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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 2021)
STATE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 THE OBSERVER — 7A Police ‘unlawful assembly’ powers come under fi re ACLU says Portland police use law for BLM but not on white supremacists gatherings By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM — As racial injustice protesters swarmed the streets of Portland day after day last year, a voice would come over a police loudspeaker, announcing they had assembled unlawfully and would be arrested or face tear gas and rubber bullets if they didn’t disperse. Law enforcement agen- cies can respond that way under an arcane Oregon law that critics say allows them to violate people’s First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful assembly. Now, state Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Black Democratic lawmaker, is seeking to repeal the law in this predominantly white state. The push comes after Portland saw more than 100 straight days of sometimes violent protests following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May. Other states have dealt with the issue. In 1971, the Virginia Supreme Court invalidated Virgin- ia’s unlawful assembly statute on First Amend- ment grounds, the ACLU of Oregon said. The court said the law was too broad in banning demonstrators’ intent to use force and vio- lence, even if they did not pose a threat. Law enforcement has already begun lining up against the Oregon bill sponsored by Bynum, who Noah Berger/AP Photo, File Black Lives Matter protesters on Aug. 2, 2020, march through Portland. A lawmaker in Oregon is trying to repeal a statute that allows police to declare an unlawful assem- bly, which critics say enables authorities to restrict free speech and the right to assemble. chairs the House subcom- mittee on equitable policing and held a public hearing Monday. “Repealing this statute will eliminate a valuable tool that law enforcement uses to disperse unlawful gatherings and deescalate tensions when violence and threats to community safety become likely,” said Chris Skinner, police chief of the college town of Eugene who testifi ed on behalf of asso- ciations of police chiefs and sheriffs. He said that without the law, “law enforcement would be forced to wait to respond until violence and criminal activity escalates.” Supporters of the mea- sure say it shouldn’t be up to police to decide if a protest has the poten- tial to become violent. The law also gives offi cers the power to arrest people before there’s a crime. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon says that because unlawful assembly is not a crime in Oregon, the vast majority of pro- testers who were arrested were charged with inter- fering with a peace offi cer. A version of the law has existed since before Oregon became a state. Before the 1980s, the law was even more draconian, critics say, allowing law enforce- ment to order bystanders to disperse an unlawful assembly and that failure to do so could result in arrest. Sheriff’s deputies used that provision in 1984 during protests by environ- mentalists against logging in the Willamette National Forest. Protesters blocked a logging road to protest the cutting of trees that they felt should have been pre- served as wilderness. A Linn County deputy sheriff ordered a freelance photographer to arrest the demonstrators or face pros- ecution for a felony. The photographer told the pro- testers they were under arrest. They refused to move, the ACLU of Oregon recalled in 1987 testimony to the Legislature. “The deputy then ordered the photogra- pher to carry the demon- strators to the sheriff’s van. He refused, and he was arrested,” the group said. Two other people also were arrested after refusing to arrest the demonstrators. A prosecutor later dropped charges against the three. In a lawsuit against the county, a fed- eral judge ruled in 1986 the law’s provision com- pelling bystanders to assist in arrests was unconsti- tutional. The Legisla- ture in 1987 repealed the provision. The Oregon law still is unconstitutional because it gives police outsized power to silence dissent, said Kelly Simon, the ACLU of Oregon’s interim legal director. “Ironically, or maybe not so ironically in Oregon, unlawful assembly decla- rations too often are pre- cursors to police violence against those asking for the government to recognize their right to be safe,” Simon told Bynum’s subcommittee. State says it is close to catching up on benefi ts for jobless BY PETER WONG Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — All ben- efi ts pending to self-em- ployed and gig workers will be paid by the Oregon Employment Department within the next few days. The agency said in a statement last week that retroactive pay- ments should be entered in its computer system as “paid” by Thursday, Feb. 11. “Once that happens, they will have ... bene- fi ts within a few days,” agency offi cials said. The latest 11-week extension of benefi ts is scheduled to end March 13, though some benefi ts will continue to be paid through April 10. Acting Director David Gerstenfeld advises people to continue to fi le their claims with the state agency each week, because the U.S. Depart- ment of Labor has said all are eligible for the full 11 weeks of benefi ts. Benefi ts paid to some 70,000 self-employed and gig workers under the pro- gram, known as Pandemic Unemployment Assis- tance, ended abruptly because the Employment Department’s computer system is programmed to end benefi ts after one year. Those benefi ts were approved originally under ‘Hateful, racist’ emails prompted state to close vaccine meetings to public By FEDOR ZARKIMN The Oregonian/OregonLive SALEM — Two mem- bers of an Oregon group charged with deciding who gets coronavirus vaccines next received racist, hateful and upsetting messages, prompting state offi cials to close public access to the group’s last two meet- ings, state offi cials revealed Friday, Feb. 5. The Vaccine Advi- sory Committee’s explicit focus has been to bring equity to the vaccine equa- tion, speaking for under- served communities and helping combat the racism ingrained in Oregon’s health care system. But the group appeared to be the victim of some of what it was fi ghting, with one member receiving “multiple hateful, racist emails” and another get- ting “upsetting communica- tions,” a spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority said. “It was just so disheart- ening. These are folks who volunteered their time,” Rachael Banks, the public health director, told The Oregonian/Oregon- Live. “They’re there advo- cating on behalf of their communities.” The 27-member com- mittee made its fi nal recom- mendations Jan. 28 as part of its eighth meeting open to the public. State offi cials said they learned about the emails the following day, prompting them to close access to meetings Tuesday and Thursday in the inter- ests of the members’ com- fort and safety, and because the formal recommenda- tions had already been fi nalized. Banks said she believes members were more com- fortable speaking openly during the closed meetings. But the lack of transparency prevented the public from hearing members’ concerns about the process, including the little time they had to come up with recommenda- tions and what one member said was a desire for some form of oversight of how vaccines are allocated locally. Members did not ask the health authority to close the meeting to the public, Banks said, but people on the committee were con- cerned when they learned about the racist emails. The agency acknowl- edged the fi ne line it has to walk when choosing to close public access to meet- ings, which previously had been live streamed or recorded for online viewing. State offi cials opted not to even take notes from Thursday’s meeting. “There is a transparency and community impact when that kind of violent and intimidating speech makes it diffi cult for vol- unteers to serve and advo- cate for the broader com- munity,” spokesman Robb Cowie said. “We’re always navigating these kinds of tensions and dilemmas about, ‘How do we protect volunteers?’ ‘How do we also ensure an open forum and a transparent forum?’” As part of the commit- tee’s offi cial work, mem- bers at one point said they wanted communities of Black, Indigenous and people of color to be vac- cinated after the gover- nor’s priority groups, which include health care workers, teachers and seniors. But in the group’s fi nal deci- sion-making meeting last week, state offi cials said that would be impossible for legal reasons. Banks acknowledged the equity group’s timeline was “fast” and explained that the legal analysis wasn’t provided until the last meeting because the group only proposed prioritizing BIPOC communities later in the process. “At that point, we began having conversa- tions and understanding the legal implications of that,” Banks said. “But I’m sure that it didn’t feel like enough time for people.” FREE DELIVERY www.CountrysideSheds.com the federal coronavirus relief act, which was signed March 27, 2020. They expired Dec. 26, but Congress extended some benefi ts for 11 weeks in legislation signed Dec. 27. The extension itself is not retroactive. About 1,400 people fi led recently for benefi ts under Pandemic Unem- ployment Assistance, but the state computer system may have rejected their claims because of the one- year barrier. Agency offi - cials said they would shift some of them over to the 11-week extension known as Pandemic Emer- gency Unemployment Compensation. President Joe Biden has proposed another exten- sion of all unemploy- ment benefi ts through Sept. 30, the end of the federal budget year. The money is part of Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic recovery plan pending in Congress, where Demo- cratic majorities in both chambers have approved a budget resolution. That approval is a preliminary step toward House and Senate votes on the plan as part of budget recon- ciliation, which requires only simple majorities for passage. Democratic congres- sional leaders say they hope to complete action by the end of February. BRING THE MENU ALIVE WITH Ask us about free delivery ELGIN ELECTRIC 43 N. 8th Elgin, OR 541-437-2054 ISLAND EXPRESS LUBE CENTER & CAR WASH Spray-in Bedliner A spray-in liner can be applied to new or older model trucks and will give you years of great performance. 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