Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty wants to defund the city’s police department by $18 million, so some found it hypocritical when Hardesty turned to the police over a problem with a Lyft driver that could be considered anything from frivolous to a non-emergency.
On the night of Nov. 1, Hardesty called 911 after her Lyft driver refused to close his window. Turns out the ride-share driver was following Lyft’s coronavirus safety guidelines in keeping a window open.
Hardesty oversees Portland’s emergency dispatch system and she has repeatedly campaigned to cut police budgets and shift money elsewhere. Her argument, ironically, is that the force is inundated with unnecessary calls that don’t involve crimes, according to The Oregonian.
Soon after her 911 incident on Nov. 1, Hardesty again called on Nov. 5 for an $18 million cut in the police department’s budget.
Hardesty was called out on Twitter for calling 911. One user tweeted, “Jo Ann Hardesty wants to defund the police. But calls POLICE when Lyft driver attempts to end ride early based on her behavior after being picked up from a casino.”
Another Twitter user pointed out the danger of unnecessary 911 calls, saying, “emergency situations is likely to get someone killed and that we weren’t going to do that anymore.”
The Oregonian first obtained Hardesty’s 911 calls which show her repeatedly demanding that the police force send out officers — even though the dispatcher insisted no crime had been committed, The New York Post reported.
“I paid for a ride. He says he canceled it,” Hardesty told the dispatcher, who informed her it was the driver’s right to do so. “So I’m going to sit here until he sends me another ride.”
Two officers did respond in a squad car. The city commissioner exited the Lyft and got into another ride-share car that pulled up at the same time as the officers.
Hardesty later told the Portland Tribune that she “proactively” called police because as a Black woman, she feared having officers called on her “would put me in danger.”
“I don’t call 911 lightly, but I certainly am not going to do anything that would put my personal safety at risk,” she said. “It’s a lot harder when you are black or brown in America to make that decision.”
She added, “I am very aware of how unsafe it is for a single woman to be traveling anywhere, especially in this very racially tense time. People recognize me everywhere ..I just was not going to take that chance.”
The driver, Richmond Frost, 63, told The Oregonian that Hardesty “wasn’t happy” as soon as he picked her up at a casino. There had been a mix-up in her pickup location. Frost said she got angrier when he refused to fully close his window even though he informed her “It’s for my safety and your safety.”
“That was like pouring gas on her fire,” Frost said. “She demanded that I close that window right now. She was kind of ballistic at that point.”
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Frost, who has been a Lyft driver in Portland for four years, canceled the ride and pulled into a gas station that he claimed was “lit up like a football field.”
When she refused to get out of his car, Frost told her he would call the police. Hardesty called 911 first. Then Frost did as well.
“I knew that having him call the police would put me in danger. And that’s why I proactively called 911,” Hardesty said later.
“It is totally inappropriate to expect a woman to get out of a vehicle in the dead of night because any angry person demands it,” she said, according a Daily Mail report.
