Portland police Chief Bob Day says he’s lost trust in Councilor Mitch Green after reviewing his past statements about the city’s police officers.
Portland city councilor Mitch Green of District 4 participates in a city council meeting at Portland City Hall in Portland, Ore., on July 9, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
“I no longer have confidence that this Councilor is evaluating the Police Bureau reasonably and objectively,” Day wrote in a Wednesday press release.
The comments land a day after The Oregonian/OregonLive reported on newly resurfaced social media posts that Green has posted — and deleted — prior to running for elected office in 2024.
That included comments calling police “bastards,” “cowardly,” and “incompatible with peaceful society.” He posted these between 2020 and 2021 on the website then known as Twitter during the height of global racial justice protests spurred by a Minneapolis officer killing George Floyd.
Green did not deny he wrote these now-deleted tweets in an interview with The Oregonian.
In his statement, Day raised concerns that someone so judgemental of law enforcement sits on a government body that oversees the Police Bureau’s budget and policy decisions.
“That profound responsibility requires a baseline of good faith: that the Bureau’s work will be judged on its merits rather than beginning with the predetermined conclusion that law enforcement should be dismantled,” Day wrote.
Green issued his own response to Day’s comments later Wednesday evening.
“This week, I’m being judged for messages I posted for a public audience during Black Lives Matter, the largest mass protest movement in U.S. history,” Green wrote.
He referenced the thousands of times Portland officers used force against protesters during the racial justice protests. He asked to not be judged by his past tweets the same way officers don’t want to be judged for the way they treated demonstrators then.
Green said that, as an elected official, he wants to strengthen police oversight and accountability. And he questioned Day’s message.
“I’m concerned that the Chief Day seems to expect me and other elected officials to have sterile or supportive views of police as members of the budgeting body,” Green wrote.
While Day has previously been publicly critical about decisions made by federal leaders he believes harms Portland, he is not one to comment on local elected officials. Day explained his reasoning in an internal email sent to PPB employees that was shared with OPB.
“The recent Oregonian article discussing Councilor Mitch Green’s past comments about PPB really saddened me, especially because I can imagine how demoralized you must feel,” Day wrote. “I am on vacation this week, but when I read about this, I had to respond.”
His comments come hours after the head of the city’s rank-and-file police union called for Green’s resignation.
“Portland Councilor Mitch Green’s professed ‘pure hatred for the Portland police’ is disqualifying, and shocking,” wrote Portland Police Association president Aaron Schmautz on Facebook, referring to one of Green’s past tweets. “His beliefs, expressed in his own words, are disqualifying for an elected official.”
Green is running for reelection in November.
This story may be updated.
OPB reporter Troy Brynelson contributed to this story.
