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.
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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
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( 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
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