Troy R. Bennett | BDN <\/p>\n
Troy R. Bennett | BDN<\/p>\n
Portland Police Chief Frank Clark speaks with a reporter after a Wednesday press conference outside City Hall.<\/p>\n
PORTLAND, Maine Police officers appeared at the home of a journalist Tuesday morning, telling his wife they planned to arrest him for criminal mischief.<\/p>\n
The journalist said the accusations were trumped up and believes the visit was stoked by two recent tweets he made that were critical of the police.<\/p>\n
Christian Milneil, a data journalist for the Boston-based StreetsBlog MASS, took footage of the police officers from the upstairs of his Portland home and documented the incident on Twitter.<\/p>\n
The officers allegedly spoke to Milneils wife, who found them on the porch when she returned from an errand. One was uniformed, the other wore a polo shirt.<\/p>\n
Jes Milneil told the officers they needed a warrant to arrest Milneil.<\/p>\n
They told me they were just trying to help him out, and that he should, Be a man and come down here, Jes Milneil said, referring to statements allegedly made by the officer in the polo shirt.<\/p>\n
According to her, the uniformed officer said, We know [Milneil has] preconceived notions about the police, we know that as a fact.<\/p>\n
Jes Milneil said her heart was in her throat.<\/p>\n
How could they know what I think about cops? she said.<\/p>\n
Within hours after Christian Milneil documented the incident, the city of Portland tweeted that he is suspected of vandalizing a building in his neighborhood with graffiti. Police tweeted that officers were there to serve him a court summons for criminal mischief.<\/p>\n
A city spokesperson did not specify which building, but Christian Milneil said he believes theyre referring to a low-income housing complex operated by Avesta Housing on the corner of Oxford and Boyd streets known as the Bayside Anchor building. The building has a community policing substation in it. As of Tuesday, a BDN reporter found no graffiti there.<\/p>\n
Christian Milneil denied any role in the vandalism.<\/p>\n
Its definitely not me. The notion that I would vandalize a building that I was a big advocate for is absurd, he said. Thats not my style of activism or advocacy. There are much more effective ways of saying that the police are overfunded.<\/p>\n
Christian Milneil sits on the board of the Portland Housing Authority, which is in part responsible for the building.<\/p>\n
Christian Milneil said the police cant press charges about observations he has made on social media, so theyre trying to wrongfully charge him for vandalism instead.<\/p>\n
Theyre spending way too much time arresting or harassing homeless people, he said. I think thats actually what theyre upset about.<\/p>\n
Christian Milneil tweeted Monday night about Standish, a Maine town that he said has defunded its local police, and relies on lightly-staffed county sheriffs for law enforcement. Last week, he also posted about a Portland police officer who fatally shot Chance David Baker, a 22-year-old black man, in a confrontation in a parking lot.<\/p>\n
Just a reminder: Sgt. Nicholas Goodman, the #PortlandME cop who shot and killed Chance David Baker for carrying a BB gun in 2018, ALSO escalated a traffic stop and shot and killed another victim in May 2008, Milneils tweet reads.<\/p>\n
Calls to defund the Portland Police Department have been a chief demand in multiple protests in Portland since May 29. On Friday, an estimated 2,000 people attended a protest organized by Black Lives Matter Portland, which called for city officials to divert funds earmarked for law enforcement to schools, jobs and social services.<\/p>\n
The Milneils have attended some of those protests. On Friday evening, Christian Milneil and his wife and their two children attended one organized by Black Lives Matter Portland.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Portland journalist who criticized police on Twitter claims they're trying to wrongfully arrest him - Bangor Daily News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Troy R. Bennett | BDN Troy R. Bennett | BDN Portland Police Chief Frank Clark speaks with a reporter after a Wednesday press conference outside City Hall. Continue reading