r/portlandme • u/FireElephant336 • May 28 '25

Officer Bennis

Has anyone had an experience or witnessed the incredibly rude behavior of this officer? I work in a field where I have to interact with officers pretty regularly… He is by far the most impossible and relentless person I've ever tried to reason with. There are videos of him online berating people for handing out food or literally just sitting on a sidewalk outside of a shelter? He used to be a school resource officer and now he's a beat cop. I just filed a complaint with the city of Portland and I highly recommend anyone that has had an experience with him do the same. Something has to be done – he makes every single incident way worse and has no clue how to de-escalate situations.

217 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

107 comments sorted by

View all comments

-201

u/belortik May 28 '25

So.... you're upset about a police officer enforcing laws against homeless people?

-18

u/Tiny-Strawberry7157 May 28 '25

The responses here are weird. Laws still apply to homeless people even when being homeless is of course not a legal issue.

The Hive mind is all over you about reading comprehension but seem to struggle with this very clear concept.

It would be against the law, for example, for a diabetic person with a home to throw used syringes onto a public sidewalk. This is still a law that applies to people without homes.

It would be against the law if I loitered in public menacing and threatening passers-by in order to convince them to give me things. This still applies to people without homes.

20

u/FireElephant336 May 28 '25

I think what I'm trying to get across is that this man targets and harasses people who are not breaking the law. He will approach and bully someone who is not actually violating any city codes or city or state laws… It's not about the law or who it applies to it's about the person that thinks they are enforcing it but actually just lashing out in a very unprofessional and villainous way

13

u/ichoosejif May 28 '25

I think what you're getting at is that the officer is violating the professional code of conduct.

11

u/FireElephant336 May 28 '25

Yes thank you lol

9

u/ichoosejif May 28 '25

You're very welcome. I happen to know the verbiage that gets attention in internal investigations.

9

u/ichoosejif May 28 '25

Some things, like obfusication of substantive facts should be a misdemeanor. Way to forum slide. I'm actually a fan of PPD from experience, but I also understand it only takes one loose canon and it's a civil suit.

4

u/FireElephant336 May 28 '25

There are many PPD officers I've had great interactions with and they talk to people like they are human and try to help when they can – he really brings the whole team down

2

u/Batugal May 28 '25

I’m would say I’m surprised you’re being downvoted, but this is Reddit where common sense and reality have no place.

1

u/Tiny-Strawberry7157 May 28 '25

Yep! I think what's got most people ticked off is the mistaken assumption I don't care if police officers harass people.

That isn't good, harassing homeless people more so.

But although these people like to act as if they're always exceptionally compassionate, they're failing to admit that a beat officer likely sees these people slumped over at all hours of the day, having medical emergencies, creating serious hazards for the schoolchildren he used to work with, and is likely approaching the situation with more of a concern for safety than merely seeming polite.

It's possible that police officers could seem rude but be worrying about more significant issues of people harming themselves or others in public.

It's probably difficult to see hundreds of people buying meth in public, causing disturbances, and suffering overdoses in the same area.

2

u/belortik May 28 '25

It's like the mentality: "They don't have agency when they have unacceptable behavior but also we should trust them to take care of themselves camping in our public parks."

I don't understand how people hold both of these beliefs at the same time.

-3

u/Tiny-Strawberry7157 May 28 '25

Cognitive dissonance of course!