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Portland Leaves the Joint Terrorism Task Force Again, Becoming Second U.S. City to Cut Ties
[Willamette Week] Portland city council voted to withdraw from the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.The move makes Portland the second city to cut ties with an FBI task force, after San Francisco left its JTTF in 2017. Portland had rejoined the JTTF in 2015. Commissioner Chloe Eudaly voted with Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Amanda Fritz to pull Portland police officers out of the JTTF, which investigates potential extremist threats. Commissioner Nick Fish opposed Hardesty's resolution to pull out of the task force. They had proposed making changes to the memorandum that guided the partnership between local police and federal law enforcement agencies. Eudaly had not publicly indicated her vote before Wednesday's City Council meeting. "I believe we all want the same thing, we want to keep our communities safe," Eudaly said. "We want to direct our resources toward actual threats." Before voting in favor of withdraw, Eudaly said she did not trust the federal administration or feel safer now than five years ago. Hardesty had led the push to withdraw from the JTTF since winning election in November. "When we talk about one Portland, a Portland where everyone is respected, we cannot in good conscious continue our participation with the JTTF," Hardesty said. Posted by: Besoeker 2019-02-14 |
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