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All-ages clubs and other youth hangouts are
also on the list of areas to receive foot patrol pro
tection. Therefore, youth and young adults are
encouraged to apply.
Mel Rudd, 23, is the coordinator of Youth-
Net, a Portland-area group that links young
queers with mentors and other resources. A reg
ular participant in the Sexual Minorities
Roundtable, Rudd often supplies a youth per
spective at meetings.
Rudd is supportive of the foot patrol but
notes that young people may harbor skepticism
around law enforcement issues.
“On the other hand,” Rudd says, “we want to
have a partnership with the police. But we need
to talk about how these laws affect youth. My
first priority is to youth and to make sure that
they’re heard.”
According to Rudd, youths might be reluc
tant to report violations of curfew and tagging
laws. And some youths say the laws are enforced
selectively.
Nadia Cannon, 17, says, “A lot of kids are
afraid of cops.”
In a recent meeting with Portland police
officials, she asked Assistant Chief Mark Paresi:
“Why do kids who are dressed grungy get picked
up for truancy—yet I never have been?”
Says Rudd: “Young folks who stick out, don’t
dress mainstream or middle class, are targeted by
the police.”
Rudd calls this “adultist enforcement” and
defines adultism as “the systematic and institu
tionalized oppression of youth and young adults
by those who are older or who are perceived as
older because of the way they present them
selves, such as in manner of dress and speaking
style.”
But Monette says: “The police department
wants them to report any crimes they see in
progress. Is that unreasonable? I’d really like to
see youth take responsibility for their communi
ty in partnership with the law. If these are laws
that affect youth, this is not where you change
them.”
That notion is not unreasonable to Ter
rence King, 18, an organizer for Rainbow, a
multicultural
peer support
and activity
group for
gay, trans,
bisexual, lesbian
and questioning youths.
“Getting youth is no prob
lem,” King says, adding that
he could come up with 10
youths right now who
would be interested in
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Chin or Neck: $89.95
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But, while he would feel responsible to report
a crime in progress, King says he would be leery
of reporting, say, a drug deal.
That’s why, Paresi says, each foot patrol will
have six to eight people. He says with the same
group working together, camaraderie will devel
op and the sense of fear will dissolve.
At his request, Paresi recently met with
Rudd, King, Cannon and Monette, and talked
for two and a half hours about what can be done
to make youths feel heard via the roundtable.
Because the foot patrol is the offspring of the
roundtable, Rudd believes issues need to be
addressed there before youths will feel safe work
ing with the police on the foot patrol.
And, says Rudd, several constituencies are
missing from the roundtable: youth, people of
color, people in the sex industry, the homeless
and the working class. These are the people who
are most affected by the police, Rudd says, and
they are not represented.
Rudd encourages the bureau and roundtable
to examine who is not present at the meetings
and figure out why.
Rudd adds that there are four elements that
may alienate potential attendees: the time
roundtable meetings are held (noon on a week
day); the gathering’s structure; bureaucratic jar
gon; and a sense of tokenizing.
During the recent meeting with Rudd et al.,
Paresi responded: “We’re dependent upon your
help in introducing these people. We need help
with the intros. When the police have reached
out to the minority groups, they have been
unsuccessful.”
Paresi then offered to bring the police to
youths in a space of the young people’s choosing.
King, meanwhile, agreed to arrange a meet
ing in January with Rainbow.
Cannon asked Paresi if the officers would
come in plain clothes and leave their guns and
clubs at home.
No problem, Paresi responded, “We wear
jeans, too.”
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■ For more information about the CITIZENS FOOT
P atrol program, call (503) 295-9785 or contact
Pam Monette at (503) 940-5373.
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