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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 1977)
l'w r 2 Portland Observer Thursday. Novem ber JM, 1*»T7 We see the world through Black eyes Police neglect at fault Last week one mon was k i!ted and 'wo were injured at a motorcycle swop meet of the Memorial Coliseum This trogedy rotses many questions because it was predicted tour months ogo and because the police bureau was warned three *eens before the event that violence was certain to occur. lost August members of the Brothers free motor cycle club — mode up mainly o f Block residents of the Albina area - asked the police bureau to enforce the low They told police officers ond community members ’hat ’he police seemed lax m enforcing the law where the Outsiders biker club was concerned — that when b>kes were parked on the sidewalk or when the traffic was mpeded by bikers closing the street, police officers drove on by They also complained that threots ogamst them and shots fired o’ community members in the vicinity of the Outsider's house — o 'egedly by a person who .as with Outsae’ m em ber — w e e no’ ogg’ ess .ely ivestigated by the police. They furthe- charged ’hat police officers with whom they cscussed their grievances ogamst the Outsiders gave that information to the Outside’ s They asked that the police deportment enforce the aw to rhe extent that they would be free to use the public streets. Three weeks be’ o’ e ’he gathering at the Col seum, the police were warned by the Metropolitan Human Relations Commission that violence would occur. Yet the police deportment saw no reason to provide police surveillance or protection at that site. Also, the Exposition Recreation Commission, which allowed the event to be held in spite of the well-known nc’ easmg tension between the two motorcycle clubs failed to provide the usual guards Could such a lock of responsibility be occidental? It almost mokes one wonder if the lock of police protection was planned — like someone up there said, let 'em shoo» eoch other up and get it over with. The who'e affair — as well as police response to the building tension — needs a thorough investigation. Charter needs changes Citizens w ill soon be named to the Multnomah County Citizens Review Committee. This committee is to review the current county charter and make recommendations for positive change. The Review Committee came about as a result of rhe passage of a referendum to eliminate charter amendments that hoa bee” passea at the last election. These amendments called for commission districts, two year terms, and other changes The elimination of these amendments ond the return of the chorter to its original form passed by less thon 700 votes Approximately 20 percent of the register ed voters voted There is reason to believe that if this election hod been held during the Primory Election, when o larger number of people vote, it would hove been defeated Whether that is »he cose or not, there ore a great many people who ore unhoppy with the county charter There also ore a great many others who believe the Review Committee w ill be a hoax and that it w ill not give serious consideration to chonge The citizens w ill watch this committee carefully. ^Mtk^, '7wti o{ Uit/U It needs to be said from the Mi/woufcee Courier In the Block movement today, os has been the case throughout our history here in the good o l' U S of A , the most devastating and destructive enemy to the success of our liberation efforts is us ourselves — more specifically, those "brothers" ond "sisters" who have "sold o u t" to our oppressors ond enslavers. There are many types of selling out: conscious, unconscious, personal gain, fear, indecision, in fluence-persuasion ond sympathy for the oppressor ond his ogents. We should know these various ways of betraying the struggle, not only to be oble to know who is ond who is not a traitor, but also to know what type of corrective oction to toke to eliminate this problem. First, there ore two brood categories of sell-outs: conscious and unconscious. Conscious sell-outs are those who know they ore betraying the interest of our people They ore aware of what they are doing. Of these conscious sell-outs, two ore most prominent — the coward ond the traitor. The coward is one who is aware of the need of struggle, of confrontation with our oppressors, but because of his fear of the consequences, he opts to turn his bock on the struggle He is afraid and he knows it. Most insidious, though, is the traitor. He, too, is aware But, he sees that by betraying his people, he can get son- • kmd of personal benefit for himself. So, due to his own lock of character, his greed, or his mental derangement, he w illingly becomes that most hated and despised by oil people - A TRAITOR. Unconscious sell-outs ore numerous ond varied. They basically ore well-imentioned, they simply ore unaware of the effects of their octions. They do not see the relationship between the octions ond positions that they take and the betrayol of their people's interest We all have at one time or another "sold out" in this sense. JLetiM lo tU &tätn Guards - "Following orders from higher up" To the Editor: The mast recent issue ol Enquire has an enlightening article on doing tim e. The sim ilarities common to all prisons - the encouragement of racial strife, the guards involvem ent w ith a prisoner's mail land thereby involvem ent w ith a prisoner’s fam ily and friends 1. the guard's grandstanding a man it a prison cell - are mentioned. In reading the article an excellent look at the realities of prisons. I noticed there was no mention of the new phenomena among prison personnel the psychopath. The guards w ho steal all they can were mentioned. But then it is such a common practice in jails and prisons for guards to steal from prisoners, it has almost reach cd the status of acceptable behavior. W h eth er it is a guard picking up a prisoner's personal property and pocket ing a pack of butts. » hether it is someone in the mail room pocketing a dozen stamps sent in fo r a prisoner, or w hether it is "confiscating" a prisoner's radio and batteries m the name of maintaining "the good order and security" of the prison, it is theft - no less than the theft done by men in here serving years for it. ¡The radio and batteries mentioned above, a total value of more than $80.00. w ere taken from a man * ho is sen mg five years for strafing less than $40.00.) There is no appeal. I f such practices w ere challenged, the state would offer the same general excuses, as in the case of the state employee who saved himself a hundred dollars or more using prisoner labor to move: everyone does it - or b etter, things like that have to be put m a perspective. South Africa's die-hard rulers seem to be solidly committed to a path of self destruction that could result in terrible blood-letting, both for themselves and the white m inority they represent, and for the country's Black m ajo rity. Justice a few weeks ago key govern ment figures were making various noises of differing degrees of moderation They s e re floating tria l balloons about setting jp a Swiss ¡ike canton system that would - ’.are the country among the various -acial and ethnic groups. T here was talk if a federation between Blacks and xhites. T here were some vague signs nat American and international pres -ures were leading to some sort of -eeonsideration of the vicious apartheid policy But then the government banned mod erate groups, jailed and exiled key figures who spoke out on behalf of racial justice, and closed down the most im por tan t Black newspaper in the country. Black editor Percy Qoboza was jailed. W hite editor Donald W oods was placed under South Africa's version of house arrest. O ver 150 others w ere arrested. The hollow excuse for these violations of human rights was that the organiza lions and individuals involved w ere stir nng Black white hatreds and confronta tions. That charge is a feeble cover story. The government moved not against Black leaders who had given up hope of peaceftu change, but against Blacks and whites w orking to heal racial frictions. To w ipe out the moderates and then accuse them of being extrem ists is the kind of vile action we ve come to expect from South Africa's rulers. T he real reason for the repression probably lies in the Steve Biko case. Biko. a Black leader, died while in custody by- South A fric a ’s police. He's supposed to have starved a fter an eight-day hunger strike. No one bought that absurd story and reliable report« indicate he was beaten to death by the police. So the repression serves the purpose of getting vocal advocates of change out of the way while w arning the South African press th a t when the tru e story of Biko s m urder finally comes out they should play it down. South .Africa's pretensions to being a democracy now stand revealed for what they are hollow claims. It used to say "we have a free press." W ith thé banning« it can’t say that any more. It points to the upcoming elections and says, "we have free elections.' How free are elections in which the government is chosen by four million whites while eighteen million Buck« are denied the rig ht to vote? T o the Adm inistration s credit, the The strictest sanctions should he ap plied to South .Africa so long as it continues on its present course, and they should he implemented both by thé Internationa) com munity in recognition of South Africa s th reat to peace, and by the international business community upon whose investments that country reliés. The im portant thing to rem em ber about the jaihngs and banning« is that by moving against moderate forces far change the South African government creates a leadership vacuum that must be filled by less reasonable and less peace fully-inclined people. Published every Thursday by E x i* Publishing Company. 2201 North Killingsw orth. Portland. (Jregon »7217 M ailing address: P .0 Box 3137, Portland. Oregon »7208 Telephone: 283 2 4 « Subscriptions: »7.50 per year in the T n-C ou nty area. $8.00 per year outside Portland 1st Place Communio Service ONPA 1»73 1st Place Best Ad Resuhs ONPA 1»73 Second Ctaas Postage Paid at Portland Oregon 5th Place Best Editorial N N PA 1»7J The Portland Observer • official position is expressed only in its Publisher s column We See The W orld Through Black Eyes' A n y other material throughout the paper is the opinion of the individual w rite r or subm itter and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Portland Observer Honorable Mention Herrick Editorial Award NN A 1973 A L f R ED L. HENDERSON Editor Publisher National Advertising Re ireseatative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc New York Mt MSI« Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association MEMBER M a U > n /L l N e j i p A per Association - founded tM 0 2nd Place Best Editarmi 3rd Place ( ossmunity Leadership O N P A I »75 sealed off to public view. And I imagine every prisoner has his recollections of some sim ilar scene of the brave guards. I thin k it is im portant for someone to start w ritin g the history o f the new breed - the psychopaths This typ e of guard can be exem plified by a recent case ¡Appellate Court number 9056' taken to the Oregon Court of Appeal*. I t ’s an involved case but it breaks down to a guard manipulating a prisoners witnesses to give testimony against him and. in at least one case, falsifying the testimony of a witness. Even though the guard's own w ritten statem ents prove the fa rt, even though he has been doing this for years, as m the case of guards stealing from prisoners, it has become almost acceptable behavior There are numerous other examples, in (from Observer staff members...) it. P ortland O b server The guards' e dat aa they stand around one prisoner is w ell known to any man who has done tim e. I’ve seen five of them handcuff a man's hands behind his hack. T w o of them stood by w ith dub s to watch the prisoner, one stood by to watch the first tw o guards and give them assistance if they couldn't handle the situation, and the last tw o watched everybody else and each other. I'm sure hundreds of such scenes, and much worse than the one described, could be found everyday some where behind prison walls or in jiul cells Sample Messages U nited States spoke up sw iftly to con demn the actions, hut South Africa's Prune M inister in effect told us to mind our own business He didn t w orry about U A . "meddling" when we hacked the apartheid state, when Am erican corpora tions » e re urged to invest in it. or when we supported its m ilitary establishment. Our leadership has a duty to speak out against the rulers of the apartheid sy stem because of our past complicity with Thus it moved to close off the possibi lity of peaceful change and to virtually guarantee armed confrontation And it ha« moved itself fu rth er away from civilized behavior and from any claims on international respect for its sovereign rights. receive notice are quickly hushed up; the prisoners involved are often, as in the cases of favored inform ants, instantly rehabilitated and put outride on parole or a release program . fa rt, a guard cannot advance to any high poaition unless he proves how tough he is on prisoners. Some prove th eir manhood by w aking men up in the middle of the night, some prove it by manipulat mg prisoners against prisoners. I It’s a aad fa rt, but some prisoners don’t know whose side they are on.I T h ere are several d ifferent methods used to prove a guard's fitness for advancement. But the psychopath, some of them educated in colleges, bnn g a new dimension to correc tions: the old style physical degradation, even though it still flourishes. is being replaced or segmented w ith psychological degradation. T h e tools of the 1984 society are being honed and refined by the new breed of rehabihtatora - the guards who have no conscience and offer non sense aa sense. The o ther day a group of guards came in for the w eekly harassment of going through every cell. A prisoner asked how many sheets of w ritin g paper were allowed in a cell at one time. A guard paused from reading through a prisoner'a personal and legal letters and said. "Four or five." Then he quickly added. "The rules say four but we'd probably let it go if you have five." And that wasn't enough! H e w ent on: “W e 're ju s t following orders from higher up." T h a t’s all they were doing when they built Kuchanwald - just following orders from higher up. L ittle by tittle the orders get crazier and crazier until one day they all went insane just following orders from higher up. Donald Danford “Yes, Ron, There is a Santa and he (or she) is a special someone for everyone... South Africa’s suicidal path by Yeraaa .lordwo The guards' involvem ent w ith a prison e r s family and friends are legend The few unsavory cases that happen to This year the Observer is offering you a special way to tell your special Santa what you would like for Christmas... Santa, Please send me a scholar ship to Morris Brown...SB In our Christmas Personals Section - 12 words for 3 weeks for $3. Santa, Please send me a car that runs...RL Your message will appear for 3 weeks in December... just fill out and mail the blank below... Santa, I need a 10- speed for this summer...DM PLEASE PRINT MY MESSAGE TO SANTA, DECEMBER 8, 15, 22 - FOR $3. (12-word maximum, 15c for each additional word, weekly. Messages must be received by Monday, Dec. 5, after which regular rates will be charged.) SANTA, Name----------------- ------------------------------------- Add ress— ---------------------------------------------- (Mail this entry to: Observer, P.0. Box 3137, Port., OR. 97208) ¡Please enclose check or mooes-order . I
