PA Bill Number: SB945
Title: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals.
Description: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals. ...
Last Action: Third consideration and final passage (199-0)
Last Action Date: Apr 17, 2024
Man who pointed Glock at 'Don't Shoot PDX' protesters banned from owning guns :: 05/03/2017
A man who pulled out and pointed his gun at “Don’t Shoot Portland” and “Black Lives Matter” protesters last summer was sentenced Wednesday to 40 days in jail and banned from possessing guns.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Thomas Ryan also banned Michael Aaron Strickland, 37, from taking video of protesters or other people until 2018 -- and then only with the permission of his probation officer.
Strickland stood up in court and reiterated to the judge that he thought he had a right to point his gun at protesters.
Defense attorney Jason Short argued that an expert determined that Strickland is at low risk of reoffending and doesn't appear to be prone to violence. Strickland had no criminal history.
"His finger was never on the trigger," Short said. "It was on the side of the handgun."
But the judge said that didn't alleviate the fear Strickland instilled in his victims.
Ryan said he agreed with a presentencing investigator, who determined that Strickland has trouble problem-solving in difficult situations and tends to escalate them rather than promote peace.
"This was not self-defense," Ryan said. "... Simply put, you cannot respond in the way the defendant did in this situation. Brandishing the weapon was not the defendant's only option. He was not about to be pummeled."
Strickland will file a motion for a new trial, said another defense attorney, Chris Trotter. His attorneys said they also will try to persuade the judge at a hearing in June to lift Strickland's ban on taking video.
Strickland also could try to secure special permission to reinstate his gun privileges four years from now. Oregon law imposes the gun ban on people convicted of felonies, but allows them to make a case later for lifting the prohibition.
During a weeklong trial in February, Strickland didn't testify, but his attorneys said he was at the downtown Portland protest to video-record it as a citizen-journalist. Strickland posts video to the Internet and makes a living doing so, they said.
Last July 7, Strickland recorded members of the groups Don't Shoot Portland and Black Lives Matter as they protested the shooting deaths of two African Americans by police earlier that week in Minnesota and Louisiana.
His attorneys contended some protesters and anarchists wearing masks and carrying flagpoles had called Strickland a racist, told him to leave, aggressively advanced toward him and pushed him.
Strickland had the right to carry the gun under his concealed weapons permit.
His attorneys said he took his gun out of its holster only out of grave concern that hostile protesters were going to hurt him. But the judge found that Strickland didn’t have reasonable fear that he was in imminent danger of harm and therefore wasn’t legally protected in pointing the gun.
Ryan found Strickland guilty of 10 counts of unlawful use of a weapon, 10 counts of menacing and one count of second-degree disorderly conduct for pointing and sweeping his Glock semi-automatic handgun across a group of 10 protesters.
Some of the incident was caught on video -- including Strickland's own video. He can be heard saying “Get the hell back!” before pulling out his gun. As protesters scattered and screamed in terror, Strickland reholstered his gun.
Strickland decided against allowing a jury to rule on his case after it became clear during jury selection that many potential jurors were critical of guns and people who use them for purposes other than hunting.
Prosecutors Kate Molina and Todd Jackson asked for a 120-day jail sentence. Defense attorneys asked for no additional jail time, on top of the 11 days Strickland already has served since his arrest. The judge settled on 40 days, saying that Strickland can start serving it on weekends in August.
The judge also sentenced Strickland to three years of probation and 240 hours of community service and fined him $3,100.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/05/man_who_pointed_gun_at_dont_sh.html
