(Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Salem police on Friday said no employees were involved in creating or presenting a meme promoting violence against protesters, which was shown in a slideshow as part of a crowd control training used by several Oregon law enforcement agencies.
The statement came a day after Salem Reporter contacted the Salem Police Department for clarification about the presentation.
According to reporting from Willamette Week, the final slide of a presentation used by the Portland Police Bureau showed the meme, titled “Prayer of the Alt Knight,” which makes light of police violence against protesters and is linked to the far-right movement. Lt. Franz Schoening, who served as a commander of the agency’s former Rapid Response team during summer 2020 protests, said in a Sept. 23 deposition in federal court that Oregon State Police as well as instructors from Salem Police, PPB and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office jointly offered the training. He was deposed by attorneys representing the group Don’t Shoot Portland, which is suing the city of Portland over police use of force at recent protests.
“The Salem Police Department is aware of recent Portland-area media reports concerning an offensive image and meme related to protests,” the department said in a Friday news release. “We understand the concerns and questions the captioned-image raises with our community. It is important for our community to know that no Salem Police staff was involved in the development or presentation of the offensive graphic.”
Multiple agencies host a statewide “basic crowd control training event” that officers from across the state attend, the news release said, and the Salem Police Department provides instructors and instruction materials for parts of the training, which lasts several days. Salem police instructors present their own materials and don’t routinely collaborate with other agencies in presenting or producing them.
“No Salem Police staff provided instruction for the presentation module in question,” the news release said. “More importantly, the image and the meme do not reflect the values of the Salem Police Department or our expectation of conduct displayed by officers during any contact with the community. We take seriously our responsibility to protect the community while respecting individuals’ right to free speech and assembly, and our commitment to strengthening the public’s trust and confidence continues to be our focus and priority.”
The U.S. Department of Justice attorneys wrote a letter Tuesday to Portland’s police chief and city attorney, requesting they provide “original, unredacted” records of all training materials for the Rapid Response Team, according to reporting by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The attorneys wrote in the letter that city officials should have informed them of the materials, adding that some PPB and city employees knew or should’ve known about them for years and the city attorney’s office has known about them since at least September 2021.
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
