Illmaculate at Blue Monk

March 1, 2014 - Illmaculate was the final performer in a line up of three hip hop artists featured at the Blue Monk Saturday night, but he left the venue, refusing to perform after more than a dozen police officers showed up. Portland Police closed off the street and cut off access to the club, which they said was over capacity. Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian

In March, after police presence cut short a Southeast Portland rap show, Portland's

division pledged to examine the relationship between the police bureau and hip-hop artists.

Rappers such as

had accused officers of targeting rap shows. Police denied the claim. They showed up only when problems arose, they said.

After nine months of interviews, the review team released its findings Wednesday. The 27-page report is heavy on historical context but light on indictments or finger-pointing: The biggest issue, investigators say, is communication.

"The city needs to have clearer expectations that it articulates to members of the hip-hop community," said Constantin Severe, the review board's director. "What does it want from club owners, promoters and artists so they can engage in lawful activity and everyone can have a good time and be safe?"

Severe and a team of three others

after a dozen police showed up a concert headlined by Illmaculate and Luck-One.

March 1, 2014 - Illmaculate, minutes before deciding to leave the Blue Monk without performing, in protest to police presence at the event.

"I will not perform in this city as long as the blatant targeting of black culture and minorities congregating is acceptable common practice," Illmaculate wrote on Twitter.

Review board members interviewed 30 people and went on ride-alongs with multiple fire and police bureau details. Those interviews took time. Many rappers and rap fans didn't initially trust the city office enough to participate, Severe said.

The IPR's report, officially dubbed a policy review, traces the history of gentrification in North and Northeast Portland and examines the economic potential of being a hip-hop artist in America's whitest major city. It quotes from the U.S. Census and city property records.

Those forces of demographic and economic change are relevant, the group writes, because the ultimate question looming over Portland's rap artists is whether they will be able to sustain themselves financially here. Yes, Portland Police and other enforcers are a piece of the puzzle. But so is the loss of local record shops and black-owned clubs.

"A neighborhood's identity is dying," rapper

. "That's what strains at people's hearts, you know, and that's what people see, and that's on people's psyches, too."

Independent Police Review's recommendations

.

Hip-hop artists told the review team -- a group of three lawyers and one investigator -- that the city's rapid changes had left them without places to perform.



"We used to perform at Backspace, they got closed down," said Rasheed Jamal. "Used to perform at Someday Lounge, it got closed down. Used to perform at Crown Room, they got closed down. Ted's/Berbati's, we used to perform there, and now it's a strip club."



Rappers have said for years that clubs are afraid to book them, in part, because of fears that police will target the shows. Organizers of the indie-rock festival PDX Pop Now! told investigators that they got their first taste of that treatment this year. Festival planners booked four hip-hop acts for this year's show. Police patrolled during three of those, organizers told the auditors.



Officers asked to see permits. A fire marshal inspected the space three times for capacity issues. The attention was "unprecedented," they said.



"While they are in their right to ask for this, it has not been standard in our experience," organizers told the review board.



Rappers told the board that kind of scrutiny was standard. In sharing their thoughts, the rappers mentioned the Vanport Flood and Kendra James, a 21-year-old woman fatally shot by a Portland Police officer 10 years ago.



"If you're in Northeast Portland or you work in Northeast Portland, then you might get pulled over for how you look," said Terrance "Cool Nutz" Scott. "Then your mindset at a hip-hop show is, 'Are they here to be cool, or are they here to mess with me?'"



Portland Police Sgt. Pete Simpson, now the bureau's spokesman but previously a member of the entertainment detail, said officers find it hard to address the perception rappers hold of them. Officers aren't targeting hip-hop clubs, he said, but many of those clubs have had troubles.



"Fontaine Bleau, 915, you have outside Seeznin's on 82nd, people killed," he said. "That's not what we want. If people were doing their job running the business right, that wouldn't happen."



Scott said rap clubs may have had their rowdy times, but so have other bars.



"Stuff happens at rock shows," he said. "People get beat up and knocked out outside of the white clubs. Country bars, you know, they like to drink and fight, too."



The report stops shy of accusing any officers of targeting hip-hop shows. But it does say the perception that they do "runs against this city's values of inclusion and diversity."



"Such a belief, if allowed to persist, will continue to do lasting damage to the community's perception of its city government and will undermine the trust and openness city leaders have publicly embraced," the board wrote.



The board suggested five actions for the city. The police bureau should establish clear standards for bar checks. The city should publish a checklist of expectations. Police should better document their walk-throughs of clubs. Fire bureau leaders should publish a list of the businesses it has inspected.



And most importantly, Severe said, city leaders should talk more with rappers.



"What I would hope would happen next is people in the city and people in the hip-hop community have a real dialogue so people can really talk these issues out when there isn't a concert happening," Severe said. "You can't have a dialogue when it's 12:30 at night and a bunch of people have paid to go to a show but they can't go inside to see it because of some government regulation."

-- Casey Parks