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Members of a specialized Portland, Oregon, police unit that deals with crowd control have resigned from the assignment en masse a day after a fellow officer was indicted on an assault charge stemming from alleged illegal use of force during a protest last year. The Portland Police Bureau's Rapid Response Team, which is primarily responsible for providing public safety at crowd events, consisted of approximately 50 officers, all of whom resigned Wednesday, the bureau announced.
The assignment is voluntary and the officers will remain on the force and continue their regular assignments, the bureau said.
In a peculiar way, perhaps their leaving the crowd control unit, and the force as a whole is a positive. They knew what the laws were for treating protesters, in terms of their use of force, and made a collective decision that they weren’t willing to follow them, so they left. This could be a sign of stricter police training protocols being instituted to better make sure they follow the law when they’re out there overseeing protests.