The Portland Police Bureau keeps finding new ways to make Portland distrust them. The Oregonian on their latest move into the abyss:

Portland Officer Leo Besner, who has cost the city at least $852,000 in tort claims or jury awards since 2003, is among five officers to be promoted to sergeant on Thursday despite lingering questions regarding his fitness as an officer.

Bobbie Jo Foster, sister of a man shot in the back by Besner while on the phone with police negotiators, and others have written to the mayor and chief in recent weeks, urging them to rethink the promotion.

Foster's brother, Raymond Gwerder, died when shot by Besner in November 2005. Among those joining Foster in expressing concern are Jessie Cornett, Gwerder's best friend and former city council candidate, and Portland Copwatch.

"Besner remains a danger to the very public he is sworn to protect," Foster wrote Nov. 30, and cited her brother's case, as well as other cases in which she argues Besner demonstrated tactics unsuitable for a rank-and-file cop.

"I would like to encourage you and the Police Chief to send a clear message to the public that Besner's brand of violence will not be tolerated much less rewarded."

Regardless, Chief Mike Reese said Monday Besner will be among five officers handed a sergeant's badge Thursday. The bureau already has promoted six officers off the current sergeant's promotional list, and Besner is next, having ranked seventh on a written exam and oral interview. The chief has the discretion to pass over an officer, but has chosen not to, he said.

"We have a clear-cut promotional process. Officer Besner did very well in that process. Whenever we deviate from that process, we end up as an organization getting ourselves into trouble," Reese said Monday. "This is a civil service process. We're not going to deviate from that unless there's a justifiable reason to do so."

If Reese couldn't think of a justifiable reason for not promoting Besner he might not be the right person to serve as chief.

Among other incidents: In September 2009, a Multnomah County jury awarded three men $175,000 in damages for the way Portland police officers -- one of whom was Besner -- treated them in a downtown parking lot. The three men described 40 minutes of terror in which they were pulled from a car at gunpoint while officers searched the vehicle, before being released without charges.

One of the plaintiffs testified that Besner punched his groin twice as police checked to see if a handgun one of the men was carrying was stolen, even after the man with the gun told police he was "carrying" and showed them his concealed handgun license. Besner said he acted based on experience with shootings downtown involving suspects who got into fights after clubs closed, then retrieved guns from their cars.

The city also paid out $140,000 in 2003 after Besner and another officer questioned and threw to the pavement a 15-year-old girl who, while waiting for a bus home from school in Old Town, reached into her friend's pants pocket to remove a soda bottle.

There is dry rot in the Portland Police Bureau and a lack of moral clarity in the leadership - from the chief to Portland Mayor Sam Adams.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Update:  Below the fold is the text of an e-mail I sent to Mayor Sam Adams about this issue.  It was copied to all the members of the Portland City Council and many Portland-area religious leaders: