Piece Description

King J is a long time Portland activist. I interviewed him following the 3rd year anniversary of the death of Jose Mejia Poot, a Spanish speaking man who was taken down on a public bus after being short 20 cents and likely experiencing an epileptic seizure. Within the next 3 days, through a bizarre, brazil-like series of bureaucratic mishaps, Poot was shot to death at Gateway Hospital, a mental health institution that was already under scrutiny by state authorities. Gateway was shut down just months after the Poot incident. Poot's sparked citywide controversy over police accountability, a perennial Portland issue. This interview is an excerpt of an hour-long investigation into the results of a citizen review of Poot's death. An independent Police audit by the group PARC made more than 80 recommendations to the Police bureau about improvements they could make to reduce excessive police force. But even after the PARC review, still a number of people of color have been murdered by police in N and NE Portland. King J is a resident of the area, and he tells us what he thinks about excessive use of force and solutions to the problem.