Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2018)
Street Roots « July 6-12, 2018 Commentary Page 13 Broken windows policing in Portland must end BY ELLIOTT YOUNG, CRYSTAL MALONEY A ND JAMES OFSINK C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T S ? | \r u m p ’s new zero-tolerance policy for immigrants is based on the idea that JL if a law exists it must be enforced 100 percent. In contrast, Mayor Ted Wheeler announced that he did not want Portland Police engaged in suppressing the #OccupyICEPDX protest - demonstrating there is discretion in how police can enforce the laws. A stunning report by The Oregonian just revealed that more than half the arrests in Portland last year were of homeless people, the vast majority of them (86 percent) were for nonviolent offenses. One quarter of those arrests were for procedural violations like missing court or violating parole. The statistics adjusted by population show that homeless people are 162 times more likely to be arrested than non-homesless people in Portland. Portland is a very progressive city by most measures, and yet the debates over the homeless population and crime have led to calls for the kinds of aggressive policing that have been discredited across the country. A recent guest column in The Oregonian by people touting their progressive credentials advocated for Broken Windows policing to handle what they perceive as an increase in viblent'crirhe in the city. The problem is that they are wrong, both about the levels of crime in the city and the ways to reduce violent crime. Policing of low-level offenses in Portland harms our community and leads to the current crisis of mass incarceration. Demanding “livability” for the “good people” has always meant targeting the poor and communities of color. The wholesale caging of human beings is not a cost-effective way to deal with our disinvestment in social services. It is also inhumane. It is telling that the title of The Oregonian column was “Portland must stand up to predators.” Invoking the term “predator” is eerily reminiscent of the famous “super only leads to dramatic over-policing of homeless Portlandérs, but also of black Portlanders. The fact that black Portlanders are ovér-policed hàs been well documented by the Portland Police Bureau, the MàcArthur Foundation, the Portland Tribune and Street Roots. For example, in Portland, black people are charged at 27 times the rate of white people for spitting, eight times the rate of white people for jaywalking and 15 times the rate of white people for failure to cross the street at a right angle. Similarly, black people are charged by the district attorney at 4.6 times the rate of whites arid the specialty units of the Police continue to stop black drivers at 12 times the rate of whites. These are precisely thè kind of pretextual stops that are the hallmarks of broken windows PHOTO BY K A IA SAND policing, and they have led to a much higher Early morning on Friday, Feb. 2, Portland Police, Rapid Response and Portland park rangers rate of incarceration for black Portlanders. conducted a sweep of the newly-formed homeless encampment, Village o f Hope. Rather than more police, we need to direct more resources to housing the homeless and keeping the poor housed in predator” ferm coined by criminologist John windows policing and violent crime: Even our community. Additionally, we need more Kelling, one of the intellectual authors of Dilulio in the 1990s. Dilulio has since the broken windows theory, argues today repudiated the term and its impacts by resources fo provide mental health and that his theory was misapplied in New York portraying youth of color as animals. The addiction treatment Outside of the criminal City’s stop-and-frisk policies that purportedly “progressive” guest columnists justice system. Why are we hiring more in Northeast Portland have trotted out these overwhelmingly targeted communities of police to harass homeless people instead of color: New York City has since abandoned long discredited labels to call for more using those funds to help them? stop-and-frisk, citing its racism and policing at a time when the violent ¿rime Talk of “predators” is a call to ineffectiveness. 1 rate "has been,plummeting both nationally dehumanize targeted members in om, The basic argument by those who | and in "Portland since the early 1990s. ; community. We must answer the social ills The broken windows theory developed by continue to advocate “quality of life” policing of poverty, mental illness and addiction with is. that it has worked to reduce crime. The social scientists James Q. Wilson and compassion and care, not hate and .more guest columnists parrot this position, George Kelling in 1982 has since been police. contending that such policies “transformed widely repudiated by criminologists who the city from a cesspool of crime into the - Elliott Young is Professor o f History at have shown that data do not support the infinitely more livable place that it is today.” Lewis & Clark College, Crystal Maloney is theory, in 2005, critical theorist Bernard Let's leave aside the offensive description of Harcourt demonstrated that the link an attorney and James Ofsink is a former New York as a cesspool for the moment between neighborhood disorder and purse Progressive Party candidate for Oregon Violent crime declined all across the snatching, assault, rape and burglary Senate. Young, Maloney and Ofsink live in country in the . 1990s, in New York City and disappeared when controlling for poverty Southeast Portland and together have met in cities that did not adopt Broken Windows and race. In 2015, using a big data set from repeatedly over the past year with Portland policing. It’s just bad social science to Boston, criminologists Daniel Tumminelli attribute causation to a correlation when the City Council staffers, pushing O'Brien and Robert J. Sampson found no commissioners to end the city’s practice of evidence suggests otherwise. correlation between the kinds of “public broken windows policing. Broken windows policing in Portland pot denigration” offenses targeted by broken Armed Forces jj U I experiencing or at risk of and are becoming homeless? Transition Projects Please call 855.425.5544 or visit 650 NW Irving Street Oregon’s wildlife, like this juvenile saw-whet o w l found in the Badlands Wilderness In central Oregon, rely on our public lands to thrive. Unfortunately, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke 1s working to remove protections on our public lands that safeguard wildlife and water. To team more about how you can help protect our public lands and wildlife, visit www.oregonwlld.org
