I'd love to post this in C&J, because it really does deserve a cheer, but I gotta get to work, so I thought I'd just put it up here.
Cheers to the OTHER Portland (the one here in Oregon) ...and for Portland' Mayor and City Council, who last night stared down the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).
After demanding (and not receiving) that the mayor receive the same security clearance as participating police officers, Mayor Tom Potter joined the Portland City Council in a 4-1 vote to withdraw Portland police officers from the JTTF, making Portland the first city in the nation to do so.
More on the flip....
Potter, himself a former Portland Chief of Police, said that he couldn't conduct proper oversight in his role as mayor (and therefore police commissioner) if he didn't have the same top secret clearance as the participating police officers.
Potter has expressed concern that the JTTF runs the risk of running afoul of the Oregon Constitution, which is more restrictive than the U.S. Constitution when it comes to surveillance activities. And of course, after the Brandon Mayfield debacle, the Mayor and City Council have seen the consequences of task forces running amok; they take their oversight role seriously and have expressed the need to ensure that Portland police officers are not being asked to engage in activities that would violate the Oregon Constitution (which, for example, forbids surveillance of a suspect solely based upon that individual's political or religious affiliation).
So, cheers to you, Mayor and City Council; when I want protection from those who would "destroy our way of life," that definitely means I want protection of the civil liberties that are part and parcel of that way of life.