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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2018)
Street Roots • June 15-21, 2018 Page 3 O p in io n Street-level lessons on the urgency to end trauma swiveled their cameras back to the stage. Internalized biases, miscommunication, heightened emotions - a scene can swirl into By the time I walked up, a clearly distressed violence. There is so much trauma on the streets man was sitting on the sidewalk, yelling, while an that any encounter has a train of other encounters officer towered over him. Down the block, a man that have gone badly behind it. The scene goes in filmed the scene with his cell phone. People walked and out of focus. up; a crowd swelled. More cell phone cameras “People need to know that people are on their clicked on. Police cars pulled side,” Leanne Falzon explained to me later. “That’s up, lights flashing, more learned in the cafe for how people what and we have and more officers - seven in de-escalate each other.” total - soon stood over the Please do hover here with me for a moment on distressed man. One officer what Falzon said: people de-escalate each other. By Kaia Sand stretched rubber gloves onto Sometimes, the person spiraling out of control needs his hands. The man was on the help from others, and sometimes, they are in the the sidewalk, vulnerable, position to help. Fear can transform into shouting about his fears of belligerence, but it doesn’t always stay there, and it police, while numerous doesn’t have to get worse. Many people who live on uniformed men occluded his view, police lights the streets and in self-governed villages possess these skills. It was through a previous Pitch a Tent flashing. But here was the stroke of luck. Of all the blocks event that I received my first de-escalation training for this to go down, this had to be one of the most from organizers who had been homeless, and who skilled, per-capita, in de-escalation. Because on this also helped with security at Right 2 Dream Too and night, people were gathered for the annual Pitch a Hazelnut Grove. Tent event, June 8, kitty-corner at Southwest Fourth Falzon told me that before I walked up, the man Avenue and Washington Street. was yelling, “I have PTSD. I have PTSD.” He was First launched in 2010 by Right 2 Survive, an advocating for himself. His conduct might have been organization dedicated to the rights of homeless bound up in his traumas. The people who have people, Pitch a Tent calls attention to the sanctioned already suffered suffer more for their suffering. camping by people holding spots for the Rose I think about this as I follow in horror how the Festival Parade. The event, explains one of the Trump administration is ripping children from founders, Leo Rhodes, is “in protest, not against the families who cross into the United States seeking asylum. The very reason those families are targeted parade, but against the idea of letting people pitch is because of their previous traumas: They are trying their tents for leisure but not for survival.” to escape violence and poverty. Now, children are Organizers heighten the contradaictions of how im p riso n e d , facing th e t e r r o r o f l o s i n g t h e i r p a r e n t s , housed and homeless people are treated by pitching and parents are imprisoned, facing the terror of tents for homeless people to sleep along th e p a ra d e losing their children. route, too. The one-day-event is festive with live All we can see is a present moment - like a man music, dance and poetry, burgers on a grill - an yelling out belligerently on the sidewalk - without evening for people to catch up. knowing those layers of the past. I think about So the crowd around the police and the distressed images from that Portland street corner - the man understood that a shouting, screaming person strobes of light of police cars, flashes of cell phones. does not always pose a threat. How we respond And then a hand offering corn bread on a paper creates more options for a good outcome. plate. Each moment has so many possibilities. I try It was a situation that easily could have gone to remember this on the streets of our city where badly, but didn’t. people suffer poverty and violence in public view. Leanne Falzon, the Sisters Of the Road Cafe Out of public view are these families separated Program Manager, convinced the officers to allow from their children; some parents, in fact are now her to approach the man. Instead of hovering over incarcerated in Oregon, at Sheridan Prison. These him, she knelt down offering him cornbread on a forced separations and incarcerations are not just paper plate. He clutched the plate and his voice present-day cruelties; these are curses into the calmed just a little. Leanne also offered him a future. Some day, the families torn apart by our cigarette. As he inhaled from it, he calmed a bit government will have to lug these traumas with more. them. And then, the police let the man go - and go he Here at Street Roots, as we grapple with how to went, clutching his cornbread, dashing quickly across act in this moment, we gathered some steps on the the street and out of sight. Safely. back page of this issue. Please step forward and take Everyone in the crowd watched, still not making action. any quick moves, then dispersed back to the festivities of Pitch a Tent. The documentarians I K aia S a n d is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach her a t kaia@streetroots. org. Follow her on Tw itter @ m kaiasand t was a situation that easily could have gone badly. Write in If you would like to have something that you’ve written published in our pages, or would like to get involved as a member of our reporting staff, contact Executive Editor Joanne Zuhl at 503-228-5657, joanne@streetroots.org. We ask that all submissions include the author’s name and contact information, if available. J - —'B / -V TTY"'" T ' T^—j' Street Roots 211 NW Davis St. Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax: 503-227-3117 www.streetroots.org t Hours: 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun. ■ ■ V ■ .. ■ J ' ' : ' ■ ' ' " Advertising Interested in advertising in Street Roots? 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