Officer involved in Aaron Campbell shooting will be reinstated
PORTLAND, Ore. – The City of Portland will reinstate a police officer who was fired over his involvement in the shooting of an unarmed man, even as city officials continue to fight his continued employment.
An arbitrator had previously ordered the city to reinstate Ron Frashour to the police bureau. That decision was recently upheld by the state Employment Relations Board.
Frashour was fired after shooting and killing Aaron Campbell, who was unarmed in front of his apartment when he was killed in January 2010. The police bureau said Frashour did not follow proper protocol during the shooting.
Mayor Sam Adams has never relented in his desire to keep Frashour out of the bureau, although Adams’ hand was forced following the two rulings.
Frashour will be given back pay then placed on paid administrative leave as the city continues to appeal his reinstatement.
In October, the city council voted to appeal the labor board’s ruling to the Oregon Court of Appeals. If the appeals court sides with the city, Frashour could once again lose his job.
“This is an interim legal requirement,” Adams said in a statement. “Our fight for control of our own police bureau continues.”
Read more about the Aaron Campbell case
Rewarding stupidity. Â That's unions for ya! Â And this slim ball gets 9% interest on his back pay? Â OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Â Nobody in this economy is earning 9% interest. Â Regular people are getting 1% interest. Â Unions... go figure...
He needs to be re-instated as the Coffee boy. This low life shot a person in the back. I hope city hall will pass out Bullet Proof Vests. He will shoot again.. Wait and see.
@cpt.iceman "shot a person in the back" - so what? The entire legal process, with the exception of a handful untrained, pandering, D-bag politicians found the3 officers justified. Folks like you crow when you win in the system, but cry like a 4 year old girl when you lose.
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Adams theory that this officer made a mistake had it's day in court, and was found to be incorrect.. That's it. Move on and quit sniveling.Â
Hopefully he will be reinstated to the motorpool. No one has died from quickly cleaning outs squad cars.
@Agent Sydney Bristow Thats not a very real bright idea. When the Appeals Court finds for the officer, he will be reinstated to the position he held when the shooting happened. If he was on the street, he will go back to the street. The entire process has validated his actions are moral, legal, and justified. This has been backed by by *independant* adjudication. The officer already has cause to sue the City for wrongful termination, relaliating against him for winning his case will increase their civil liability. Seeing how the City caved in and needlessly gave over a million bucks to the family of dead thug - they ought to cut their loses, and drop the Mayor's personal jihad against this officer.
this is an indictment of the entire PPB. The rogue police and the Police Union have imposed their will upon the City and its people against the demands of the public and it's elected officials. The PPB and it members have proven again that they are above any kind of discipline or reproach from anybody and that standing together they stand above the law and department discipline and department procedure and the city council and the people of Portland whom they presume to protect and serve but, in fact, they disdain and abuse.  FU50 et. al.
 @Icarus .. your postings, where it includes ANY police department has me wondering WHY....
If I were him, I'd take the reinstatement back salary, and at the first indication of any action against him personally, sue the City for Hostility in the Workplace. But, then again, I wouldn't work there for any reasons. Police in Portland can't do the job they were sworn to do, and trained to do. Every action on their part is subject to endless reevaluation and review, so that eventually one of them will be injured or killed simply because of concerns for how it will be judged in the future. Law enforcement is a response-driven profession, where quick reaction is based on training and experience to do the right thing at the right moment for the right reason at the time. Second guessing politicians and activists who do not subscribe to any code of ethics should stay out of police work.   Â
 @jpk They weren't trained to shoot unarmed citizens in the back....but they do. They weren't trained to taser people in their homes who were having a seizure...but they do. If t5hese are examples of what our police are supposedly trained to do, THEN WE NEED TO GET RID OF THE LOT AND START OVER
If only there was some way to make Adams responsible for the cost of pursuing this...we are not made of money and it's time for petty officials to pay for superfluous causes.... talk about angry..,.Adams has managed to do that to a lot of us, most of us if the truth be known...whatever happened to the voice for the majority...we are in terrible times Adams but that doesn't seem to stop you from wasting our money....it only makes you look like a dufus with revenge on his mind and not what is best for the people you swore to serve...
No worries folks, it's not like the Portland city council lives in the real world any ways.
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 @Lo Pan Agreed, remember when they wanted to rename 4th street after Cesar Chavez?
This is good news. Â He should have never been fired. Â They should fire Adams for all the poor decisions he has made.
 @sortbait I ask you, what does a police officer have to do to get fired in this country? Â
Great News!!!!!
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IF CAMPBELL HAD JUST DONE WHAT HE WAS TOLD, HE WOULD BE ALIVE TODAY!!!!!
Frashour should have been drug tested , He was and most likely is still using Drugs , He made a bad call as a result, and the war on the citizens continues with no over site of the drug abusers in the police dept. I'm not ok with that and never will be .
 @sugarfree1 Do you have any evidence to back up your accusation?
 @sugarfree1 ...just like a person in the wrong - YOU, in this case to try and pass on blatant lies hoping to be believed......there has been too much written about this case for any lies to be believed...Frashour made the only call he could knowing what he knew, that Campbell had a gun and was angry, etc., etc., if Campbell had done what he was told to do he'd still be here with you, next time a cop tells you to drop to the ground, put you hands behind you, etc., etc., do it and you may live to see another day.....
@sugarfree1 No basis for your allegation. This is another case of suicide by cop. Cambell forced the situation to gain the desired result. He succeeded. You want to point fingers? Point them at our failed mental health system in which the state dumped all the responsibility back on local communities who are still underfunded, understaffed and undertrained.
PPB Officer Frashour did exactly what he was trained to do and my old friend Lt. Robert King lied on the witness stand for some unknown reason. I never sold my soul to the administration just to appease some minority that screamed for justice when the skel was in the wrong. The only winners here were all the attorneys that drug this out and made big bucks while the family go squat...
Hip, hip, hooray...about time....he did nothing wrong.  His reactions and those around him were based on info provided and Campbell's own reactions..
Sammy, give it up, stop wasting the taxpayer's money, oh you did that with all you bike signs. Since I disagree with you am I the next to be fired on your list?
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What does a police officer actually have to do to get fired in this city? Apparently you can shoot someone that is obeying orders and keep your job for murdering said person.
 @Jamie You are right Jamie, and the problem stems directly from the agreement that the City of Portland made with the Portland Police Union.Â
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The very negotiations that the City Council said was supposed to be held in the light of day, but were moved behind closed doors (presumably because the people would be really mad if they were widely aware of what they were agreeing to, like that the police could literally commit outright murder and they STILL can't even be interviewed about it for 48 hours!).  Do you think that does anyone any good other than someone who needs time to get a story 'straight')? Does anyone else who has to use deadly force get that 2 days to 'clarify' their story before being interviewed by investigators? How about drug testing, and the lack of steroid testing for the officers? How about the fact that they don't even get tested after they shoot someone? How about the fact that lying under oath in court, while accusing innocent citizens of committing crimes, won't get you fired from the department. There are multiple officers who have been caught not only outright lying in paperwork accusing innocent people of committing crimes, but who have been caught lying under oath on the stand (directly contradicted by multiple witnesses and photographic evidence). Not only were the officers not prosecuted for committing perjury or false reporting, they are still gainfully employed as Portland Police!Â
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All of these things were basically agreed to by the City Council during the PPU contract negotiations. Most people don't understand how critical that agreement is to the ability of police get away with violating the rights of those in Portland they are supposed to protect. And it really helps them to get away with a crime if they commit it. If it wasn't for that agreement, Frashour (according to the Grand Jury) would likely have been prosecuted criminally (if it was within their legal scope, which it wasn't because of the PPU Contract).
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So, this summer when they hide their negotiations behind closed doors, maybe more people will have a problem with it. It really effects everyone profoundly and most don't give it credit for how much. Citizens should insist that those things which keep police from being responsible for their actions and gives them immunity from prosecution are removed from the contract, and likewise that ALL the negotiations happen in public, in plain view of the citizens who it effects this time. Nobody should be able to get a free pass on violating the law, especially those who are supposed to be enforcing it.
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The City really needs to reign this union in.
 @TangledUpInBlue Thank you so very much for your honesty. I'd give you a thousand thumbs up if I could!
 @Jamie Know the facts before you spout of mindless nonsense...
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 Aaron Campbell was not obeying orders. He had already been shot with bean bag rounds multiple times for not obeying orders, and he continued to not obey orders. Keep in mind that he told the police he had a gun on his person and that the police were going to have to kill him or he would shoot at them...that alone would put any officer on edge. Mr. Campbell was in the process of retreating back into the house while reaching into his wasteband...where officer Frashour thought the gun, which Mr. Campbell said he had, was located. That is why officer Frashour shot at Mr. Campbell. And while the gun was not on Mr. Campbell's person, the loaded gun was found just inside the threshold of the front door...the door that Mr. Campbell was retreating towards.Â
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So, there are just some of the facts in this case...To say that this man was obeying orders is either a blatant lie or a statement coming from an grossly uninformed citizen.
 @acepixure  @Jamie Speaking of spouting mindless nonsense, you have no idea what you are talking about. Try actually reading the Grand Jury testimony sometime. You know, the information from the people who were actually there, not those who heard something from someone who was sure he read something somewhere.Â
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Here is the testimony:Â http://www.mentalhealthportland.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/campbell_gj_transcript.pdf
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The facts are NOT that Campbell wasn't following orders. The fact is he was following orders, he was only able to follow one set at a time, because two cops were shouting contradictory orders to him. They directly contradicted each other, one cop yelling at him to put his hands up, the other yelling at him to lay down, simultaneously. When he listened to the one in front of him, and tried to lay down, the other cop (behind and to the right side) started shooting at him with the shotgun, which caused Campbell to run for cover and reach for the area where he was just hit by the shotgun beanbag round, and that's when Frashour killed him. The family had long been released, the area cleared and contained.  No police officer bothered to even determine if Campbell was still alive and could be saved for over 15 minutes after he was shot. They let the police dog continue to chew on his dying body for many minutes after he was shot, despite no sign of movement from Campbell.
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There is a VERY good reason why the City of Portland is paying the Campbell's big money, and It's not because the police were in the right. Frashour shouldn't be a cop in a shopping mall, much less the streets of any city.
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So, before admonishing others about popping off without any actual truthful information, why don't you try reading the grand jury testimony in full.  Read the testimony and you'll realize that you sound like you're suffering from a horrible case of Cranial Rectosis.
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Enjoy the read, it's actually quite interesting (especially if you read it with your many predetermined biases set aside). It might just cure that 'medical condition' you appear to be suffering from.
 @Jamie Campbell was not obeying Law Enforcement's commands, he would still be here if he had.
 @Roy Johnson  @Jamie They didn't even give him a chance to obey! Â
The initial report was his hands where in the air when the Officer opened up with a 12gauge bean bag rounds. After the fourth hit he lowered his hand to grab his back. That is when he was shot in the back. READ THE REPORT!!!!!!!!!
 @Roy Johnson Keep telling yourself that.
I wonder whose family member will be Mr. Frashour's NEXT VICTIM...
 @August100 I would bet that if Frashour is reinstated he will be assigned to a desk job for the rest of his career.
Headline should read " Mayor Sam Adams shows total disregard for arbitrator's ruling"
 @Lost River Exactly - because he knows the arbitrator's ruling is an extremely bad call and that it would be an egregious error to uphold it.
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Proof that the public unions are more powerful than the governmnet.
I'm so sorry to hear this , but maybe not as sorry as his next victim.
Another trigger happy police officer roaming the street. I feel so much safer.
Oh God please give it a rest. Your posts are getting soooooo boring, and laughable I might add.