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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 2017)
Street Roots • April 28-May 4, 2017 Commentary Page 11 Victims, survivors can teach us justice, in all its diversity BY A M Y DAVIDSON someone who put them at risk because they felt that the people trying to help them could never see the whole picture. They felt they few years ago, I worked with kids from never got to say what they needed unless it fit the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. I into the precise box being offered to them by was invited to a summer training to lead activities designed to inspire youths’ a person representing a construct that was not of their culture. creative expression around sharing what is Before that summer and since, I’ve spent beautiful and what is difficult in a way that years working directly with crime victims and honors their culture. their families, and hundreds of survivors’ They were shy, playful, stories later, I see a system that says it’s energized - much like committed to bringing justice to those at risk most kids I’d worked or impacted by crime but that often doesn’t with in the past. But respond to the diversity of victim needs that what really stood out are as multifaceted as the individuals was their unwavering themselves. support and So many of my colleagues who were part of encouragement of each that system felt troubled by knowing they other as each of them couldn’t provide safety in the way they had stepped out of their comfort zone. They held intended. Whether it was public safety or child a strong moral compass for themselves and welfare, the frustration persisted. And others, and I’m quite sure I learned more typically, the course of action was to apply a than they did. remedy that was temporary but would often As I got to know one youth in particular, compound the situation. We were a group of she confessed that her father was battling well-meaning people very blind to the needs of addiction and that she was sometimes afraid some, specifically the people most harmed by of being driven in a car with him. The girl was the system’s shortcomings. worried about a possible accident, but her One woman I worked with was being bigger fear was that if she told someone, her abused by her husband, so she reached out to parent could be incarcerated, and she would law enforcement seeking safety for her be placed in foster care. She knew that was children and herself. The court issued a “no the routine “protective” measure for the contact” order. My client didn’t speak English peers in her community, and she was right to fluently, and without an interpreter, both be concerned. According to the Oregon public safety and the court failed to account Department of Human Services, Native for her cultural needs when responding with a American children are placed in foster care blanket court order forbidding contact. six times more often than white kids, and The order gave her a measure of safety Native American adults are disproportionately because she wanted the abuse to stop, but she sent to prison and jail. It made sense that this didn’t necessarily want him completely girl had learned to lie about a possible risk removed from her life. She, their kids, and their extended family depended on him for all because it was a survival strategy that was the reasons that family members rely on each safer for her than the alternative. other: they share a car and finances and In that context and many others, I’ve childcare responsibilities. The new observed countless scenarios of hurt people restrictions caused immense difficulty for her risking further harm by protecting someone entire family. She wanted to be safe, but with they love who is hurting them. Their reasons the “no contact” order, she was now in fear of were many, but most often, they protected C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N I S T A SAFER JUSTICE Amy Davidson is the Crime Survivors’ Program Director at Partnership for Safety and Justice, which advances policy solutions to crime that ensure justice, equity, accountability and healing to achieve safe, strong communities in Oregon. p e o p le ’s JL h JL FOOD CO-OP getting in trouble with the system that she hoped would make her life better. These stories and too many others like them are what motivated me to look to more systems-wide solutions to prime survivors’ needs. That search landed me at Partnership for Safety and Justice as the new Crime Survivor Program Director. In this role with P SJ, I see real opportunity to work more closely with system players from diverse disciplines to engage them in meaningful dialogues about what is possible when we derive solutions from those we aspire to serve. Nothing could bring M e c e rila g to the Oregon greater meaning to D epartm ent of Ham aa this role than elevating the voices S e rvice ^ Native Jbaerieaa of young people and c h ild re n are placed la foster care s ir tim es m ore ©flea thaa the ones who will bear the burden of w hite feiisr and Native our miscalculations. Baierlcasi a dults are For too long, the d isp ro p o rtio n a te ly sent to voices of victims p riso n and JalL and survivors have been overlooked by the criminal justice system. Thankfully we are evolving. Today we know leaders and advocates across the state that see the complexities in public safety and are no longer spinning a singular story to define all who have been hurt or all who have caused harm. They know that it’s time to shift our assumptions of who is a crime victim and who causes harm. It’s time to be accountable to the racial disparities that are deepened by the blind spots of our current criminal justice system. It’s time to address the structural aspects of how we determine who is hurting who and why. It’s time to ask all crime survivors what justice looks like for them and fight to address those diverse needs. Their voices hold the answers if we are willing to listen. o FARMERS’ MARKET WEDNESDAYS 2-7PM C E N T R A L C IT Y COFFEE Come worship with us 3)MnhtuelL fDayaad. 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