Mayor Ted Wheeler on Friday said in a statement that the investigation would “review the existence of bias in the actions of the PPB leading up to and during demonstrations involving alt-right and anti-fascist protesters.”
The announcement came one day after Willamette Week, a local newspaper, reported on the text messages that had been exchanged between Lt. Jeffrey Niiya and the right-wing activist, Joey Gibson. Police ultimately released a transcript of the text messages, which had been sent from May 2017 to October 2018.
The texts suggested a cordial relationship between Niiya, a commanding officer for the bureau’s Rapid Response Team, which patrols protests, and Gibson, the leader of Patriot Prayer, a pro-Trump group whose events have attracted white nationalists and far-right extremists. The group has a history of clashing with anti-fascist protesters, known as antifa.
“Community members have long expressed concerns about police bias during demonstrations,” Wheeler said in a statement a day before he announced the investigation. “Incidents like this contribute to the distrust that so many people have about the Portland Police Bureau.”
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The city commissioner, Jo Ann Hardesty, said in a statement that “this story, like many that have come before it, simply confirms what many in the community have already known — there are members of the Portland police force who work in collusion with right-wing extremists.”
In the text messages, Niiya and Gibson exchanged information about rallies and security arrangements, as well as pleasantries and a few jokes. The transcripts show that Niiya informed Gibson about plans for police presence before some events, asked him whether he had obtained permits to gather in public and discouraged him from confronting other groups.
“I try to do the best I can to communicate to you and the others on the other side who will listen to me,” Niiya said in one text last October.
Wheeler said in his original statement that “the texts appear to unnecessarily encourage Joey Gibson, the leader of a group that perpetrates hate speech and violence.”
In a response to the recent attention from the news media, Gibson said in a Facebook video that his communications with Niiya were similar to those he engaged in with police officers in other cities where he organized rallies.
“Most of the police officers I talk to are very respectful,” Gibson said. “It doesn’t mean that they like me. It doesn’t mean that they back me. But they’re very professional and they want to basically do everything they can to de-escalate things whenever possible.”
Niiya did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. In the past, he has exchanged similar text messages with an activist on the left who provided medical care for antifa protesters, according to a series of texts reported on by Willamette Week and The Oregonian in 2017. The activist was ostracized from the group when those texts became public.
After the texts with Gibson were disclosed, Police Chief Danielle Outlaw said in a statement Thursday that she had called for an internal investigation of their content and context. “The Portland Police Bureau has strong organizational values that encompass integrity and accountability,” she said. “We have also pledged transparency to our community.”
The mayor announced the independent investigation the next day, adding that he had “heard from the people of Portland.” And in another statement Friday, Outlaw said that Niiya had been instructed to stop communicating with any event organizers and would not participate in any Rapid Response Team activities until the investigation could be completed.
On Friday, Wheeler said that he and Outlaw were going to implement training for Portland police “around how to identify white supremacy.”
Portland, one of the whitest major metropolitan areas in the United States, is a politically progressive city with a racist history. In recent years it has been roiled by protests and rallies that have attracted extremist groups to its streets and parks, sometimes resulting in violence.
Last year, a draft of a city review of how the Portland police dealt with demonstrations said that police officers found it more difficult to work with antifa protesters because of that group’s looser hierarchy, which, according to one unnamed lieutenant, made it difficult for police “to find a single point of contact to convey information.”
It also revealed that officers viewed activists on the left as more threatening and less “mainstream” than those on the right.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.