -- their fists, feet and finally a Taser -- to subdue him.
Paramedics at the scene said Chasse's vital signs were normal, so officers tied his feet to his hands and took him to the Multnomah County Detention Center. A jail nurse evaluated Chasse's condition through a cell window. She watched him twitch for a few seconds, told officers he needed medical care and walked away. He died in the back seat of a patrol car on the way to Portland Adventist, less than two hours after his encounter with police.
Chasse's family filed a federal lawsuit against the city, the county, the ambulance company, the police chief, the mayor, the officers, paramedics and jail staff. The lawsuit, since split into separate cases against the officers involved and the government agencies, alleges that Chasse's civil rights were violated, and that pretty much everyone who could screw up did.
Activists for the poor and mentally ill have accused police of beating Chasse to death, then covering up their use of excessive force. Police, in turn, say they've been vilified for a tragic accident.
We may never really know precisely what happened, which particular version of events is closest to the truth or which particular bad decision caused his death.
Which is why Wheeler's decision this week to ask his Multnomah County Board of Commissioners to settle its part of the suit for close to $1 million feels both wise and compassionate.
I know, I know. Chasse may not have been an entirely innocent victim. Officers approached because he appeared to be urinating in public. He ran from them and resisted arrest with surprising force, scratching and biting. A grand jury found no reason to charge anyone involved in chasing Chasse down with a crime. The state medical examiner ruled his death accidental, the natural result of a 245-pound man crashing down on top of a 145-pound one.
Settling the lawsuit is a good business decision. A trial of this magnitude -- involving expert witnesses, conflicting eyewitness testimony and outside lawyers -- could cost taxpayers more than the $925,000 settlement even if the county were to win.
Settling is also the right thing to do because, on a broader level, we all share blame for Chasse's death.
The city and county systems for handling mentally ill people have improved since Chasse's death. The Portland Police Bureau now trains officers about how to deal with mentally ill people and tightened rules about when they can use force. County leaders changed booking procedures at the jail and are close to construction of a $3 million mental health assessment and treatment center. Still, the county's mental health programs and the city's affordable housing efforts both remain woefully understaffed, underfunded and underappreciated.
Wheeler's decision to settle is a nod to the vast amount of work left to be done. And, even if he doesn't intend it that way, next week's county vote on the deal is a reminder to everyone else in this lawsuit that the money being devoted to legal wrangling would be better used fixing a system still undeniably broken.
-- Anna Griffin; annagriffin@news.oregonian.com
This wack job should have never been let run loose in the first place. I don't blame the cops for taking him down. The family who now is seeing "DOLLAR" signs and is sooooo concerned, couldn't have given a crap the night he was on the rampage. The lawyers are laughing all the way to the bank.
James Chasse was killed in a horrible way. His ribs were broken and his lung punctured. A very heavy officer tackled him and caused grave injuries. Do you think that is all right? We are going to have people on the streets who have mental health issues. Apparently our mental health system is not adequate, so officers hired to "protect and serve" are going to need to use their heads more and their weapons and brute force less. It might be easy for 'rockright' to justify what happened to James by calling him a "wack job", but I cannot tolerate killing a person for just being a little different. Chasse was not armed and was not violent. You are seeking to marginalize him by calling him a wack job. A society is measured by the way it cares for its weakest members, and the officers who killed James Chasse failed miserably.
lewisN
It's still about the money. That was my main point. This so called Family didn't care enough to keep him off the street, but sure are going to try and collect big time. And he was violent.
Of the many articles, opinion letters and comments regarding the Chasse saga, few have ever asked the question of where was his family and what responsibility of theirs was it to have kept him from degenerating the way he did? Where was the concern that he wasn?t getting treatment? Where was their outrage when he was living in the streets? What was their responsibility and care when he wasn?t taking his medications?
to jhnbtnx
You do ask important questions. I do not know the Chasse family, but I know other families who struggle with the health system. The problems are endless and the solutions few. James Chasse was not actually homeless. He lived in a half-way house. He was a 42 year old man and even the mentally ill have a right to live on their own. We all need to be asking what is wrong with a system that cannot adequately treat those among us who have mental issues. We do need to be outraged when people are forced to live on the streets. We do need to find ways to help those who need medications to get them and to take them. What we do NOT need are bullying and lethal "peace officers" beating people to death because they do not behave in a rational manner.
If we had actual community policing instead of fake lip-service to it, the police would have known who he was and that he was mentally ill.
The police seem to be good at roid rages and filling out false time cards, and not much else. My wife was the victim of a hit-and-run driver who changed lanes and crushed her car against an exit ramp wall and dragged her 100 feet. She HAD the license number. The police refused to investigate it, saying that since the perp took off it was an "unattended hit and run", like if someone scratches your car in a parking lot. Our *insurance company* tracked down the license and it was a stolen license plate from a boat in Montana. The police are scared of REAL criminals, they like to pick on the mentally ill instead.
Much has been said about the Chasse family, and how much money they are going
to receive as the result of a bunch of thugs kicking their son to the curb and
killing him, simply because he ALLEGEDLY was looking for a place to urinate.
Two thirds of the HUGE sum of money they will "receive" for their son's life
(albeit, to read some of your words a worthless life) will go to pay the
lawyer's fees, another huge chunk for all of the court costs incurred, and
another for taxes. Ultimately, they may see a couple of hundred grand, which
even in today's economy is negligible.
Having said this, let us consider a far more important point than Jim Chasse, or his family: Think for a moment how this atmosphere of violent response might effect YOU. Suppose that you, or someone you love should have a bad response to their insulin, or other drug (legal, of course), and start acting "weird," like a "whack job." Given the current climate of abuse, and grand juries that condone such abuse, your chances of survival are pretty slim.
Fuoad Kaady was the victim of a very similar set of circumstances. He was acting very strange, indeed, unless you considered for one moment that he had just had the skin burned from most of his body. The police response (protect and serve)? Fill his young body with lead, but not before you tazer him until both of your star trek guns are out of juice.
The point here is that the cops are too damn quick to respond with violence.
Were it possible, under current guidelines, to place Mr. Chasse into some kind of inpatient care, one might think that then he would be safe from such overweening violence, but one would be wrong. Consider the case of Jose Mejia Poot: He was in such a secure, locked down facility, and because he could not speak english, he was trying to impress upon his "caretakers" that he needed to contact his family. In pursuit of this goal, he apparently "armed" himself with a fire extinguisher, and sealed his doom. Two of Portland's finest received medals of valor for snuffing out this ne'er do well.
What I intend to say here is that it is not about Jim Jim, not about Fouad, and Not about Jose, it is about US, dear people, and at this time, it is about US versus THEM (the police) They are killing us, and being rewarded for doing so. I am just sorry that the Chasse's were not able to force each of those cops, and their "supervisors" to pay out huge personal damages. We have really gone wrong, when we allow them to continue to work and violate human rights daily, and then reward them for killing someone.
No amount of money can make up for the way our society has abandoned those citizens who are mentally ill.
Being mentally ill is not a crime yet, rather than provide mental health care as needed, we use our jails and prisons as mental health treatment facilities. We expect professionals trained to apprehend criminals to deal with mentally ill citizens acting out on the street.
I'm with sdep -- we need to take better care of our mentally ill. Something is wrong with a society that does not take care of people who cannot care for themselves. It takes a village, but the stigma of mental illness discourages both families and villagers from reaching out to each other.
Ms. Griffin, you write, "Settling is also the right thing to do because, on a broader level, we all share blame for Chasse's death."
You'll have to explain this statement, why "we all share blame for Chasse's death." What is it that you, Ms. Griffin, have done that puts you at blame for his death? What is it that any of us, who absolutely have had no association or knowlegde of Chasse, have done that cause us to share blame for Chasse's death? What is the "broader level" that implicates all of us? Your assertion deserves an explanation, please provide it.
"We all share blame for Chasse's death"? What a bunch of touchy ,feely BS. I don't share blame for anything. If this guy was locked up and taken care of by his family, none of this crap would of happened.
But the family is sure going to profit, aren't they. By not taking care of Chasse they made a big payday for themselfs and the biggest winners "the lawyers".
Now isn't that a heartwarming story.
hippiehtr says...
A said commentary on the state of our tort system. Even though it can be rightfully argued the officers were merely doing their jobs and the incident was a tragic accident, it may still be cheaper to settle for nearly a million dollars. There was shown to be no criminal wrong doing but that clearly has no importance when it comes to the skewed civil litigation system. People sue the police everyday knowing that it is often cheaper for the government to give them some undeserved money rather than spend much more on a trial.