Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

Oregon PSR's Board President, Dr. Patrick O'Herron, submitted testimony on behalf of Oregon PSR about police accountability legislative concepts to the Oregon Legislature's Joint Committee On Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform on September 3rd, 2020. Read our testimony below. 

Oregon PSR's 2020 Summer Intern Alissa Vandenbark interviewed members of our staff, Board of Directors, and some of our volunteers to see how our work has changed in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please continue reading to learn more about how our work has shifted over the past few months.

Oregon PSR expresses our sincere appreciation for everyone who attended and supported 75 Years Later Is Now: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, & Ending the Nuclear Threat, an online memorial event honoring the lives lost to nuclear weapons and exploring how we can create a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons.

Below are some resources relative to nuclear weapons, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the effects of nuclear weapons development and testing, and the lasting legacy of more than 75 years of nuclear injustice.

Oregon PSR continues to stand in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives. We want to let you know of some ways to support the huge momentum now to support the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement, and, here in Portland, to center Black Lives while also demanding that the paramilitary troops deployed by Trump immediately leave our city. 

Many actions are posted daily on PDX Black Lives Matter Calendar.

On July 23rd, 2020, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility offered this testimony on Police Accountability Legislative Concepts, with a focus on the health impacts of tear gas and flashbang or pressure grenades. We support the concerns raised in the joint testimony submitted by Unite Oregon, PAALF, Urban League, Rose City Justice, and other organizations.

Oregon PSR understands that racism is a public health crisis, and that police violence is killing Americans, especially Americans of color, at an appalling rate. 

Structural racism and oppression of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities constitutes a public health crisis that overlaps with the epidemics of COVID-19, climate change, and violence. Police violence is a public health crisis that is the result of numerous policies and practices that uphold structural racism. 

Oregon PSR will continue our commitment to work towards equity and social justice, and will increase our participation in the Portland Police Reform Network. We also encourage our members and supporters to follow and support local Black-led groups that we partner with, which include, but aren’t limited to: the NAACP Portland Branch and Springfield/Eugene Branch, Urban League of Portland, Portland African American Leadership Forum, Coalition of Communities of Color, Unite Oregon, and Don’t Shoot PDX. 

We also encourage individuals to consider supporting these mutual aid resources which have been vetted by Don’t Shoot PDX.

Furthermore, Oregon PSR supports the demands of Portland African American Leadership Forum (PAALF) and Unite Oregon:

• Defund the police
  
  
• Reinvest into Black futures
  
  
• Protect communities from violence

Please take a moment to read through the visions and demands in full.

Tell the Portland City Council to support these demands.

Take Action by calling on the Portland City Council to cut funding for so-called "special units" that have been shown to be ineffective in the long term, target low-income and people of color communities for over-policing, and are part of the school-to-prison pipeline.

Oregon PSR Testimony on Portland Police Budget (11/3/20)

Police Violence Against the People of Portland webinar (9/23/20)

Oregon PSR Testimony in Support of HB 4208 Banning Police Use of Tear Gas (7/27/20)

Oregon PSR Testimony on Police Accountability Legislative Concepts (6/23/20)

Oregon PSR's Statement on the Murder of George Floyd

American Public Health Association Statement Addressing Law Enforcement Violence as a Public Health Issue.

"It has been shocking to see the clouds of tear gas filling American cities and images of peaceful protesters and bystanders caught up in them."

Portland police use tear gas against protesters in downtown Portland. Photo credit: KOIN-6.

We commend and support Portland City Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly for calling for a ban on the use of tear gas on protesters demanding justice for Black Lives. We also applaud and support Commissioner Hardesty for calling for the removal of the Gun Violence Reduction Team (formerly known and still behaving as the Gang Enforcement Team), School Resource Officers, and Transit Police from the Portland Police Bureau's budget.

Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) mourns the death of George Floyd and condemns the practices of police brutality that historically and currently target Black communities and communities of color.