AltWeeklies Wire
Mohamed and “The Terror Factory”new

A look inside the Fed's counterterrorism campaign from the vantage point of an upcoming trial of the Portland Xmas tree bomber.
Willamette Week |
Trevor Aaronson |
01-09-2013 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: Terror
The First 30 Secondsnew

Portland hopes to shield the mentally ill from excessive force by putting the right cop on the scene.
Willamette Week |
Andrea Damewood |
12-18-2012 |
Crime & Justice
Jail Birdsnew

The fastest-growing group of inmates in Oregon: Women.
Willamette Week |
Hannah Hoffman |
01-23-2012 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: Prisons, Women in Prison
The Gunnew

How easy is it to buy a gun on the street from a complete stranger? We find out.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
08-04-2011 |
Crime & Justice
Sext Crimesnew

Oregon has a name for teens who take dirty photos with their cell phones: child pornographer.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
12-01-2010 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: Sexting
A Stitch And Timenew

Harun Mustafa showed promise as a cello player. Then he made one bad decision that sent him to prison.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
05-13-2010 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: Harun Mustafa
Girl In Beanbag Case Gets One Year Probationnew
Multnomah County Judge Paula Kurshner sided with prosecutors this afternoon, saying the 12-year-old girl whom Officer Christopher Humphreys shot with a beanbag on a MAX platform caused the struggle Nov. 14 that erupted in a political firestorm over Portland Police’s use of force.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
03-03-2010 |
Crime & Justice
What We've Learned From the Fatal Police Shooting of Aaron Campbellnew

The Jan. 29 shooting of an unarmed African-American man was the reason Jackson came to Maranatha Church of God. And it’s why hundreds of angry Portlanders had already rallied downtown to protest years of alleged police abuses and failed leadership.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
02-24-2010 |
Crime & Justice
Cops' Recent Blowup with their Chief Surprised Many, and It Shouldn't Havenew
In her 3 1/2 years as Portland police chief, Rosie Sizer has been called many things. She once joked in a City Club speech she’d been called the B-word too many times to count. But she has also been praised as a transformative leader, a gifted communicator, a role model to women and a champion for minority rights.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
12-09-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Mentally Ill are Most Likely to Get Tasered by Portland Policenew

A new Independent Police Review Division report finds that subjects with mental illness are now the most likely out of all groups to get Tasered by Portland cops -- even more than people who are actually armed or who assault an officer.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
07-22-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Schoo's Out Forever At Two Oregon Jailsnew
Mount Hood Community College -- the community partner that has led GED classes at Inverness Jail and the Multnomah County Detention Center for nearly 10 years -- is ending its GED program as it grapples with a tight budget.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
06-17-2009 |
Crime & Justice
A Portland Cop Says a Complaint About His Boss's Dirty Dance Stifled His Careernew
Officer Tom Brennan says his career as a Portland cop hit a dead end the night a superior officer ground his crotch against Brennan’s wife at Dixie Tavern.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
03-11-2009 |
Crime & Justice
The Killing in Room 515new
Three weeks after fatally stabbing his neighbor, Melvin Earl Parker is back in his apartment.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
02-25-2009 |
Crime & Justice
He Joined the Gang When He Was 13, Now He Can't Get Outnew

Membership in one of the nation's most notorious criminal gangs can have its benefits: money, girls and a ready cadre of friends. But it may also be a dead end with no easy exit.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
02-18-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Portland Shelter for Victims of Forced Prostitution Would be First in the Countrynew
By March, James Pond hopes to open a high-security safe house in Portland with 16 to 20 beds for girls recently freed from sex trafficking. It will be the first shelter of its kind in the country, and one that's badly needed in Portland, where the city’s police find three to five cases each week of girls under the age of 18 who are victims of forced prostitution.
Willamette Week |
Katie Gilbert |
11-05-2008 |
Crime & Justice