It seems some members of the Portland, Oregon police department murdered my dear old friend Jim-Jim.
- steve 9-29-2006 9:36 pm

James Philip Chasse Jr. died from broad blunt-force trauma to the chest while in police custody Sept. 17. The state medical examiner said his rib fractures, which impaired his breathing, occurred early in his encounter with police. Officers thought he either was on drugs or had a mental disorder. They approached him after they suspected he was urinating in the street in the Pearl District. He ran, and they ran after him. Police said one officer pushed him to the ground; witnesses said the officers forcefully knocked him down, fell on him, then kicked him in the chest repeatedly and used a Taser on him. Police are continuing to investigate. The Multnomah County district attorney’s office plans to present the case to a grand jury, starting Tuesday.
- steve 9-29-2006 9:37 pm [add a comment]


The idea that these officers needed to use such force on a 5"10" 145lb crippled man with a cane is absurd.
- steve 9-29-2006 9:39 pm [add a comment]



Losing 'Jim Jim': a story of schizophrenia
The man who died in Portland police custody was a poet, artist and musician until illness intervened
, 9/, 206
MAXINE BERNSTEIN
Friends knew the young James Chasse Jr. as "Jim Jim," a quiet, bright and somewhat eccentric Portland youth who showed a creative streak early.

He was the youngest among Portland's earliest punk rock fans who gathered at shows across the city in the late 1970s and early '80s. He loved music, like the Ramones, Lou Reed and the Neo Boys, and started his own band, performing as its singer. He enjoyed art, producing a magazine at age 14 called "The Oregon Organism." It was filled with music reviews and poems he wrote, his own drawings, plus material from contributing writers and artists.

"We were all very impressed with his intelligence and creativity," said Randy Moe, a local artist about 10 years older who saved copies of Chasse's handwritten magazines. "He was just so far advanced for his age, it was amazing."Chasse's sudden decline and affliction with schizophrenia in his late teens was difficult for his friends to understand. He was hospitalized several times, including a stint at the state mental hospital, and never seemed the same.

Now, his sudden death in police custody at age 42 , has greatly disturbed many in the community who wish they could have done more to help Chasse. They want to memorialize the "Jim Jim" they loved and knew -- the poet, the musician, the artist.

Jason Renaud, now a volunteer with the Mental Health Association of Portland, knew Chasse as a high school student and as an adult.

"It was almost like knowing two different people -- one cute and charming and cuddly and quiet and careful and sprinkled with pixie dust," Renaud said. "And the other, hurt, overmedicated, scared, confused, alone."

Artists plan remembrance

As his family privately mourns Chasse's death, two local artists are teaming up to hold their own remembrance. Next month, Moe plans to draw a portrait of Chasse, based on a Polaroid photo he kept of the 14-year-old "Jim Jim." The portrait will be part of a show dedicated to Chasse's memory, held Oct. 19 at the downtown Chambers Gallery.

Eva Lake, a fellow artist who manages the gallery and knew Chasse as a teenager, says she doesn't want Chasse to be written off as a "mental throwaway."

"He was articulate. He was creative. He was silly, you know," Lake said. "He was not boring. He had a lot of style."

Chasse's stapled, photocopied handwritten issues of "The Oregon Organism" reveal a teenager with a sense of humor and a creative mind. The magazine, he wrote, was going to be a "giveaway," until the last minute.

"I decided to charge a quarter for it and pray to god someone would pay money for this puke!" he wrote. "I realize that it isn't informative at all but you must admit (or die) that it is entertaining."
He wrote a poet's corner and music reviews of concerts, ranging from the Ramones, which he didn't see but interviewed someone who did, to Blondie, who played at The Paramount. His review of The Wipers, "my fave local band," was illustrated with his drawing of the band. "Now listen kiddies, the Wipers whambam-twosecond sound is faster than Ted Nugent talks and more exciting than any group I can think of," he wrote.

Moe and Lake each contributed to Chasse's magazine and held on to copies.

"A bit of a mystery"

Chasse attended the Metropolitan Learning Center in the early '80s. Classmates had heard Chasse had been institutionalized, and they noticed some odd behavior. About the same time, in 1981, his parents divorced.

Renaud called his classmate a "bit of a mystery." He remembers his obsession with putting his hand in a fist. "He'd say if he opened his hand, the world would cease to exist," Renaud said. "It was clear the weight of the world was on his shoulders."

Another classmate, Ani Raven, remembers Chasse as a student who kept to himself. But she and her best friend often sought him out because they liked him, and they'd find him in Couch Park near the school.

"Sometimes he told me that he talked to Saint Francis . . . he wanted to be like him, gentle to all beings," Raven wrote in an e-mail about Chasse.
Chasse, Raven said, gave her a white crayon, with a thread tied to one end, saying it represented purity in a corrupt world. More than 20 years later, she still has the crayon.

"Jim Jim was a beautiful soul when I knew him," Raven wrote. "I mourn his loss and redouble my efforts to further justice within our community. . ."

Moe visited Chasse when he was hospitalized in the mid-1980s. He was having hallucinations, and he handed Moe what he considered magical materials to protect him from evil.

"He was just not himself at all anymore," Moe said.

Moe said he didn't stay involved in Chasse's life after that and feels bad about that.

Later in life, those who knew him would spot Chasse hanging out in Old Town and downtown. They'd see him sitting in coffee shops, on park benches, on the sidewalk or outside the Central Library. They remember him lugging a backpack and guitar, often talking to himself or reading comic books.

At times, Chasse dressed like a woman, wearing dresses on the street with his long beard, Renaud said.

He had received mental health counseling from local agencies, and, since October 2001, was a rent-paying tenant at the Helen Swindells Building on Northwest Broadway, a low-income apartment building.

Ed Morris, the building site manager, said Chasse lived alone in a second-floor apartment. Morris called him a quiet, reclusive man who didn't cause problems.

Chasse, according to Portland police records, had few run-ins with officers. Police were sent out on a "mental care" call to a North Portland address in early 1990 and took Chasse into an "emergency" involuntary committal. He used another name when stopped for trespass at the Galleria in 1994, but the charge didn't stick.

His family, described as "loving with adequate resources and support," struggled to help him, an aunt said. His father tried to include him at major family and holiday gatherings. His dad, James Chasse Sr., an accountant, volunteered hundreds of hours at downtown neighborhood missions trying to better understand his son's struggles, said Julie Chasse Cargill, James Chasse Sr.'s sister.

She said the first reaction of Chasse's father when he heard his son died in police custody was, " 'I need to find out what happened,' as if finding out what happened would make sense of it.

"But of course, the more he finds out," Cargill said, "the more it doesn't make any sense. It's just extremely hurtful and sad."

Maxine Bernstein: 503-221-8212; maxinebernstein@news.oregonian.com

- steve 9-29-2006 9:42 pm [add a comment]



- steve 9-29-2006 9:50 pm [add a comment]


  • Jim Jim was the inspiration for "Alien Boy" by the Wipers.

    Go and grab your gun
    Got him on the run
    Cause he's an alien
    They hurt what they don't understand

    So you had to turn away
    There's no other way
    Your're an alien
    They hurt what they don't understand


    How fitting.
    - steve 9-29-2006 10:17 pm [add a comment]



from the portland mercury

Death in Custody
More Eyewitnesses Step Forward to Describe Alleged Cop Brutality
BY MATT DAVIS

Early Sunday evening, September 17, in the Pearl District, police attempted to arrest 42-year old James Phillip Chasse Jr.—it was an altercation that may have led to the suspect's death while in police custody.

At this point, the bureau refuses to reveal why the officers were pursuing Chasse. However, just after 5 pm at NW 13th and Everett—across the street from Bluehour—Chasse is said to have "fought violently with the officers before they were able to take him into custody," according to a police bureau bulletin. Officers then called paramedics to the scene when Chasse began having difficulty breathing. The paramedics arrived to check him out, and Chasse was soon transported to the Multnomah County Detention Center in a patrol car.
At the jail, Chasse "again exhibited breathing problems," according to the police, and was transported to the hospital. He lost consciousness en route, around NE 33rd and Clackamas, and was pronounced dead at the hospital at 6:45 pm, less than two hours after police first made contact with him.

That's the official story from the police.

In the days since the incident, however, eyewitnesses have stepped forward to say Chasse's arrest was more violent than police have described. Witnesses say police punched Chasse in the face after they tackled him to the ground, and kicked him in the back of the head. The cops' actions, according to witnesses, left Chasse unconscious and bleeding from the mouth.

Jamie Marquez, who works in the Pearl, witnessed the incident. During a struggle to turn Chasse onto his belly after he was on the ground, "one of the cops started cocking his fist and getting ready to hit him, but thought about it and didn't," Marquez says. "Then I heard the Taser go off, and the guy was being punched in the face. I think the punching and kicking happened at the same time."

According to Marquez, Chasse was punched three or four times in the face with "haymaker" punches by one police officer, and kicked three to four times in the back of his head by the other cop, "with enough force to punt a football."

Other witnesses say Chasse lost consciousness and was lying on the ground for around 10 minutes, during which time more cops arrived on the scene.

"The cops were nervous," says Asa Battista, who did not see the initial arrest, but watched the aftermath. "I saw them all standing around, sort of looking at him and each other, like this was beyond what they'd intended."

Another eyewitness, David Lillegaard, says the cops occasionally tapped Chasse with their feet to see if he was conscious.

"He was face down on the concrete, and didn't look like he was breathing. At that point, I thought he was dead," Lillegaard says. Witnesses say Chasse had been bleeding from his mouth.

"They weren't trying to do anything—they didn't check his airways, or attempt any kind of triage," says Marquez, who has had some training in first aid. "It was like they'd hit an animal in the road, and they were like, 'Now what do we do?'"

An ambulance arrived, and a paramedic attended to Chasse, who regained consciousness. The cops then "hog-tied" the man, tying his arms and feet together behind his back, and carried him to a patrol car "like they were carrying a six-pack," says Marquez.

After Chasse was removed, witnesses say the paramedics cleaned up a pool of blood off the street.

"It was pretty disturbing," says Lillegaard. "I thought they should have taken him to the hospital, because I saw blood."

Instead, Chasse was transported to the Multnomah County Detention Center and taken into custody for resisting arrest, assault on an officer, and interfering with police.

But the jail called the police shortly after 6 pm to have Chasse taken to Adventist Medical Center. He died in transit, after losing consciousness in the police car.

The eyewitness accounts raise the question of why Chasse, who had been unconscious for several minutes and was bleeding from the mouth, was not taken straight to hospital in an ambulance, instead of to jail.

"That's the decision of the paramedics," says Detective Paul Dolbey, police spokesman. Allen Oswalt, spokesman for the paramedics, could not comment because the investigation is ongoing.

The officers involved in the incident, Sergeant Kyle Nice, Officer Christopher Humphreys, and Sheriff Deputy Brett Burton, have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of a police investigation (according to the Oregonian, at least two other witnesses have filed an official complaint with the police). The police have received several calls from witnesses, who will be interviewed by detectives.

Asked whether it is legitimate for an officer to punch a man in the face or kick him in the head, Dolbey responds, "It depends on the actions of the suspect."

The cause of Chasse's death is due to be released late this week or early next, pending toxicology results.

Dan Handelman at Portland Copwatch tracks deaths that involve the police, including "in-custody" deaths like Chasse's.

"We don't know how common this is, because often you don't hear about incidents of this kind," says Handelman. "But there have been more than 160 deaths nationwide involving Tasers, and once the guy had lost consciousness, it is unthinkable to me that they'd take him into custody rather than to hospital."

Witnesses to the arrest seem equally baffled as to the actions of the police.

"My dad's a cop," says Marquez, who says he's had trouble sleeping since witnessing the incident. "So I'm not biased. I respect their job—everyone's job is hard. But as a taxpayer, I pay for the cops to protect and serve, not to lose control. There needs to be accountability for this."
- steve 9-29-2006 10:00 pm [add a comment]


So far the articles fail to mention that Jim Jim could hardly walk without a cane, much less run.
- steve 9-29-2006 10:15 pm [add a comment]


That's a great photo of him. Sounds like some shitty cops from the witness descriptions. Too much abuse of police power in this country!
- tom moody 9-29-2006 10:26 pm [add a comment]


  • Haven't you heard? We're all about torture here in the USA now.
    - steve 9-29-2006 10:34 pm [add a comment]



Very disturbing. Some cops need to pay for this crime.
- mark 9-29-2006 10:55 pm [add a comment]


sorry for your alls loss. people like that are usually already on the cops radar and they should have known his limited threat.
- bill 9-29-2006 11:57 pm [add a comment]


Three officers and from the witness acounts they are big guys - delivered repeaded "haymaker" punches to the face, kicks to the back of the skull with the force equal to punting a football, repeated use of a taser - because they suspected that he might have urinated in the street.

These guys aren't about radar, knowing the neighborhood, serving the community.
- steve 9-30-2006 3:58 am [add a comment]


ive heard bad things about portland cop brutaluity and their use of taisers
- bill 9-30-2006 10:20 pm [add a comment]


Wipers memorial
- steve 10-17-2006 7:18 am [add a comment]


letter to mayor
- mark 10-17-2006 10:04 am [add a comment]


I'm not surprised by the verdict but at a loss for words regardless. Cops Off the Hook for Chasse’s Death.
- steve 10-18-2006 7:22 am [add a comment]


deeply wrong
- mark 10-18-2006 9:07 am [add a comment]


I spoke at Jim Jim's vigil last Friday. Local community radio station KBOO Is running excerpts right now on a memorial show. LIve stream. (I don't find any archives}
- steve 11-02-2006 5:59 am [add a comment]





add a comment to this page:

Your post will be captioned "posted by anonymous,"
or you may enter a guest username below:


Line breaks work. HTML tags will be stripped.