Lynch Mob Targets Vadim Mozyrsky

He is running against Jo Ann Hardesty

Usually the Citizen Review Committee meets monthly to consider misconduct complaints against Portland police officers.

Wednesday night it went after one of their own – Vadim Mozyrsky, who is running against Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in the May primary.

Shaina Pomerantz, co-chair of the committee, called him earlier in the day and asked him to resign by 4 p.m.

He didn’t. Neither did he attend the meeting. So committee members disregarded the evening’s agenda and talked about him.

What egregious act had Mozyrsky committed that offended Pomerantz?

Aggressions and micro-aggressions in an email exchange directed at her and chair Candace Avalos, both of them black women. Neither Pomerantz nor Avalos revealed the actual words of the email exchange. It was the tone that bothered Pomerantz. She detected racism and misogyny.

What really bothered her is that Mozyrsky is running for city council.

His opponent, Hardesty, is black and is a long-time police critic. She pushed to dissolve the Portland Police Bureau’s Gun Reduction Violence Team, accusing it of racially profiling black youths. The city’s homicide rate hit new records. Hardesty used the riots in the summer of 2020 to call for defunding the police.

On Feb. 10, Pomerantz and other members of a Citizen Review Committee work group had an email discussion with Mozyrsky about body-worn cameras for police. He wanted to have a public forum.

Some brief background: Hardesty once supported body-worn cameras. When other police departments across the country started experimenting with them, officers discovered the cameras can tell a more complete story of police work. They can help improve the behavior of everyone involved – including citizens.

Hardesty is concerned about the footage produced by these cameras. It’s one thing to show cops behaving badly. It’s another to show people who look like her behaving badly. Portland is the only major American city whose officers still don’t use body cameras, but that is changing.

Pomerantz said that when Mozyrsky wanted to move forward with a public hearing on body cameras, nobody responded. He asked again.

“Unfortunately, Vadim attacked Candace personally … I jumped in and said I didn’t like the tone.”

Pomerantz said body worn cameras and public safety are part of Vadim’s platform in his city council race, and she called it a conflict of interest.

“I like to deal in transparency,” she said, adding that is why she was bringing it up.

“As a light-skinned black woman I have made it my charge to support black women … part of my becoming co-chair was to support Candace. … Portland has a white supremacy problem.”

What does the fact that Pomerantz is a light-skinned black have to do with it? Was she suggesting that the darker skinned Avalos needed her protection?

Had Avalos wanted to, as chair she could have placed the issue of Mozyrsky’s emails on Wednesday night’s agenda in a forthright manner instead of allowing Pomerantz to take over the meeting.

In her final conversation with Mozyrsky, Pomerantz said she “reached out to him today” and said “Listen I want to talk to you about this email exchange. … It had a tone of anti-blackness.”

She asked that he tender his resignation by 4 p.m.

“He basically hung up on me.”

At first Pomerantz wanted the eight other committee members to vote on Mozyrsky’s resignation. They all seemed sympathetic to her concerns. Some seemed ready to vote on something but not sure what.

As the conversation evolved, they grew more confused.

“I agree a lot with what you said and discussing transparency …,” said Sylvan Fraser. “I don’t know our options.”

Taylor Snell, “speaking from my position as a white man” praised Pomerantz for the work she does as executive director of the organization Race Talks. “It is really a benefit to have you on this committee.”

But he also works as a public defender, and in his heart he wanted to hear from Mozyrsky before the committee took action.

Said Pomerantz: “I do this work. I charge people. The integrity I bring to these types of conversation is imperative. This is serious – the aggression and microaggressions I have received.”

She veered briefly into gossip suggesting she had heard things about Mozyrsky “in several places” in the legal community.

 “A restorative approach has to look at justice,” Pomerantz said. She wanted Mozyrsky to apologize to her and Avalos.

“Policing impacts my community very seriously. … A person was just murdered at a BLM rally…,” she said. “White supremacy is rampant.” (She didn’t mention that the person killed at the BLM rally was white. She ignored that the same weekend a South Sudanese woman was killed in a drive-by shooting.)

“This is very tricky for me…,” said Avalos. “A restorative process would be ideal.”

She became emotional and seemed close to crying.

Avalos herself ran for city council in 2019. She was vice chair of the Citizen Review Committee at the time, and it was agreed that she wouldn’t listen to appeals on police complaints that might end up going to the council.

“What about the harm addressed to Candace and I?” Pomerantz told the committee.  “Address the harm. … I’m not in a position to burn bridges or extend grace. … It’s not my intention to embarrass Vadim tonight.”

Irene Konev, outreach coordinator for the Independent Police Review Board, noted that the city has used volunteer mediators in the past.

If the committee decides to bring in a facilitator, Pomerantz insisted that they be compensated for the their time – “A black, fem facilitator, but they can’t work for free.”

“We can find the dollars,” Avalos said.

After more meandering discussion, Committee Member Julie Falk made a motion to require that members of the Citizen Review Committee be required to take a leave of absence while running for political office.

Avalos said she would vote no.

“People should be able to run for lots and lots of reasons,” she said.

Falk retracted her motion.

Finally, they decided to continue the issue until the April 13th meeting – along with the other agenda items they ignored to take up the microagressions and harm done to Pomerantz and Avalos because of some unidentified words in an email.

Meanwhile, committee members asked city staff to see how many other meetings Mozyrsky has missed. Could they get him on that? Although Falk and Pomerantz each acknowledged that they have taken extended leaves.

They are probably hoping that Mozyrsky will resign and spare them having to face their own hypocrisy, which began even before Pomerantz opened her mouth.

Avalos started with a rote offering of support to Ukraine and the large Eastern European community.

“Keeping you in our thoughts,” she said.

Did that include Mozyrsky, who’s from Ukraine?

It’s too bad the Citizen Review Committee’s chat function was disabled only four minutes into the 2-plus hour meeting. Had I been allowed to post a comment, here’s what I would have said:

All members of CRC should consider resigning. If you are this sensitive to an email exchange, you have no business sitting in judgment on cops who take insults regularly. And Shaina Pomerantz, you need to address your own racism and misandry.