[pjw] In Memoriam: Regina Hannon, PJW/Portland Copwatch core member

[Peace and Justice Works]

Peace and Justice Works and Portland Copwatch supporters

I'm sad to report that a person who was unique and important part of our 
organization died earlier this week. Regina Hannon's sister wrote 
yesterday to let us know Regina died Monday night after experiencing low 
blood pressure and an erratic heart rate.

Regina was with our group for 20 years. She served on the Peace and 
Justice Works Board for four years (from 2009-2013). Those of you who read 
the Portland Copwatch newsletter, the People's Police Report, are probably 
familiar with her writing as she wrote most of the articles about the 
Portland Police Bureau's interactions with, and City Council's harsh 
policies toward, people who are houseless.

She was very passionate about making sure the police are held accountable 
and even more passionate that our society treat houseless people with 
dignity and respect. She came to our group through her work with Portland 
Peaceful Response Coalition, which formed in response to the wars in 
Afghanistan and Iraq, so also had a commitment to peace on earth.

Regina had a huge heart but was also not willing to put up with anyone's 
nonsense, especially politicians and other officials. She let her feelings 
be known directly and/or through dark humor. When we set up a meeting with 
a former police chief, their administrator asked us to send them our 
titles. Since we don't really do titles around here I asked Regina if we 
could refer to her as the Minister of Sarcasm. She held tight to that 
title and would warn me whenever I used sarcasm in my writings to remember 
who she was!

Regina loved going out and Copwatching (something the group hasn't done 
since before the pandemic). She was particularly fond of when we would 
walk a "beat" in Old Town/Chinatown, hand out literature, and hear from 
the people living on the streets down there. Two times that we copwatched 
at protest events came to mind today:

1) In August, 2008, when people were protesting a Free Trade Agreement 
representative who appeared in Portland, she got into a back and forth 
with a private security guard who made a degrading comment about the 
protest. She filed a complaint and wrote about it in one of the few cases 
where a PPR article was attributed to a specific author (used mostly for 
first-person accounts/opinions):

  https://www.portlandcopwatch.org/PPR43/privatecops43.html

2) In May, 2017 while we were copwatching at May Day, an officer felt that 
Regina wasn't moving up the sidewalk fast enough and pushed her with their 
baton. Maybe the cop didn't know of her Irish temper (as she would put it) 
or that at that point she was over 80 years old. Wherever she is now, 
she'll probably be mad at me for posting this link, but she gave 
permission to post the video at the time to expose the cops' behavior.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FanI9V9wB2I

In the last few years, Regina didn't come to meetings much, I think in 
part because she found online meetings too frustrating and impersonal. But 
she continued to review draft writings, compose those articles for the 
PPR, and clip out Oregonian articles that pertain to the Portland Police 
and accountability issues. BTW if this is up anyone's alley on this list 
let me know-- her clippings were an invaluable part of creating the 
newsletters!

The family will be holding a memorial service in Klamath Falls, where 
Regina grew up. I have asked them to let us know whether there will be a 
virtual component.

Please feel free to share your own memories of Regina if you have any.

She will be missed.

dan handelman
peace and justice works/portland copwatch