Dan Handelman Memorial

So many people loved Dan that his family and close friends had to rent a movie theatre for his memorial. It was a great memorial, beginning with statements from Dan’s partner, his brother, and then Donna Hayes, who met Dan when her grandson was killed by police in 2017. He showed up to comfort her family after Moose's death, as he did with all the families of people killed by police. 

People went on talking for over two hours. Everyone who spoke referred to Dan’s kindness, his persistence, and his commitment to justice. He said, “If there is injustice, there is work to do.” He wanted everyone on earth to have equal treatment under the law and to have their basic needs met. That doesn’t sound so outrageous, so radical. Apparently it is.

There’s a terrific article about him in the local newspaper which tells more than I ever knew about him. I knew that he created Portland Copwatch to keep records of police brutality and abuses of power; and Flying Focus Video Collective “Using video as a tool for social change, voicing the voiceless since 1991.” I knew that he showed up to every protest or vigil I ever attended that had to do with equal justice for all people. I didn't know anything about his background or his personal life, not even that he was a fellow theatre person, till after his death. But I knew, and the whole city knew, what he cared about.