I suppose to some cops, "christen" their heads with hickory and "anoint" their faces with pepper spray is considered hilarious. Portland's mayor Ted Wheeler did not find it amusing though, as the city defends itself from charges of police brutality in a lawsuit stemming from protests in 2020.

Source: Oregon Live

A Portland Police Bureau training presentation on protests ended with a PowerPoint slide listing a prayer for a “dirty hippy” and the promise to send “my humble servants” with hats and bats to “christen” their “heads with hickory” accompanied by a photo of a helmeted officer raising his arm to a woman.

The last of the 110 slides in the presentation showed the “Prayer of the Alt Knight | Based Stickman” meme. “Based Stickman” refers to Kyle Chapman, the founder of a group called the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights that formed as the “tactical defense arm” of the Proud Boys, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He’s a far-right Trump supporter and street brawler who earned the nickname “Based Stickman” after a video showed him hitting an antifascist activist with a wooden sign post in Berkeley in 2017.

“I am disgusted that this offensive content was added to a training presentation for our police officers,” Mayor Ted Wheeler, who serves as police commissioner, said in a statement Friday. “As soon as I was made aware of the incident, I reached out to Chief (Chuck) Lovell, who shared my deep concern and assured me that a thorough and complete investigation was underway.”

Apparently, this mindset among Portland cops has been around for years.